HSBC EGA ends 1% cashback for credit cards, adds GIRO restrictions

The HSBC Everyday Global Account (EGA) is one of the best-kept secrets out there, because it’s basically a free S$300 or S$500 each month for very little effort on your part. 

How it works is simple: make a minimum deposit to your EGA and five transactions on your HSBC cards, and enjoy an extra 1% cashback on your card spending and GIRO bill payments. Oh, and you can withdraw the deposited funds immediately and park them elsewhere if you wish.

This means that you could basically earn 4 mpd + 1% cashback with the HSBC Revolution, while enjoying a 1% rebate on your non-HSBC credit card bills. What’s not to love?

Unfortunately, there’s changes coming to the EGA from 2 May 2024, when only HSBC Everyday Global Debit Card spending will qualify for the extra 1% cashback. But it’s not nearly as bad as we first feared, because the exclusion of non-HSBC credit card bills for GIRO payments has not come to pass.

HSBC Everyday Global Account changes

	Till 1 May 2024	From 2 May 2024
Eligibility for 1% cashback	HSBC credit cards HSBC Everyday Global Debit Card GIRO bill payments	HSBC Everyday Global Debit Card GIRO bill payments
GIRO bill payment exclusions	Payments to HSBC credit cards	Payments to HSBC credit cards Payments to any financial institute and trading platforms relating to crypto-currencies, stock exchange and trades

As part of the HSBC Everyday+ Rewards Programme, EGA customers currently earn an additional 1% cashback on card spending and/or GIRO bill payments when they: 

• Deposit S$2,000 (Personal Banking) or S$5,000 (Premier/Jade) in fresh funds each month. (There is no holding requirement for these fresh funds; you can literally transfer them in today and out tomorrow)
• Make at least five transactions of any amount on a HSBC personal credit card or HSBC Everyday Global Debit Card

The 1% cashback period starts from the day after both criteria are met, and runs till the end of the following calendar month. For example, if you meet the criteria on 5 April, the period will run from 6 April to 31 May. That’s good reason to meet the criteria as early in the month as possible. 

The 1% cashback for card spending and GIRO bill payments is capped at:

• S$300 per month (Personal Banking)
• S$500 per month (Premier/Jade)

From 2 May 2024, two main changes are taking place:

• The 1% cashback for card spending will only apply to the HSBC Everyday Global Debit Card (though the five qualifying transactions can still be made on any HSBC personal credit card, in SGD)
• The 1% cashback for GIRO bill payments will not apply to financial institutions, securities brokerages or dealers

The restriction on card spending is obviously a big nerf, because it means the end of stacking 1% cashback with the HSBC Revolution or your preferred HSBC card. You must use the HSBC Everyday Global Debit Card from 2 May, which offers very little by way of benefits. 

However, there’s some good news here. It was previously thought that the restriction on GIRO bill payments would also exclude non-HSBC credit cards (HSBC credit card payments were excluded all along)- understandable because of the “financial institutions” wording.

But that’s not the case. 

I’ve confirmed with a HSBC spokesperson that the new exclusion does not cover GIRO bill payments to non-HSBC credit card bills. 

 The new exclusion does not include GIRO bill payments to non-HSBC credit card bills. This means customers who continue to qualify for the HSBC Everyday+ Rewards Programme will still earn 1% cashback when they pay their non-HSBC credit card bills via GIRO.

The new exclusion criteria specifically exclude transactions from financial institutes and platforms related to crypto-currencies, stock exchanges, trades and any form of wallet top-ups.

-HSBC spokesperson

And that’s certainly a relief. It basically means that the loss of 1% cashback on HSBC credit cards is the main headline here; you can still make five transactions on your HSBC credit card (in SGD) early in the month, then enjoy the 1% cashback on your GIRO payments like always. 

Remember, there’s no minimum spend to worry about here; all that matters is these five transactions don’t run afoul of HSBC’s general exclusions list, e.g. insurance, education, utilities. You could go to your neighbourhood NTUC, head for the self-checkout stations and buy five plastic bags in five separate transactions, if you were so inclined.

Alternatively, as some in the comments have pointed out, you can also skip the card spending altogether and make 5x fund transfers from your EGA to a non-HSBC account.

Terms & Conditions

You can find the current and revised T&Cs below, and I’ve put the two side by side in Draftable for easy comparison.

• Current T&Cs (valid till 1 May 2024)
• Revised T&Cs (valid from 2 May 2024)

Conclusion

From 2 May 2024, HSBC EGA customers will no longer be able to earn 1% cashback on any HSBC credit or debit card spend except for the HSBC Everyday Global Debit Card. 

The silver lining here is that the new GIRO bill payment exclusions do not cover other bank credit cards, as originally feared.

Look, no one likes nerfs, but you have to give HSBC credit for keeping this programme alive as long as they did. It’s basically free money for customers who are willing to jump through a couple of admin hoops each month. 

I personally never got around to setting up my EGA because of sheer laziness (think of how many GIRO forms I’ll need to fill), but if you’ve already done that paperwork then good on you.