Reader vil asked us to put together a post on ‘things everybody should know about HSBC credit cards‘. We’ve done similar posts on other card issuers before:
- American Express
- Bank of America
- Capital One
- Chase
- Citi
- Comenity
- Discover
- Synchrony
- TD Bank
- US Bank
- Wells Fargo
So I thought why not. I thought we’d put together a full list of the cards they offer, the best cards and also the things people should know.
Contents
Full List Of HSBC Credit Cards
- HSBC Gold Mastercard
- HSBC Cash Rewards Mastercards
- Premier World
- Advance
- Platinum Rewards
- HSBC Premier World Elite
Best Credit Cards
Premier World Elite
Sign up bonus of 50,000 points, points are worth 1.5¢ each for travel or can be transferred to travel partners. Annual fee of $395 although partially offset by $100 in Lyft/Uber credit and $100 air travel credit. Unfortunately requires a $100,000 combined balance with HSBC to be eligible. Still very weak compared to other high annual fee cards from other card issuers.
HSBC Cash Rewards
Most people are interested in this because it’s a Mastercard with no foreign transaction fee and earns 1.5% cash back. Mastercard usually gives the best foreign currency rates and 1.5% back with no foreign transaction fee is good as well.
Things You Should Know
- You can transfer HSBC points to airline & travel partners for Premium & Premier cardholders. The rate is 1:1 but they sometimes offer bonuses when transferring to British Airways. The last bonus was 35% and ran through January 4th. Transfer partners take around 3 days and there is no minimum transfer requirement. Travel partners:
- AeroMexico
- British Airways
- Jet Airways
- Singapore Airlines
Cathay Pacific. No longer a partner as of January 2018.
- They often have checking sign up bonuses of $200-$750. Having a relationship with HSBC is necessary/makes it easier to get approved for their credit cards so you might as well get a bonus for setting up this relationship.
- They will usually pull your Equifax credit report. If that’s frozen they will usually pull a different report.
- There is no way to check for pre-approved offers.
- Cards are not available to residents of Wisconsin.
- Mixed reports on soft/hard pull for credit limit increases.
- HSBC gives you an instant credit card number. They do not give you the expiry date or CVV2 number though so this is largely useless.
- They do not give you any annual fee refund or prorate the annual fee if the card is cancelled.
- You can have a maximum of two HSBC credit cards.
- HSBC does not combine inquiries if you apply for two cards on the same day.
- You cannot reallocate credit limits between cards with HSBC.
- You cannot combine points across multiple HSBC cards.
What We Don’t Know
There are a lot of things we don’t know about HSBC credit cards that we’ve love to learn. If you know the answers to any of the following then please help us out in the comments below.
- Are the cards/bonuses churnable?
- Do they offer expedited shipping?
- What is the reconsideration number?
- Do they have retention offers?
- Is there a maximum number of HSBC credit cards you can have?
- Can you reopen closed accounts?
- Can you check application status online?
Does HSBC report business cards to personal credit bureaus? They currently have a decent offer on their business credit card (25k pts on $5k spend, 0% APR for 12 mths), though the offer expires end of July.
HSBC Premier World Mastercard CC: Approved with 9/24 (3 in last 3 months)
Premier status for the $700 checking bonus
35,000 points (worth $400 in travel) with 3K MSR
Not sure if this is known or useful DP:
– online app took 5 days; chat & call are pretty much useless to get any update
– card number showed up in account (no email/confirmation of approval) assuming will be shipped within 7 days
– HP: Equifax
Not sure if it pulls the same bureaus for business cards. Good Luck!
They have a pre qualify for Gold and Cash Rewards on their site now.
Per another article you posted, they do now have a pre-approval check. Additionally, in the article you say you can have a max of 2 cards, and then outstanding questions lists that as unanswered.
Thanks for the guide!
They have introduced a new student card of 1.5% CB:
https://www.us.hsbc.com/credit-cards/products/student-card/
I know it’s a work in progress but think this should probably be stickied under Card Issuer Specific section and Things You should know about each card issuer pages on the Credit Card Reference page.
Done, good point.
Does anyone know which credit bureau does HSBC pull?
I applied for a cli today on my 1 year anniversary, they did a hard Equifax pull. Not sure the result, guessing I should get it I’ve got a score over 750 will perfect history. Got small increase previously 6 months ago with a soft pull as well
I’ll add a few more points I just confirmed.
-You cannot combine credit line or move limit between cards
-I did a credit line increase a year ago and it was a soft pull on the Platinum Rewards. Asked for an increase my Advance MC and was told no go because my credit was frozen. Don’t know if that is a hard or soft pull but will share.
-Points with multiple cards cannot be combined. So if you have multiple cards, you have multiple rewards point accounts.
Bank doesn’t seem to be instant approval. New cards take a week or so to show up in our online banking. Calling is the only way to check status.
Thanks, added DP
I had an advanced master credit card before. Had my advance checking downgraded to regular checking that required $1500 for fee free, then the advanced credit card hit AF on annual date. Called and asked to downgrade the advance card to platinum with no AF. AF refunded.
ADJUSTMENT-PURCHASES -$45
“Are the cards/bonuses churnable?”
Yes, had one some year in around 2004-2006 then closed. a 2nd one a few years ago and still got the sign up bonus.
“Can you check application status online?”
If you have a checking account or a login, you would be able to see the credit card number linked there even before they send you the approval email/mail. That’s the only way I know about checking the status online without calling.
https://www.us.hsbc.com/credit-cards/
This page differs from some of the stats on your posts on their cards. Maybe their was an update
Had an HSBC card, but I did not use it for a year and they closed the account for non-use. Very annoying