Standard Chartered Credit Cards in India

Beyond is Standard Chartered's India flagship, and it cannot be applied for in the ordinary sense: SC issues it only to Priority Banking and Private Banking clients who hold ₹50,00,000 or more in Funds Under Management (FUM) with the bank. FUM counts savings balances, term deposits, investments made through SC, Demat value, life-to-date paid-up life insurance premium and Homesaver funds — assets parked, not income earned. The card itself earns 5 reward points per ₹150 (3.33%) on general spend and 3 per ₹150 (2%) on utilities, insurance, supermarkets, schools, property management and government payments, with points redeemed at a flat 1 RP = ₹1 through SC's 360° Rewards catalogue. It carries a 2% forex markup, unlimited lounge access at home and abroad, and 2 golf games a month. Fuel and ATM withdrawals earn nothing.

Why it stands out 3.3% on everything with unlimited domestic and international lounge access — but only if you park ₹50 lakh with Standard Chartered

Best suited for For an existing Standard Chartered Priority or Private Banking client who already keeps ₹50 lakh or more with the bank for reasons of their own, and who spends heavily and internationally. If the ₹50 lakh would have to be moved to SC purely to qualify, the question stops being about the card and becomes a question about what that money earns sitting there instead.

Standard Chartered Ultimate pays 5 reward points per ₹150 — a flat 3.33% at ₹1/point — on general spend, including travel and international purchases at a low 2% forex markup. The April 2023 restructure must be priced in, though: utilities, supermarkets, insurance, property management, schools and government payments earn 3 points per ₹150 (2%), and fuel earns no points at all (a 1% surcharge waiver capped at ₹1,000 per statement cycle stands in). Around the earn rate sit 5% duty-free cashback (capped ₹1,000/cycle), 4 domestic lounge visits a quarter, a spend-gated Priority Pass visit a month, monthly golf, and 5,000 renewal points that refund the ₹5,000 fee (not its GST) each year it is paid.

Why it stands out 3.33% on general spend at a published ₹1/point — but since April 2023 six everyday categories earn 2% and fuel earns nothing

Best suited for For high spenders (₹1.5L+/month) whose money goes mainly on general categories — shopping, dining, travel, international — where 3.33% remains one of the best flat returns in India. Heavy utility, insurance, grocery or fuel spenders should price in the 2% and 0% carve-outs first.

This card is not sold, it is conferred: Standard Chartered reserves it for Priority Banking clients, and the qualifying criteria in its terms is a gross monthly income of ₹3,00,000. There is no joining fee and no renewal fee in any year. What you get is access rather than earnings — 4 domestic lounge visits a quarter through the Visa lounge programme, complimentary Priority Pass membership, 2 golf games plus a coaching session and a guest game every month, ₹1 crore of air-accident cover and USD 25,000 of emergency medical cover. What you do not get is a competitive reward rate: 2 reward points per ₹100 on general spend, 5 per ₹100 overseas and on retail fashion, and SC's standard 360° Rewards catalogue values a point at ₹0.25. That works out to roughly 0.5% back on everyday spend.

Why it stands out Golf and lounges for zero fee — but only if you already bank with SC Priority, and the earn rate is half a percent

Best suited for For someone who is already an SC Priority Banking client and wants the golf and lounge access without paying a fee for it. As a rewards engine it is not competitive with any serious card in the market, so it works best as a benefits card sitting alongside a primary card that actually earns.

The DigiSmart has one of the smartest fee models in Indian credit cards. There is no annual fee at all — instead a ₹49 monthly fee that Standard Chartered reverses in any month you spend ₹5,000, so the card costs nothing in every month you actually use it. The value comes entirely from partner discounts, not from points — Standard Chartered awards no reward points on DigiSmart spends. Today that means 10% off Blinkit (capped ₹1,000/month), 10% off Zomato (max ₹150 a transaction, five a month), buy-one-get-one INOX movie tickets at weekends, 15% cashback on Ola (₹600/month cap) and instant discounts on Yatra flights and hotels. Apply with the promo code DIGISMART where the partner asks for one.

Why it stands out No annual fee — just ₹49/month, reversed whenever you spend ₹5,000 that month — plus 10% off Blinkit and Zomato, buy-one-get-one at INOX and 15% back on Ola

Best suited for Urban online spenders who order on Blinkit and Zomato, ride Ola and watch films at INOX, and want those discounts without carrying an annual fee. Best held alongside a proper rewards card that handles general spending.

The SC Super Value Titanium is a focused, low-drama supplementary card that does exactly what the name says — 5% on petrol and 5% on household bills (via SC Billpay), at a fee low enough to make the maths work simply. The 5% applies within tight per-category caps: fuel ₹200/month (transactions up to ₹2,000), telephone ₹200/month and utilities ₹100/month, for a total 5% cashback ceiling of ₹500/month; the base is 1 reward point per ₹150. The welcome offer (100% cashback up to ₹1,500 on fuel in 90 days) can cover the ₹885 all-in first-year fee (₹750 + GST) about 1.7 times over, and the fee waives at ₹90,000. Not a primary card and not a high earner outside its two categories — a clean, cheap specialist for the recurring spending most cards ignore.

Why it stands out 5% on fuel + 5% on telephone/utility bills (via SC Billpay), within tight monthly caps

Best suited for As a supplementary card for fuel and bill payments routed through SC Billpay. Pair it with a primary card — outside fuel and bills it earns very little.

The SC Rewards is Standard Chartered's mainstream points card, one of the few in its India range issued on the Mastercard rail rather than Visa. It earns 4 base reward points per ₹150 on retail, and the MIDC adds 4 bonus points per ₹150 on retail purchases "exceeding INR 20,000" per statement cycle — i.e. the bonus applies only to the retail beyond ₹20,000, not the whole cycle, capped at 2,000 bonus points a cycle (≈₹95,000 of total retail). The number that reframes all of it is the point value: Standard Chartered states 1 RP = ₹0.25 in the 360 Rewards catalogue and ₹0.20 against a statement. So 4 points per ₹150 is 0.67%, and the doubled marginal rate above ₹20,000 is 1.33%. Government and insurance payments earn 1 point per ₹150; fuel earns nothing at all. There is no joining fee, and the ₹1,000 renewal waives at ₹1.5 lakh of annual spend.

Why it stands out 4 reward points per ₹150 on retail, with 4 bonus points per ₹150 on the retail beyond ₹20,000 a cycle — but the points are worth 25 paisa each, so the headline "4X" is really about 0.67%

Best suited for For existing Standard Chartered customers who spend ₹20,000–₹95,000 a month on retail — the band where the marginal bonus is live but not yet capped — and who will actually redeem through the 360 catalogue.

The Manhattan Platinum is Standard Chartered's grocery card, and it is refreshingly single- minded: 5% cashback on supermarket, grocery and departmental store spend, plus 3 reward points per ₹150 on everything else. The 5% is real but tightly fenced — each qualifying transaction must be ₹1,000 or more, cashback is capped at ₹150 per transaction, and the whole benefit stops at ₹500 a month. That ceiling is the card: ₹500 a month is ₹6,000 a year, reached at ₹10,000 of monthly grocery spend, and Standard Chartered's own value chart assumes exactly that. Everything else earns 3 points per ₹150, which at SC's 25-paisa point value is 0.5%. The ₹999 fee waives at ₹1.2 lakh of annual spend, and paying it credits 5,000 reward points — about ₹1,250 at the catalogue rate.

Why it stands out 5% cashback on supermarket and grocery spend — one of the few Indian cards to pay a real rate on the weekly shop, though the ₹500 monthly cap defines it

Best suited for For households whose supermarket bills reach roughly ₹10,000 a month — enough to fill the ₹500 cap every month, which is where this card pays for itself and then some.

The SC Smart is a clean, low-fuss flat-cashback card — 2% on every online purchase with no merchant list, 1% offline, and an unusually generous cap (₹1,000 of online cashback a month, i.e. ₹50,000 of online spend, plus ₹500 offline). At a ₹499 fee that waives at ₹1.2 lakh, it is a fair no-thinking online card. The first-year fee is ₹0 — SC's MIDC states it flatly, and the page frames it as a ₹499 fee waived as a standing Special Offer for new applicants (existing SCB credit-card holders pay the ₹499). The honest catch is not the cap, it is the rate: 2% is middling next to the SBI Cashback's 5% online (and the catalog's old "6% online" figure was the Singapore/Hong Kong version, not the India card). Hold the Smart for unrestricted breadth, not headline rate.

Why it stands out Flat 2% on all online spend (no merchant list) with a generous ₹1,000/month cap

Best suited for For light users who shop broadly online and want simple, no-merchant-list cashback. Heavy online spenders will earn far more on the SBI Cashback (5% online).

The SC EaseMyTrip is a ₹350 travel co-brand whose value sits almost entirely in booking discounts rather than rewards. Using promo code EMTSCB on EaseMyTrip you get a flat 20% off participating hotels (capped ₹5,000 domestic, ₹10,000 international), 10% off flights (capped ₹1,000 domestic, ₹5,000 international) and ₹125 off bus tickets over ₹500 — but each discount category can be used only once per calendar month per card (T&C cl. 8g); primary and supplementary cards each get their own allowance. The counterintuitive part is the points: the 10 RP per ₹100 accelerator applies to standalone airline and hotel websites and apps — explicitly NOT to bookings made on EaseMyTrip itself, which earn the 2 RP per ₹100 base. At SC's stated 1 RP = ₹0.25 that is 2.5% on standalone travel and 0.5% everywhere else, with no monthly cap. Two domestic lounge visits a year remain; international lounge access was withdrawn on 15 October 2024.

Why it stands out Flat 20% off hotels and 10% off flights booked on EaseMyTrip — the discounts, not the points, are the whole card

Best suited for For people who already book through EaseMyTrip a few times a year — a single discounted hotel stay repays the ₹350 several times over. The points are an afterthought.

The Platinum Rewards is Standard Chartered's zero-fee entry card, and the version being issued today is the "instant" variant — the bank's own terms confirm all fees are nil and that Platinum Rewards is currently the only card it issues on the instant rail. It earns 5 reward points per ₹150 on dining and on fuel, with no monthly cap on either, and 1 point per ₹150 on everything else. At Standard Chartered's own valuation of 25 paisa a point — the figure implied exactly by the value chart on its own product page — that is roughly 0.83% on dining and fuel and 0.17% elsewhere. Modest, but it costs nothing to hold, and rewarding fuel at all makes it unusual. There is no lounge access and no welcome offer, though lifetime free supplementary cards are available for family members. An older ₹250-a-year version of this card still exists in the fee tables for legacy holders.

Why it stands out A genuinely zero-fee card that earns 5x on both dining AND fuel with no monthly cap — and fuel is a category most cards refuse to reward at all

Best suited for For someone who wants a no-cost card that quietly earns on petrol and restaurant bills, or a free second card to park fuel spend that a primary card refuses to reward.