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Offers on Paisabazaar are only from Credit Institutions regulated by the RBI

Note: Standard Chartered Bank will not be accepting new applications for Digismart Credit Card from 15th Dec 2022. Existing cardholders will continue to avail the benefits on the card.

Most of the online shopping credit cards in India are designed to offer benefits in the form of cashback or reward points. However, if you are looking for a credit card that offers a direct discount on your purchases instead of rewards or cashback, your options will be limited to Standard Chartered DigiSmart Credit Card and Axis Bank Neo Credit Card. Both the cards offer discounts on certain brands. To help you make the right choice between the two, here is a detailed comparison of their features. We have also shown how these cards fare against the cards based on a cashback or rewards model. So, let’s start with a comparison of their key features:

Key Highlights: Standard Chartered DigiSmart Vs. Axis Neo
Particular Standard Chartered Bank DigiSmart Credit Card Axis Bank Neo Credit Card
Joining Fee Rs. 49 Rs. 250
Renewal Fee Rs. 49 per month (Waived off on spending Rs. 5,000 in a month) Rs. 250
Welcome Benefits Nil – Amazon & Grofers vouchers worth Rs. 250 each

– Zomato Pro 3 months subscription

– 1mg 6 months subscription
Discounted Brands INOX, Grofers, Myntra, Zomato, Yatra & Ola Myntra, BookMyShow, Grofers, Zomato, Paytm
Paisabazaar’s Rating 3.5/5 3/5
Welcome Benefits
Discounts on Top Brands
Direct Discount Credit Cards Vs. Cashback/ Rewards Credit Cards
Which credit card should you choose?
Welcome Benefits

There are no welcome benefits provided by Standard Chartered Bank DigiSmart Credit Card. On the other hand, Axis Bank Neo Credit Card offers multiple welcome benefits, which are mentioned below:

  • Amazon gift voucher worth Rs. 250*
  • Zomato Pro 3 months subscription*
  • Grofers (now Blinkit) voucher worth Rs. 250*
  • 1mg 6 months subscription*

*The first transaction should be done within 30 days from the date of card issuance to avail the welcome benefits.

The welcome benefits of Axis Neo Credit Card surpass the joining fee by a wide margin. So, if you are ready to pay a minimal joining fee of Rs. 250 and want to avail welcome benefits, then you can opt for Axis Bank Neo Credit Card.

Discounts on Top Brands

Both Standard Chartered Bank DigiSmart Credit Card and Axis Bank Neo Credit Card offer discounts on top brands, such as Zomato, Paytm, Myntra and more. Following are the details of the discounts offered by these credit cards on top brands:

Brand Standard Chartered Bank DigiSmart Credit Card Axis Bank Neo Credit Card
Myntra 20% off every month, up to a maximum discount of Rs. 700 10% off on Myntra on a minimum transaction of Rs. 500
Grofers 10% off (Up to Rs. 1,000 per month) on grocery purchases 10% discount of up to Rs. 250 on a minimum transaction of Rs. 750
Zomato 10% discount with no minimum order value (Max. discount of Rs. 150 per transaction) 40% off (Max. Rs. 120) on food delivery on a minimum transaction of Rs. 200
Paytm No benefits 5% cashback (Up to Rs. 150 per month) on mobile recharges, electricity bill payments, DTH recharge
BookMyShow No benefits 10% cashback on ticket bookings  (Max. cashback of Rs. 100)
INOX Buy One Get One offer on INOX movie tickets on Saturday and Sunday, twice a month (Max. discount of Rs. 200 per transaction) No benefits
Yatra 20% off (Up to Rs. 750) on domestic flight bookings, 10% off (Up to Rs. 10,000) on international flight bookings & 25% off (Up to Rs. 4,000) on domestic hotel bookings every quarter No benefits
Ola 15% cashback on booking Ola cab rides, up to maximum cashback of Rs. 600 per month No benefits

You can see that both the credit cards offer discounts on similar brands. So, let’s understand how much you can save via these credit cards with the help of an example.

Suppose, you’ve made transactions on Myntra, Grofers and Zomato as per the below details:

Myntra: Rs. 1,000

Grofers: Rs. 2,000

Zomato: Rs. 500

Total Amount: Rs. 1,000 + Rs. 2,000 + Rs. 500 = Rs. 3,500

Savings via Standard Chartered Bank DigiSmart Credit Card:

Rs. 200 (20% of Rs. 1,000) + Rs. 200 (10% of Rs. 2,000) + Rs. 50 (10% of Rs. 500) = Rs. 450

Savings via Axis Bank Neo Credit Card:

Rs. 100 (10% of Rs. 1,000) + Rs. 200 (10% of Rs. 2,000) + Rs. 120 (40% of Rs. 500) = Rs. 420

It is clear that both the credit cards offer similar benefits and savings.

Direct Discount Credit Cards Vs. Cashback/ Rewards Credit Cards

There are only a few credit cards in India that do not work on a rewards/ cashback model. When comparing rewards/ cashback cards with direct-discount credit cards like Standard Chartered DigiSmart or Axis Neo, it may seem like the latter offers better benefits. However, both have their own pros and cons and, as a consumer, you should choose the one that better matches your spending preferences.

Cards that offer discounts are helpful only if you are a frequent customer of the associated brands and are willing to give up on the general rewards/ cashback benefit. For example, Axis Ace Credit Card offers 2% flat cashback on all your transactions, no matter which brand you shop with. You also get extra cashback on selected categories. Similarly, Flipkart Axis Bank Credit Card offers 5% cashback on Flipkart and 4% on select merchants, including Uber, Swiggy, etc., but they also offer 1.5% cashback on all other transactions.

With a card that works completely on a discount model, you will lose the basic cashback or reward points that you could earn on any transaction.

Now, let’s take another example to understand this.

Suppose, you’ve made transactions on Myntra, Flipkart, Swiggy and Grofers as per the below details:

Brand Transaction Amount
Myntra Rs. 1,000
Flipkart Rs. 1,500
Swiggy Rs. 500
Tata Sky Rs. 1,500
Grofers Rs. 500
Paytm Rs. 1,000
BookMyShow Rs. 500

Total Amount: Rs. 1,000 + Rs. 1,500 + Rs. 500 + Rs. 1,500 + Rs. 500 + Rs. 1,000 + Rs. 500 = Rs. 6,500

Savings via Standard Chartered Bank DigiSmart Credit Card:

Rs. 200 (20% of Rs. 1,000) + Rs. 50 (10% of Rs. 500) = Rs. 250

Savings via Flipkart Axis Bank Credit Card:

Rs. 50 (5% of Rs. 1,000) + Rs. 75 (5% of Rs. 1,500) + Rs. 20 (4% of Rs. 500) + Rs. 60 (4% of Rs. 1,500) + Rs. 7.5 (1.5% of Rs. 500) + Rs. 15 (1.5% of Rs. 1,000) + Rs. 7.5 (1.5% of Rs. 500) = Rs. 235

As you can clearly see that Flipkart Axis Bank Credit Card offers cashback on more brands as compared to Standard Chartered DigiSmart. However, the overall discount or cashback provided on both the credit cards is similar. Therefore, you can choose any of the credit cards based on your spending behavior.

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Which credit card should you choose?

The choice between Standard Chartered Bank DigiSmart Credit Card and Axis Bank Neo Credit Card totally depends on your spending behavior. Both the credit cards offer similar benefits, but there is a difference in the brands on which the discount is offered. If you frequently make transactions via Paytm, then you can opt for Standard Chartered Bank DigiSmart Credit Card. On the other hand, if you are a frequent user of Yatra and Ola, then you can opt for Axis Bank Neo Credit Card. Apart from this, both the credit cards offer benefits on similar brands, including Zomato, Myntra, Grofers, BookMyShow and INOX.

If you look at the joining or annual fee of both the credit cards, then both of them work on a different schema. Standard Chartered Bank DigiSmart Credit Card charges a monthly fee of Rs. 49, which is waived off on spending Rs. 5,000 in a month. For a person, who regularly makes online transactions, it is easy to spend Rs. 5,000 in a month. However, if you think you cannot spend this much in a month to avail monthly fee waiver, then you can go for Axis Bank Neo Credit Card as it charges a minimal annual fee of Rs. 250 and gives you similar benefits.

Overall, you should choose a credit card that is best suited as per your spending habits to maximize your benefits. It is advisable to analyze your spending pattern and compare multiple credit cards, including direct-discount credit cards as well as cashback/ rewards credit cards, before finalizing the one.

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