Standard Chartered Ultimate
KeepThe highest flat rate in the country — with a hard ceiling.
What it's worth to you — net annual value
Welcome: 6,000 reward points (₹6,000) on fee payment
How these numbers are computed →
Spend tiers, milestones and fee waivers included, at our house ₹/point. Portal and category multipliers can push higher — run your exact number →
The take
The Ultimate does one thing better than every other card here: 3.33% back on general spend, fixed, no gymnastics — 1 point is ₹1, full stop. What it cannot do is fly you anywhere at outsized value: there are no airline or hotel transfer partners, so ₹1 per point is both the floor and the ceiling, minus a ₹99 fee per redemption. If you want a predictable engine and already hold a transfer card for the aspirational stuff, this is the best boring card in India. Just know the April 2023 category cuts show Standard Chartered will trim it when it suits them.
What's good
- 3.33% flat on general spend — the top unconditional rate in India
- Fixed 1 point = ₹1; zero redemption maths
- 4 domestic lounge visits/quarter + 1 PP international/month (₹20k prior-month gate)
- 2.36% effective forex — better than the 3.5% default
Watch out
- No transfer partners — the ceiling is exactly ₹1/point
- Utilities, supermarkets, insurance, rent, govt cut to 2% since Apr 2023
- ₹99 + GST per redemption; points expire in 3 years
- ₹5,000 fee with no spend-based waiver
What earns, what doesn't
- Fuel · excluded Zero RP since 2-Apr-2023; 1% surcharge waiver all pumps, cap ₹1,000/month
- Rent & property management · reduced 3 RP/₹150 (2%) on MCC 7349+6513 vs base 5/₹150 (3.3%) — still EARNS on rent, uncapped (rare)
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · reduced 3 RP/₹150 on MCC 4900, uncapped since 2-Apr-2023
- Insurance · reduced 3 RP/₹150 on MCC 5960+6300, uncapped — one of the only cards earning meaningfully on insurance
per Standard Chartered T&C · rank every card by spend category →
Lounge access
Gate: ₹20k prior-month spend for the monthly PP international visit
Opens 583 of 644 tracked lounge doors across 244 airports — see the full map →
Can you get it?
The cutoffs and the actual route in — not the "apply now" button, the door that opens.
Direct application — no invite list, no banking relationship required.
per the official Standard Chartered MITC — figures marked (community) aren't in the PDF; the issuer won't say · filter the ranking by what you can get →
The fine print
What the MITC actually says — the rates, fees and cutoffs the brochure skips.
Fee ₹5,000, no spend waiver. Forex cut 3.5%→2% effective 25-Aug-2024. SC publishes no official income cutoff for Ultimate.
per the official Standard Chartered MITC · reviewed 10 Jul 2026
What's changed for this card
Full tracker →Devaluations and buffs that touch this card directly, its issuer, or the points and programs it earns and transfers to.
- 15 Oct 2024EaseMyTrip card loses Priority Pass, domestic visits halved1 complimentary domestic lounge visit per quarter + Priority Pass with 2 international visits a year → 2 domestic visits per calendar year; no Priority Pass, no complimentary international lounge access
The travel co-brand quietly stopped being a travel card: from 15 October 2024, Standard Chartered pulled Priority Pass from the EaseMyTrip card entirely and cut domestic lounge access from four visits a year to two. International lounges are now pay-per-visit at rack rates. What's left is a ₹350 EaseMyTrip discount coupon — which, to be fair, is what it always really was.
- 25 Aug 2024Ultimate's forex settles at a clean 2% at posting3.5% markup softened by a separately-posted 1.5% cashback — until 1 June 2024, when SC killed the cashback and left the full 3.5% → Flat 2% markup (2.36% with GST) charged at transaction posting
A rare devaluation that reversed itself into an upgrade. Standard Chartered scrapped the Ultimate's 1.5% forex cashback in June 2024, briefly leaving cardholders paying the full 3.5% — then re-priced the card at a flat 2% markup charged upfront from 25 August. Net-net you land where the old cashback dance left you, minus the waiting and the reconciliation maths. At 2.36% all-in, the Ultimate undercuts the 3.5% default most premium cards still charge.
- 2 Apr 2023Ultimate cuts six categories from 3.33% to 2%5 RP/₹150 (3.33%) on utilities, supermarkets, insurance, rent, schools and government; fuel earned points → 3 RP/₹150 (2%) on those six categories; fuel earns nothing (1% surcharge waiver, capped ₹1,000/month); 1% processing fee on rent
The first crack in India's best flat-rate card. From 2 April 2023, six everyday categories — utilities, supermarkets, insurance, rent, schools, government — dropped from the Ultimate's signature 3.33% to 2%, fuel stopped earning altogether, and rent payments picked up a 1% fee for the privilege. The headline rate on general spend survived untouched, but the lesson landed: Standard Chartered will trim this card when it suits them.
Go deeper
Sources
Every fact on this page is checked against these documents — the issuer's own paperwork first. Spot something stale? The PDF wins, and we re-verify.
- official Product page (₹5,000 fee, 6,000-pt welcome, 5 RP/₹150 = ₹1/pt, 4/quarter domestic + 1 PP/month int'l, 2% forex, 5% duty-free cashback) checked 12 Jul 2026
- official Revision FAQ (Apr-2023 category cuts, ₹99 redemption fee) checked 13 Jul 2026
- official Tariffs & charges checked 12 Jul 2026
- community CardInsider — Visa Infinite variant discontinued checked 12 Jul 2026
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