Standard Chartered Bank once ran attractive Diwali spend-based promotions on its credit cards, but the benefits have been declining year after year. The Standard Chartered Diwali 2019 promotion follows the same structure as the 2018 offer, though with lower returns on spending. Key details are summarized below.
Standard Chartered Diwali Cashback Offer Details
- Offer period: 1st Oct to 31st Dec, 2019
- Target: Spend a specified amount (monthly, for three months) to earn 1% cashback
- Upper cap: Cashback is limited to your credit limit per statement cycle
- Customers cannot make payments in excess of their credit limit to create additional available credit for purchases
- Excluded spend types: E-wallets, mobile recharges, and insurance payments
- Fulfilment: Rewards credited by 31 March 2020
- To enroll: Check your email or mobile for communication, or send SMS with the word UNLIMITED to 57575
- Offer T&C: Please refer to the issuer’s terms and conditions for full details
To qualify, you must meet the monthly spend target for each of the three months within the offer period. The bank provides an illustrative example in the offer terms and conditions to show how the monthly targets and cashback are calculated. Targets are personalised; for instance, one cardholder reported receiving a monthly target of Rs. 5,000 on a card with relatively low typical spends.
Bottomline
Overall, this is a modest promotion. If you hold the Standard Chartered Ultimate credit card, you can combine the 1% Diwali cashback with the card’s base earning rates to achieve roughly 1% plus 3.3% on qualifying spends during October–December 2019, though practical redemption value may vary. For cardholders who do not have the Ultimate card, the offer is less compelling.
Looking at Standard Chartered’s Diwali campaigns over the past three years, the effective returns have fallen—from around 3.3% to 1.5% and now to 1%—which suggests these festive promotions are becoming less generous.
Still, some reward is better than none. What monthly target did you receive? Share your experience in the comments below.