HSBC is making some major changes to the bonus cashback awarded to HSBC Advance + Everyday Global Account (EGA) holders, and you’re going to want to pay attention even if you’re not a cashback card user.
From 2 August 2021, the HSBC Everyday+ Cashback (link not live yet) scheme will launch, awarding EGA holders a bonus 1% cashback on transactions made with any HSBC credit card, on top of the usual credit card rewards.
 HSBC Revolution |
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| Apply and get S$300 cashback | |
| Full Review |
This is great news for anyone with a HSBC Revolution, as it essentially means 4 mpd + 1 % cashback on dining, hotels, supermarkets, shopping and transportation, a very tidy return indeed.
Earn 1% cashback on card spending with HSBC EGA
Here’s an overview of how the old cashback scheme compares to the new one, which takes effect from 2 August 2021.
| HSBC Advance Cashback (Till 1 Aug 21) |
HSBC Everyday+ Cashback (From 2 Aug 21) |
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| Eligible Cards | HSBC Advance | Any HSBC credit card or EGA debit card |
| Min. Trxns Per Mo. | 5 | 5 |
| Min. EGA Deposit Per Mo. (Fresh Funds) |
S$2K | S$2K (Personal) S$5K (Premier & Jade) |
| Cashback | 1% from 1st trxn till end of mo. | 1% from 6th trxn till end of following mo. |
| Cap | S$300 | S$300 (Personal) S$500 (Premier & Jade) |
| Crediting Time | By end of following mo. | 2-14 business days |
The updated T&Cs can be found here. There’s a lot to break down, so let’s go line by line.
Eligible Cards
The previous scheme only awarded 1% cashback to transactions made on the HSBC Advance card, which was a bummer for those who wanted to earn miles.
Going forward, 1% cashback will apply to transactions made with any HSBC credit or EGA debit card.
Minimum Transactions
This remains the same as before. HSBC customers will need to make at least five eligible purchases on their credit card within the same calendar month to qualify for bonus cashback.
What’s unclear is how this works if you have multiple HSBC cards. For example, could a cardholder qualify by making 3x transactions on the HSBC Revolution and 2x transactions on the HSBC Visa Infinite? I’m leaning towards no, but will try and get an official response.
Minimum EGA Deposit
The previous requirement of a S$2,000 minimum deposit in an EGA remains the same for personal banking customers. However, HSBC Premier and Jade customers will now be required to deposit at least S$5,000 to enjoy the bonus cashback.
| โ It seems a little unfair that HSBC’s preferred customers need to plonk down more capital, but I suppose they making up for that with a higher cashback cap (see below). |
Do note that these must be fresh funds, i.e. they must come from outside HSBC. To be clear, you’ll need to make a deposit every month you want to enjoy the bonus cashback (or technically, every other month- see next section).
I suppose there’s nothing stopping you from setting up a standing order to transfer money into HSBC and then immediately back out…
Cashback
Customers who meet the minimum transactions and minimum EGA deposit will be eligible to earn 1% cashback on their credit card spend during the qualifying period.
What’s changed is how the qualifying period is defined.
| Till 1 Aug 2021 | |
| Meet req. in | Earn 1% cashback during… |
| Jul 2021 | 1-31 Jul 2021 |
Originally, customers who met the five transaction minimum would earn 1% cashback on all transactions made during that calendar month. For example, if I made my 5th transaction on 8 July 2021, I would earn 1% cashback on all transactions from 1-31 July 2021.
| From 2 Aug 2021 | |
| Date req. are met | Earn 1% cashback during… |
| 10 Aug 2021 | 11 Aug to 30 Sep 2021 |
| 5 Sep 2021 | 6 Sep to 31 Oct 2021 |
| 8 Oct 2021 | 9 Oct to 30 Nov 2021 |
Going forward, 1% cashback will be awarded for transactions made from the day after the requirements have been met, till the end of the following calendar month. For example, if my 5th transaction posts on 10 August 2021, I would earn 1% cashback on all transactions from 11 August to 30 September 2021.
In other words, the qualifying spend period starts on the day after your 5th transaction posts, and runs till the end of the following month. Do remember there may be a lag of 1-2 days between the time a transaction was made and the time it posts to your account, so refer to your online banking when in doubt.
Since you only earn 1% cashback from your 6th transaction onwards, the best way to start this is to make five microtransactions early in the month. Maybe head to the supermarket and buy five of the cheapest item, or just make 5x 1 cent payments to your telco or utilities provider.
The boon of this new qualifying period definition is that you only need to transfer funds in every other month (since meeting the requirement this month covers you till the end of the following month).
Cap
The previous monthly cap of S$300 is maintained for regular HSBC customers, and is boosted to S$500 for HSBC Premier and Jade. The cap applies on an account level, i.e. it doesn’t matter how many credit cards you have with HSBC.
In practice though, the 1% cashback rate means it’s going to be almost impossible for most people to bust the cap. Doing so would require spending at least $30,000 each month on your card! If you’re a HSBC Revolution user, you’ll be charging (I hope) at most S$1,000 per month to the card, so this is hardly a limiting factor.
Crediting Time
Cashback was previously credited by the end of the following month, e.g. cashback earned in July 2021 would be credited by 31 August 2021.
Going forward, cashback will be credited to your EGA as early as two business days from the date posted, and no more than 14 business days. Zippy.
Exclusions
The 1% cashback will not be awarded on any transaction that’s on HSBC exclusion list, namely:
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The main ones to take note of are charitable donations, insurance, education, government payments, utilities bills and CardUp/ipaymy.
Implications for HSBC Revolution cardholders
This is pretty much a no-brainer for HSBC Revolution cardholders. The 1% cashback is given on top of 4 mpd, and even if it’s effectively capped at S$10 per month (1% of S$1,000, the max anyone should be spending on the HSBC Revolution), it costs you nothing.
Alternatively, those who use the HSBC Advance can earn up to 3.5% cashback on all transactions, subject to the regular monthly cap.
We don’t even need to consider opportunity cost, because all that’s required is to deposit S$2,000/S$5,000 into the EGA; there’s no requirement to maintain it. You could transfer in the money and then move it out immediately.
Conclusion
To recap: in order to earn 1% cashback on your HSBC credit card, you’ll need to:
- Make at least five transactions in a given calendar month
- Deposit at least S$2,000 (S$5,000 for Jade/Premier) of fresh funds into your EGA
For those who don’t mind moving money in and out of the EGA every other month, you’ll get some extra cashback for your troubles. And if/when Amaze adds support for Visa credit cards, there’ll be an opportunity to stack a further 1% cashback on top of everything.
In theory, if you’re making at least 5 transactions every month, you don’t have to worry about the 5 microtransactions after the first month. Just deposit the $300 every month. This is because your first 5 transactions for August will qualify you for August and September, first 5 transactions for September will qualify you for September and October (while these transactions still earn you 1% cashback), and so on. Refer to this clause in the T&Cs: An Eligible Purchase made within the same calendar month can count as both: a. the 6th or later Eligible Purchase within an ongoing qualifying… Read more »
Yes, very true. The 5 micro is just to get you started
That does mean you’ll have to transfer money every month. FTR, you can FAST the money in and then out immediately – been doing that for my HSBC Advance card
Did this for awhile then found it was simpler to just let it deduct every month since my spending came up to ~ S$2k anyway.
haha, i got premier master card to stack with amaze!
According to HSBC’s T&C for fee charges, there will be a minimum account balance fee of S$5 if the average daily balance for the Everyday Global Account falls below S$2,000.
Can’t deduct a fall-below fee if there’s nothing inside ๐
Alternatively, use it as your banking account.
The updated T&Cs here appear to suggest that fund transfer will qualify as a transaction too? That means if we transfer in $400 five times it should mee the criteria?
https://cdn.hsbc.com.sg/content/dam/hsbc/sg/documents/accounts/everyday-global/terms-and-conditions-governing-everydayrewards-programme.pdf
“This Programme is offered to customers who hold an HSBC Everyday Global Account (โEligible Accountโ)”
“Fund transfers from an Eligible Account to a non-HSBC account.”
Should be referring to outward bound fund transfers from the HSBC Everyday Global Account