Just a few days back HDFC Bank launched its Millennia Credit Card (Read review here) and now StanChart has launched its DigiSmart Credit Card again targeting millennials (aka people who like to spend more online)

About the StanChart DigiSmart Credit Card

StanChart DigiSmart Credit card is an entry-level credit card that means it has low fees and offers decent reward rate on online spends. Well one would agree that DigiSmart credit card despite being an entry-level credit card, is one of the most attractively designed credit card.

Eligibility

Standard Chartered Bank is vague in defining eligibility criteria for the card. It has just mentioned that “Applicant should have stable monthly income”. My understanding is that any salary above 25000/month or income above 35000/month would be good enough for this card.

Fees

StanChart DigiSmart credit card comes with a novel feature of a monthly fee of INR49 only. If the spends are above 5000/month then fees for the next month is waived off. What it means is, one has to spend INR5,000/month i.e. INR60,000/year and the card will be free of cost. The idea of the monthly fee is very unique; and I am surprised how come this didn’t strike to HDFC Bank didn’t come up with this idea before.

Nonetheless, from user’s point of view this feature of monthly fees is a serious downer. One might end up paying fees for around 3-4 months in a year (i.e. 150-200/year); as credit card spends are not evenly spread out during the year.

Rewards

StanChart Digismart credit card offers discounts only on specfic list of partners i.e. Myntra, Yatra, Ola, Zomato, Grofers and Inox. Apart from these the card doesn’t offer any reward points or cashback on any other transaction whatsoever. That is common transactions such as paying bills and shopping or eating outside will not earn any reward points. However, thankfully these spends will count towards the monthly spend target of INR5,000.

Frankly, most of the offers on StanChart DigiSmart credit card are very mediocre (barring the one with Ola). These websites any ways provide much better discounts either which ways. Thus, there is no incentive to get this specific card. Further, the downside is one cannot stack up (read more on Deal Stacking) offers on Digismart credit card with the ones already available on the websites. This is because one needs to enter specific promo code to avail discount on the credit card. But again, one should not expect a world from an entry-level credit card with low fees of INR49/month.

Drawbacks

• No reward points or cashback on regular spends, either online or offline, apart from the ones mentioned above.
• No offers on Amazon or Flipkart. Inclusion of any one of these would help increasing popularity of this card; but again both Amazon and Flipkart now have their exclusive credit cards.
• No lounge access with this card. Quite understandable as it’s an entry-level card.
• Existing Stanchart credit card users can’t apply for this card. Stanchart want to use this card is a customer acquisition tool.

How it compares with other cards:

Referring back to my post on Axis Flipkart- ICICI Amazon and HDFC Millennia credit cards; and adding Stanchart Digismart credit card to the same table, this is how Digismart stacks up

Summary

Stanchart Digismart credit card no doubt is a beautiful looking card, but it offers very little in terms of reward points/cashback. Already existing entry-level credit cards offer much better discounts and reward rates than Stanchart Digismart. Unless one is Myntra and Ola aficionado where the reward rates are high; my take is don’t even consider the Stanchart Digismart credit card. HDFC Bank Millennia credit card and ICICI Amazon credit card offer much better deal among entry-level credit cards.