BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium vs Standard Chartered Ultimate (2026)
The answer changes hands 2 times between ₹0.25L and ₹5L a month — this pair is decided by your spend, not by the board.
Head to head
| BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium | Metric | Standard Chartered Ultimate |
|---|---|---|
| #7 — wins this row | Our rank | #23 |
| ₹5,000/yr | Fee — joining · annual (+ GST) | ₹5,000/yr |
| ₹5,00,000 spend | Fee waiver | None |
| Nil — 0% markup, Premium-specific (the non-premium Etihad Guest pays 1%) — wins this row | Forex markup | 2% + GST (Ultimate-specific; 3.5% on other SC cards) |
| 3.75%/mo (45%/yr), from transaction date; same rate on cash advances | APR | 3.75%/mo (45%/yr APR), same rate on cash advances |
| 2.0% | Headline earn rate | 3.3% — wins this row |
| Etihad Guest | Currency | StanC 360° Reward Points |
| ₹1.00/pt | House value | ₹1.00/pt |
| 15,000 Guest miles — 10,000 on ₹25k in 60 days + fee payment, 5,000 more at ₹50k (doubled window till 31 Aug 2026; standard offer is 7,500) | Welcome benefit | 6,000 reward points (₹6,000) on fee payment |
| 72 of 789 | Lounge doors opened | 725 of 789 — wins this row |
| not published | Income — salaried | ~₹2L+/month (community) |
Gold marks the better side of a row. House value is our ₹-per-point mark for each card's currency — the full valuation index →
Ranking-value face-off
Everyday spend at each card's base rate plus a realistic ~20% at its best accelerator (less for narrow or capped boosters) — milestones, fee waivers and the redemption haircut all at our house ₹/point. That's why the biggest headline rate doesn't automatically win. This is the ranking model, the one that orders the board; each card page prints the earn-rate-only net annual value instead, which reads lower for any card with an accelerator (both models, side by side). Tune it to your own spend in the calculator.
It swings with spend: BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium at ₹1L/month, BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium at ₹3L/month, Standard Chartered Ultimate at ₹5L/month.
Where the lead changes hands
The lead changes hands at ₹0.5L and ₹4L a month: Standard Chartered Ultimate is ahead by ₹3,270 at ₹0.25L, Standard Chartered Ultimate by ₹14,400 at ₹5L.
BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium pays one annual spend milestone, at ₹12,00,000 a year, and Standard Chartered Ultimate pays none; BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium runs a 6.0% booster on Etihad Airways (etihad.com), where Standard Chartered Ultimate earns one flat rate.
BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium draws above the line, Standard Chartered Ultimate below · ₹0.25L to ₹5L a month, step by step
| Monthly spend | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium | Standard Chartered Ultimate | In front |
|---|---|---|---|
| ₹0.25L | ₹1,720 | ₹4,990 | Standard Chartered Ultimate by ₹3,270 |
| ₹0.5L | ₹19,440 | ₹14,980 | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium by ₹4,460 |
| ₹0.75L | ₹26,160 | ₹24,970 | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium by ₹1,190 |
| ₹1L | ₹72,880 | ₹34,960 | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium by ₹37,920 |
| ₹1.25L | ₹79,600 | ₹44,950 | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium by ₹34,650 |
| ₹1.5L | ₹86,320 | ₹54,940 | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium by ₹31,380 |
| ₹1.75L | ₹93,040 | ₹64,930 | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium by ₹28,110 |
| ₹2L | ₹99,760 | ₹74,920 | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium by ₹24,840 |
| ₹2.25L | ₹1,06,480 | ₹84,910 | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium by ₹21,570 |
| ₹2.5L | ₹1,13,200 | ₹94,900 | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium by ₹18,300 |
| ₹2.75L | ₹1,19,920 | ₹1,04,890 | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium by ₹15,030 |
| ₹3L | ₹1,26,640 | ₹1,14,880 | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium by ₹11,760 |
| ₹3.25L | ₹1,33,360 | ₹1,24,870 | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium by ₹8,490 |
| ₹3.5L | ₹1,40,080 | ₹1,34,860 | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium by ₹5,220 |
| ₹3.75L | ₹1,46,800 | ₹1,44,850 | BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium by ₹1,950 |
| ₹4L | ₹1,53,520 | ₹1,54,840 | Standard Chartered Ultimate by ₹1,320 |
| ₹4.25L | ₹1,60,240 | ₹1,64,830 | Standard Chartered Ultimate by ₹4,590 |
| ₹4.5L | ₹1,66,960 | ₹1,74,820 | Standard Chartered Ultimate by ₹7,860 |
| ₹4.75L | ₹1,73,680 | ₹1,84,810 | Standard Chartered Ultimate by ₹11,130 |
| ₹5L | ₹1,80,400 | ₹1,94,800 | Standard Chartered Ultimate by ₹14,400 |
Transfer reach
Full route maps on each card page, best ₹/point routes on the optimizer →
What to watch out for
BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium · 1 more →
- Single-program currency: miles auto-transfer to Etihad Guest and redeem nowhere else
- Long exclusion list: telecom, education, hospitals, government, rent, wallets, insurance — and all rail/bus/toll transport — earn zero
- 1% processing fee on rent and wallet loads; utility fee ≥₹50k; fuel fee ≥₹10k (MITC)
Standard Chartered Ultimate · 2 more →
- 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 lapse about 3 years after you earn them, in quarterly batches
The call
For the ₹1L/month spender, BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium nets ₹72,880 against ₹34,960 — a ₹37,920 gap. At ₹5L/month, Standard Chartered Ultimate nets ₹1,94,800 against ₹1,80,400 — a ₹14,400 gap. Lounge chasers: Standard Chartered Ultimate opens 725 of 789 tracked doors to BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium's 72.
Our standing verdicts: BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium — Keep; Standard Chartered Ultimate — Keep. On our board, BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium sits at #7 to Standard Chartered Ultimate's #23 — that's the overall call. Your spend pattern can overrule us: run your exact numbers →
Straight answers
Which is better, BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium or Standard Chartered Ultimate?
BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium. It sits at #7 on our board to Standard Chartered Ultimate's #23. BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium takes 4 of the 7 rounds we can score. It swings with spend: BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium at ₹1L/month, BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium at ₹3L/month, Standard Chartered Ultimate at ₹5L/month.
BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium or Standard Chartered Ultimate — which earns more at ₹3L a month?
At ₹3L a month, BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium nets ₹1,26,640 against ₹1,14,880 — a ₹11,760 gap. Those are ranking-value figures: everyday spend at the card's base rate plus a realistic slice at its best accelerator, net of the fee.
Which costs less to hold, BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium or Standard Chartered Ultimate?
They cost the same to get: ₹5,000/yr. BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium waives its fee at ₹5,00,000 of spend; Standard Chartered Ultimate at no spend level — there is no waiver.
Which gets you into more airport lounges, BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium or Standard Chartered Ultimate?
Lounge chasers: Standard Chartered Ultimate opens 725 of 789 tracked doors to BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium's 72. Visit quotas, guest charges and spend gates are per card — the lounge map carries each one.
How current is this comparison?
Card records last re-verified against their issuers' own documents: BOBCARD Etihad Guest Premium on 2026-07-26, Standard Chartered Ultimate on 2026-08-01. Every figure on this page — the ranking values, the fee rows, the lounge counts, the transfer ratios — is recomputed from those records each time the site builds, so a devaluation changes the call the day we log it.