A very strange Bank. Review on Standard Chartered Visa Credit Card

Hi Readers:

Having several cards and an extremely clean track record in all cards, I was denied a card from Standard Chartered Bank (Manhattan). However it was a blessing in disguise as it had many complains. After a year and a half I got a call from them again telling that I was selected amongst the very few at that time for their Titanium Card and these cards were given to only some preferred people. Anyway I was not very interested with them first as they said that it would require me paying Rs.750/- as an annual subscription charges plus a Service Tax with education cess which is never told. The attractive thing that got me attracted is that they told me that on every Fuel as well as in every phone bill (of any provider) I would receive 5% cash back and 1% on other transactions above Rs. 1,000.  So I calculated my expenses and saw that I would get a little more than Rs. 750/- at end of the year adding all the cash backs. They gave me a free supplementary card also. Whatever they did was very fast but their enquiries and verification was like as if I was taking a loan of few Crore Rupees. At 2010 I got this card relieved of all charges apart from the ones I have transacted but along with it the 1% cash back also got waived turning into reward points which was not there before. The cashback amount also could not be more than Rs. 500 a month. Transactions had to be first more than Rs. 250, then 500 & now to be eligible for cashbacks the eligibility transaction amount has to be Rs 750 which would not be surprising if they increase it to 1000 per transaction. This thing I came to know after several emails to them which also displayed extreme unprofessionalism as every other person gave a different picture of the same things

The day I received my first bill I saw that they had displayed the transactions and waiver in such a way that I had to spend half an hour with their tele executives to understand the same but still could not understand it. To access a tele executive I had to waste atleast 50 bucks for waiting and problems might not get solved also the way you want. However, you don't need to wait much today but they have levied Rs 50 per call after 2 calls to their phone bankers in a month. Moreover their brochures etc say something else and their statements come as something else. I was thinking how and why a bank will provide so much of benefit without gaining anything. This is where the catch was. In all card’s statement I never found any service tax (not surcharge) that is levied on fuel transaction and other phone transactions but here they have several charges & they have three components: the Principle, the Surcharge and the Service Tax levied on the surcharge. Cash back is also given but not understandable. In their statement they write Credits which is the cash back etc, Total Payment due is given more than twice (which is good as I haven’t seen it written twice in many other bank's cards), and the Purchases which you can never get a clear picture of how this Purchase’s amount came. The horrible thing today what they have done is that now they do not provide instant cashback but calculate them combined and show them at the end of the statement which creates more trouble for the consumer to keep track on them as you don't know how much cashback is given for what amounts of transaction. Sometimes they will put entries of your transaction in your next statement or may put the entries and give you cash back in your next statement. You may often require struggling to get your genuine cash back.

The worst hit was when my Barclays Card got changed into Standard Chartered card. I received a SMS stating that I will get 10% cash back upto 15 Jul 2012 and therefore I utilised my full limit. I don't know how the card got jumped over the limit, which should never be the case if a limit is exhausted. They charged me Rs 500 for a cross over of the limit by only Rs 48. Moreover, despite asking them several times before using the card, they assured me that the cash back would get reflected as soon as the statement gets generated. Later they said that the cash back will be applied 45 days after the scheme is over. What kind of marketing with cheating is being done by this bank. I am very surprised how this bank is running. I haven't come across any customer who said that they are very happy with their services. They are trying to become another Citibank. Disgusting

All I can say is that this Bank’s service is though not bad but they are still the same. They have a lot of hidden catches. Let a few statements come then you get a clear picture.

Please read my review   "What to Look for in a Credit Card" also. It may be useful too.

Till then,

Be careful

Ray