Standard Chartered Credit Cards Review

Back in my initial days of professional life when I did not even have a credit card, I often used to hear people say that Standard Chartered is the worst credit card company ever. I was once part of a seminar and an elderly person who was conducting the seminar even went to the limit of calling Standard Chartered as a bunch of crooks. I came across a lot of people complaining the baseless charges, messed up billing and high interest rates that Standard Chartered was putting on their bills. A few years later, I had a credit card of almost every major Bank in India but because of all this negative feedback, I tried my level best to avoid Standard Chartered as far as I could. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a person who relies on credit card at all. As a matter of fact, in last 7 years ever since I got my first credit card, I have never paid a single penny in finance charges on any of my credit card. I use them all the time to take benefit of the point system that almost every credit card these days offer but always made sure that I paid the entire amount owed on the due date. If I knew that I wouldn’t be able to pay for a particular charge in full, I just did not buy whatever it was that I wanted to buy. Then a couple of years later, I got a call from a telemarketer who offered me a Standard Chartered Platinum credit card with great benefits and no annual charge at all. I liked the deal and agreed to take it. After 2 years of having this credit card, here is a small review of what I came across in dealing with Standard Chartered.

Transparency: A few days later when the credit card arrived, I was surprised to see that it wasn’t the card that I was promised but instead a Titanium credit card with almost no benefits at all. I called their customer service and was surprised to hear that I did not qualify for a platinum card even though it is what I was promised initially. What is even surprising is that they decided to give me a Titanium card instead without even asking me or taking my consent for it. They just decided that I was only worthy enough of a Titanium card and send me that on their own. Now this card had an annual charge on it which as per their customer service rep and also the small booklet that I received with it was to be waived if I used the card for a certain amount.

Billing: My initial thought was to cancel the card immediately but then I just decided to keep it for some emergency. I paid for my insurance annual premium on the card just to make sure that I use it for the amount enough to have the annual charge waived off. Still, after one year when I received a statement, I was surprised to still see an annual charge on it. When I again called their customer service rep to complain, I was told that it was a billing error and the annual charge was removed.

All this time I kept this credit card in my drawer and never used it. About a year ago, I needed some cash on an urgent basis and called Standard Chartered to ask if they had a loan on card offer for which I qualified and they sent me a cheque for the amount required. A different loan account was created for this amount and it reflected on my credit card statement each month. I just paid the bill on my credit card and the amount was automatically transferred to my loan account. However one of these months, I received my credit card statement to again see a late fee and additional charges on it even though I paid the bill on time. I called their customer service again and to my surprise, they told me that I would have to make the payment on the loan account separately. The funds I paid on the credit card did not transfer to loan account and hence the late fee. When I said that no one told me about it, they agreed to reverse the late fee and the finance charges and the amount was transferred. From then on, I made sure that I paid directly on the loan account and not the credit card even though this amount was a part of my credit card statement.

A few months passed by and I paid for the loan amount in full. As a matter of fact, I by mistake paid a couple of thousands extra which, when I received my credit card statement that month, was showing as a negative balance on my statement. Just to use up that negative balance, I bought something using my SC credit card and did not make any payment hoping that the negative balance would cover for it. Surprise, Surprise, when I received my statement next month, I again had late fee on it and some finance charges too. I called their customer service again and was told that I had to call and request the transfer from loan account to credit card account else it will not happen. I told them that it is their fault because then they should not show a negative balance on a person’s statement with no clear indication else how would the customer know that he is supposed to pay when the total balance is in negative. Once again I requested that the late fee be reversed but to my shock this time, I was told that they would not as it is a valid charge. By then I was furious and asked them to close the account and give a final amount that I need to pay. The rep transferred my call to their retention department who in order to not have me cancel the card reversed the charge.

Payment: Like all other banks, they have an online payment system as well as cheque. You can drop in a cheque or make an online payment from Standard chartered account or from any other Bank account through Bill desk. But as you would probably have understood from the story above, even the payment system is all messed up.

Credit Limit: While all my other credit cards have raised my limit at least twice in last two years, SC hasn’t done it even once. The limit is the same that I was originally offered and since I don’t even use this card, I have never requested a raise too.

Customer Service: Customer service is quite bad. They would tell you one thing and something else would appear on your statement.

Final Verdict: Whatever I heard about Standard Chartered turned out to be quite true. To summarize this Standard Chartered credit cards review, their billing is truly one of the worst. If you have a SC credit card, you would have to review your monthly statement each month, go through every charge to make sure that everything is in order else you would never realize what they would charge you for.