Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card

The Standard Chartered Smart credit card is an entry-level offering cashback credit. It is a good choice if you are starting with credit cards and are looking to get a cashback card. The Standard Chartered Smart credit card offers 2% cash back on online spends and 1% cashback on offline spends. We also get the option for a 3-month EMI at 0.99% per month for purchases. this can be a good choice if you are into cashback credit cards. Read on for a review of the rewards and benefits of the Standard Chartered Smart credit card.

Fees and Charges

The joining and annual fees are in line with other entry-level credit cards. We also get a spend-based fee waiver.

Joining Fee	Rs 499+GST for existing SC customers NIL for new to SC customers
Welcome Benefit	None
Annual Fee	Rs 499+GST
Annual Fee Waiver	Rs 1.2 Lakhs spend in a membership year

Cashback

Type of Spend	Cashback	Cap
Online Spends	2%	Rs 1000 per calendar month
Offline Spends	1%	Rs 500 per calendar month
Fuel Spends	0%	NA

We can spend up to Rs 50000 per month each in online and offline spending before we hit the max caps. This is more than enough for average spends.

Only fuel spends do not get any cashback on the Standard Chartered Smart credit card. Other spends like government services, wallet and insurance premium still get cashback. This is where the SC Smart credit card is better than other cashback cards like Axis Ace, SBI Cashback etc. It is worthwhile to get the Standard Chartered Smart credit card for cashback on these transactions. This is also why it is listed as one of our best credit cards for wallet spending.

Benefits

3-month EMI at 0.99%/month

This is an interesting take by Standard Chartered Bank but it will not be of much use. We have Uni card and Slice card offering zero cost 3-month EMI without any processing charges. They are a better option if one is looking to get a 3-month EMI for transactions.

Extended Interest-Free Period (First 90 days only)

We get an extended interest-free period for the first 90 days after credit card issuance. What this means is we can choose to pay the ‘Minimum Amount Due’ for the first three statements. We need to pay the full outstanding amount with the fourth month’s statement without any extra charges.

Rewards Redemption

The rewards can be redeemed as cashback on the 360 Rewards portal. There is no redemption fee for the Smart credit card.

If the cashback if redeemed prior to the date of your credit card statement cycle, the cashback will be adjusted against the total outstanding. Otherwise, the cashback will be adjusted in the next statement cycle.

Rs 1000 is the minimum cashback required for the first redemption.
Subsequent redemptions can be in multiples of Rs 500.

Pros and Cons

Final Thoughts

Being an entry-level credit card, Smart offers two key features – simple cashback on spending and redemption as a statement credit. This is in line with what we get on other entry-level credits today. It is also better than the DigiSmart credit card from Standard Chartered as get rewards on all spends on this card.

But, we do have a few other options to consider for cashback credit cards. Some of the other options are Axis Ace, Flipkart Axis, and SBI Cashback credit card. Each of these has its pros and cons and offer better cashback in some categories. But the advantage of SC Smart is that it offers cashback on all spends except fuel. This is the USP of the Smart credit card. So if you want cashback without worrying about where you are spending it, then go for the SC Smart credit card.

Frequently Asked Questions