Standard Chartered Manhattan Credit Card is an entry level lifestyle credit card which provides attractive cashback on grocery spends. This card also provides accelerated rewards on normal spends which can be redeemed from it’s rewards catalogue. Apart from providing cashback and rewards, this card also sports a stunning design, probably one the best among credit cards in India at the moment.
Eligibility Criteria
Standard Chartered has not explicitly disclosed the salary criteria for this card, however they don’t accept the online application if monthly take home salary is mentioned less than Rs. 50,000. Other criteria for this credit card are mentioned below:
- Age: Between 21 to 65 years
- Minimum take home salary: Rs. 50,000 per month
- Good credit (CIBIL) score
You can also apply for this card on basis of other credit card or life insurance policy if you don’t qualify on basis of salary criteria.
Fees
Standard Chartered Manhattan Credit Card comes with following fees:
- Joining fee: Rs. 999 + GST
- Renewal fee: Rs. 999 + GST
Renewal Fee is waived off second year onwards on crossing spends of Rs. 1.2 Lakhs in the previous year.
Features
Standard Chartered Manhattan Credit Card is mainly targeted towards common family men/women and hence it’s features are tailored towards them.
Welcome benefits
- BookMyShow vouchers worth Rs. 2,000
BookMyShow vouchers are provided after making first transaction within 90 days of card set up. The BookMyShow e-voucher are sent via SMS on the registered mobile number within 120 days of date of transaction.
Reward Points
- 5% cashback on supermarkets and departmental stores
- Minimum Transaction: Rs. 1,000
- Maximum cashback per transaction: Rs. 150
- Maximum cashback per month: Rs. 500
- 3 reward points per Rs. 150 spent on other categories
- Reward point value keeps on varying based reward catalogue
- 1 Reward Point ~ Rs. 0.28 (approximately)
- Reward Rate ~ 0.56%
For getting maximum benefit from this card, limit your transaction for supermarkets and departmental stores to Rs. 3,000. The cashback is applicable on stores like DMart, Big Bazaar, More etc. The cashback is posted along with the transaction which is quite great. However the reward rate on other spends is measly 0.56% which is a huge disappointment.
Other Benefits
- The Good Life Program: Discounts and offers across dining, shopping, travel etc.
As evident, there are no additional tangible benefits apart from cashback and reward points, not even fuel surcharge waiver which most cards provide.
Drawbacks
Standard Chartered Manhattan Credit Card lacks in many departments when compared with credit cards launched in recent times.
- Low reward rate other than supermarkets and departmental spends
- Online grocery stores e.g. Big Basket, Grofers, Amazon Pantry etc. don’t qualify for 5% cashback
- No option to redeem reward points for statement cash
- No fuel surcharge waiver
- No renewal and milestone benefits
- No airport lounge access
Verdict
At one point in time, Standard Chartered Manhattan Credit Card was really good and was my primary driver when it used to provide 5x reward points and 20% cashback on Uber/Ola. However Standard Chartered reduced the reward rate to 3x and offers which rendered this card not so attractive.
To get maximum value out of this card, I would suggest to use this card only for supermarkets and departmental spends limited to Rs. 10,000 per month. This way one can achieve a reward rate of 5% which is quite handsome. Also, using this strategy one will end up spending Rs. 1.2 Lakh in a year which will enable waiver of annual fee on this card. This is the sole reason that Standard Chartered Manhattan Credit Card still features in my list of best credit card for first timers in India.
Also Standard Chartered keeps on running decent merchant offers (e.g. 25% discount on Inox, Rs. 1,000 off on flight tickets at Spice Jet and Yatra etc.) through out the year which somewhat compensates for lack of features. However, it should be noted that these offers are for limited time and not permanent.
In a nutshell, Standard Chartered Manhattan Credit Card can act as a secondary card for other entry level cards like Flipkart Axis Bank or Amazon Pay ICICI Credit Card which provide better default reward rate.
What’s your take on Standard Chartered Manhattan Credit Card. Let me know in comments below.
