Manhattan SUCKS

No. This is not the Manhattan in New York. I've been there, or so my parents say. I have no memory of the event.

This is the Manhattan card provided by Standard Chartered Bank in India. If any of your friends, family, neighbours, class-mates, enemies, non-friends, non-enemies, ever seem to be falling into the trap of getting a Manhattan card, stop them at once. Even if you have to summarily execute them. That would be more peaceful than dealing with the absurdities that the Manhattan card folks put you through.

First they put a late charge on my account because I paid by check two days before the due date. What?! I paid before the due-date didn't I? Oh there's some fine print, if you're paying by check you have to pay three days before the due-date. Ok. That's some pretty slimy fine-print, even BSNL and BESCOM take checks in their drop boxes on the due date. In fact even after the due date. So they cancelled my charges after about half a dozen calls. I vow never to use the card again and forget about it.

A year later I get a bill for Rs. 2484. I never used the card. It was supposed to be 'life-time free' so I had to call to find out what the hell happened. Apparently there was some Rs 80 charge for some crap. Which bounced and ballooned and grew up to Rs. 2484 in a few months. And the statement said "You have been put into the Defaulter's list. This is a very serious matter. which will affect your credit-worthiness." Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Another round of calling, to get things canceled. Thankfully, without too much effort, they said they'd reversed their screw-up and all the charges.

Well not all. Apparently the last month's charge couldn't be reversed. So I had another round of calling. Then called to cancel the card. Was told it was canceled. So I forgot about it again. Mistake.

I get a statement today saying I owe them 4 paisa! And "You have been put into the Defaulter's list. Blah.." And along with a 'Small Amount Credit' for 4 paisa. Which seems to mean that on next month's bill I'll have a zero balance. Whew!

But wait! Now I get a threatening SMS! "You have a payment due of Rs. 0.00", it says. "You better make the payment of Rs 0.00, or else ..."

To summarize - Manhattan SUCKS. Standard Chartered SUCKS.

Postscript:
I called up, and emailed. Got replies that my card was already marked "Canceled" and I have a zero balance, and I'm not on the defaulters list. One silver lining is that the customer support seems to be able to do stuff, and have always been helpful.