Review: HSBC Revolution Card

It’s been a bumpy start to 2024 for the HSBC Revolution, with the versatile no-annual-fee card tightening its bonus categories to exclude many hotels and all travel agencies on 1 January. And if that wasn’t enough, next to go were bonuses for groceries, food delivery and fast food on 1 May, followed by the 1% bonus cashback for Everyday Global Accountholders. 

So now that the dust has settled (hopefully), where does that lead us? Well, there’s still some things to like about this card: no annual fee, a complimentary copy of The Entertainer, and bonuses on air tickets, cruises, ride-hailing, shopping and restaurants.

I just don’t know whether I’d call it a wallet essential anymore. 

HSBC Revolution
🦁 MileLion Verdict
☐ Take It ☑ Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It
The HSBC Revolution is still useful to have, but its scaled-back whitelist means it’s not the incredible card it once was
👍 The good	👎 The bad
4 mpd categories can help take the load off blacklist cards like the Citi Rewards and DBS Woman’s World Card Permanent annual fee waiver Free copy of The Entertainer	Higher-than-average conversion fee, albeit with unlimited conversions Supermarkets, fast food, food delivery, travel agencies and most hotels are now excluded from bonuses No more 1% cashback with EGA
Full List of Credit Card Reviews

Overview: HSBC Revolution

Let’s start this review by looking at the key features of the HSBC Revolution.

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Income Req.	S$30,000 p.a.	Points Validity	37 months
Annual Fee	None	Min. Transfer	25,000 HSBC Points (10,000 miles)
FCY Fee	3.25%	Transfer Fee	S$43.60 (per yr.)
Local Earn	0.4 mpd	Points Pool?	No
FCY Earn	0.4 mpd	Lounge Access?	No
Special Earn	4 mpd on selected online and contactless payments	Airport Limo?	No
Cardholder Terms and Conditions

How much must I earn to qualify for a HSBC Revolution?

The HSBC Revolution has an income requirement of at least S$30,000 per year, the MAS-mandated minimum. 

If you do not meet the minimum annual income, you can place a S$10,000 fixed deposit with HSBC to get a secured version of the card, with a credit limit equivalent to 100% of the deposit amount. More information can be found in this form.

Sign-up gift

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HSBC offers new-to-bank customers a choice of welcome gifts:

• Samsonite ZELTUS 69cm Spinner Exp with built-in scale (worth S$680)
• S$150 cashback

A minimum spend of S$1,000 must be charged to the card by the end of the month following approval. For example, if my card is approved on 15 March 2023, I will need to meet the minimum spend by 30 April 2023. 

New-to-bank customers are defined as those who:

• do not hold any existing HSBC principal credit card*
• did not cancel any HSBC principal credit card* within the past 12 months

*Except the HSBC TravelOne Card or HSBC Visa Infinite. Refer to this post for more details.

It is also necessary to provide consent to receive marketing/promotional materials from HSBC at the time of application, and to not revoke that consent until the gift is fulfilled. 

At the time of writing, this offer is available till 30 June 2024, though it’s perpetually extended. The T&Cs can be found here.

How much is the HSBC Revolution’s annual fee? 

The HSBC Revolution’s S$160.50 annual fee was removed on 1 August 2020, and both principal and supplementary cards are now free for life. 

There are only a handful of credit cards in Singapore without an annual fee, and most of them are rather abject. So hats off to HSBC for waiving the annual fee, while simultaneously improving the value proposition. 

How many miles do I earn?

Regular SGD/FCY Spending

HSBC Revolution Cardholders earn:

• 1 HSBC Point for every S$1 spent in Singapore Dollars
• 1 HSBC Point for every S$1 spent foreign currency (FCY)

1 HSBC Point is worth 0.4 airline miles, so that’s an equivalent earn rate of 0.4 mpd for both local and FCY spending. 

All foreign currency transactions are subject to a 3.25% fee, so using your card for overseas general spend represents buying miles at 8+ cents each- a silly proposition, unless you’re able to tap the bonus categories!

Bonus Spending

For spending on bonus categories, HSBC Revolution Cardholders earn:

• 10 HSBC Points for every S$1 spent, whether in Singapore Dollars or FCY

This works out to 4 mpd, capped at S$1,000 per calendar month.  Any spend in excess of this cap earns 0.4 mpd, so be sure to track your expenditure carefully.

The HSBC Revolution adopts a whitelist policy, which means that transactions don’t earn bonuses unless they’re explicitly included in the T&Cs. This is more restrictive than a blacklist policy, where transactions earn bonuses unless they’re explicitly excluded in the T&Cs (e.g. Citi Rewards Card, DBS Woman’s World Card), but thankfully the whitelist is fairly broad. 

This list used to be longer, but on 1 January 2024, the HSBC Revolution Card dropped MCCs 4722 and 7011 from its whitelist.

• MCC 4722 is used by online and offline travel agencies, including Changi Recommends, Expedia, Kayak, Klook, Pelago, Traveloka and Trip.com
• MCC 7011 is used by AirBnB and many hotels

While it’s usually clear which merchants fall into MCC 4722, MCC 7011 is more ambiguous. 

Most major hotel chains have their own unique MCCs in the 3500-3999 range (refer to this document for more details), such as Hilton (MCC 3504), Hyatt (MCC 3640), Marriott (MCC 3509), and Wyndham (MCC 3722).

However, real-world data points suggest it’s still possible for individual properties under those chains to code as MCC 7011, as the screenshot below shows.

This means it will be a big risk to use the HSBC Revolution for any hotel transaction going forward, unless you’re willing to take the time to verify the MCC beforehand. 

On 1 May 2024, the HSBC Revolution also dropped MCCs 5411, 5499 and 5814 from its bonus whitelist.

• MCC 5411 is used by supermarkets such as Cold Storage, NTUC FairPrice and Sheng Siong
• MCC 5499 is used by convenience stores like 7-Eleven and Cheers, as well as merchants which skirt the definitions of dining, like Hockhua Tonic, iHerb and Nespresso
• MCC 5814 is used by fast food outlets like Burger King, KFC, McDonald’s, Subway and Starbucks

But the problems go beyond just the obvious. MCC 5499/5814 are used by food delivery services such as Deliveroo, Food Panda and GrabFood (these can sometimes code as MCC 5812).

This makes using the HSBC Revolution a bit more troublesome, as you’ll either have to gamble on the MCC, or take additional steps to verify it before making a purchase.

A detailed guide to checking MCCs can be found in the following article. 

How to check Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) before making a purchase

One potential workaround for the 4722/7011 restriction is to pay with a BNPL service like Atome, where accepted (e.g. Agoda). This codes as MCC 5999, which is still on the HSBC Revolution’s whitelist.

When are HSBC Points credited? 

The base 1X HSBC Points are credited when the transaction posts, usually within 1-3 working days.

The bonus 9X HSBC Points will be credited by the last day of the following calendar month, and will be reflected in the cardholder’s statement no later than the last day of the second calendar month.

For example, if you make an eligible transaction in April, your bonus points will be credited by the end of May, and appear in your statement for June.

How are HSBC points calculated?

Here’s how you can work out the HSBC Points earned on your HSBC Revolution.

While the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa (the HSBC Revolution’s closest competitor) awards points in blocks of S$5, the Revolution awards points in blocks of S$1. This is a key advantage, because it means you lose fewer points to rounding. Consider the following illustration:

	HSBC Revolution	UOB Pref. Plat Visa
S$5	20 miles	20 miles
S$9.99	39.6 miles	20 miles
S$15	60 miles	60 miles
S$19.99	79.6 miles	60 miles
S$25	100 miles	100 miles
S$29.99	119.6 miles	100 miles

If you’re an Excel geek, here’s the formulas you need to calculate your points: 

For the full list of formulas that banks use to calculate credit card points, do refer to these articles:

• General Spending Cards
• Specialised Spending Cards

What transactions aren’t eligible for HSBC Points?

The following transactions are not eligible for HSBC Points.

Let me address some FAQs which invariably come up:

• Foreign exchange transactions does not refer to foreign currency transactions. Foreign exchange refers to trading foreign currencies on platforms like Forex.com
• The HSBC Tax Payment Facility was terminated in January 2023, but HSBC has never bothered to update its T&Cs so the clause remains there
• HSBC has a blanket exclusion on bill payment services like CardUp, ipaymy and RentHero
• While PayPal is on the exclusion list, this refer to peer-to-peer money transfers between personal PayPal accounts. Payments to business PayPal accounts, the sort which e-commerce merchants will use, will still earn rewards

Otherwise, the list of exclusions here is fairly standard: charitable donations, education, government services GrabPay top-ups, insurance, professional services providers, and utilities.

What do I need to know about HSBC Points?

Expiry

All HSBC Points expire at the end of a 37-month period which commences from the month subsequent to the month in which the points were earned.

For example:

This means that the validity is technically 37-38 months, depending on when the points were earned.

Pooling

HSBC Points do not pool across cards. If you have 10,000 HSBC Points on the HSBC Revolution, and 15,000 HSBC Points on the HSBC Visa Infinite, for example, you won’t be able to combine the two when redeeming (however, you won’t need to pay multiple conversion fees; see next section).

This also means that HSBC Revolution Cardholders will not be able to tap the additional transfer partners that HSBC TravelOne Cardholders enjoy.

Since points do not pool, you will have to transfer all your HSBC Points before cancelling the HSBC Revolution, or else forfeit them. 

Partners and Transfer Fee

HSBC Points can be transferred to frequent flyer programmes at a 5:2 ratio, with a minimum transfer block of 25,000 HSBC points.

Frequent Flyer Programme	Conversion Ratio (HSBC Points: Miles)
	25,000: 10,000
	25,000: 10,000

Instead of charging a fee per conversion, HSBC instead charges cardholders an annual S$43.60 Mileage Programme fee, which covers unlimited conversions for a 12-month period. Alternatively, you can pay 9,000 rewards points for a program fee waiver (not worth it, so don’t bother). 

Even though HSBC Points do not pool, you will only pay a single Mileage Programme fee regardless of how many HSBC credit cards you have. This covers transfers to both KrisFlyer and Asia Miles (i.e. there’s no need to register again for the 2nd frequent flyer program).

Transfer Time

HSBC points transfers are batched and processed on a weekly basis, which means your waiting time could be anywhere from 1-7 days.

Other perks

Free Entertainer subscription

All principal HSBC cardholders receive a complimentary copy of The Entertainer, which offers more than 1,000 1-for-1 offers for dining, entertainment and travel.  

Since the Revolution is not a “premium” card, you won’t get nearly as many offers as HSBC Visa Infinite & HSBC Premier cardholders. That said, you’ll still access to the standard Entertainer offers at more than 150 merchants in Singapore, as well as the same overseas and travel offers that higher tier cards have. 

An Entertainer membership usually retails at S$75. 

Complimentary travel insurance

HSBC Revolution Cardholders who charge their air tickets (or pay for taxes and fees on a redemption ticket) to their card will enjoy complimentary travel insurance underwritten by MSIG.

This includes up to S$300,000 coverage for death and total permanent disability, up to S$1,000,000 for emergency medical evacuation, and up to S$6,000 for travel inconvenience. 

However, there is no coverage for overseas medical expenses, which means you should not rely on this as your primary source of coverage.

FAQs can be found here. 

Terms and Conditions

• HSBC Revolution 10X Points Terms & Conditions
• HSBC Rewards Terms & Conditions

Summary Review: HSBC Revolution

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🦁 MileLion Verdict

☐ Take It ☑ Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It

2024 has been rough for the HSBC Revolution. No more 1% cashback with the EGA, no more bonuses for supermarkets, fast food, food delivery, hotels or travel agencies.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you should dump the card- it still has enough 4 mpd categories to help free up the more flexible caps on the DBS Woman’s World Card and Citi Rewards Card. But assuming you don’t regularly bust those caps, then there’s much less of a case to get this card than there was at the end of last year. 

So that’s my review of the HSBC Revolution. What do you think?