Review: HSBC Revolution Card

Do you believe in resurrections? If you have a HSBC Revolution Card, you very well might.

2024 was a brutal year for cardholders, no two ways about it. No more bonuses for airlines, car rental, cruise liners, hotels, travel agencies, supermarkets, food delivery or fast food. No more bonuses for any transactions made offline. And if that wasn’t bad enough, 2025 started with the devaluation of KrisFlyer miles conversions, and the removal of complimentary travel insurance.

But the faithful have been rewarded, because in July 2025, the HSBC Revolution announced its comeback in style. Bonuses were reinstated for travel-related and contactless spending, and the monthly bonus cap was raised by 50% from S$1,000 to S$1,500 per month. This enhancement, originally set to run till 31 October 2025, was then further extended to 28 February 2026. 

It’s not quite a return to the glory days, because certain former bonus categories like fast food, supermarkets and travel agencies have not been restored. That said, these enhancements – in particular the increase in bonus cap – come at a much-needed time. 

With rival cards cutting bonus caps, adding nitpicky sub-caps, or just throwing in the towel altogether, any extra 4 mpd capacity is a precious commodity. And if you don’t need the “m” in mpd to be KrisFlyer, then this could very well be the best miles card on the market right now.

HSBC Revolution Card
🦁 MileLion Verdict
☑ Take It ☐ Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It
With the reinstatement of bonuses for travel and contactless spending, plus an enhanced bonus cap, the HSBC Revolution is back.
👍 The good	👎 The bad
4 mpd on dining, shopping, transport and membership clubs, travel Monthly bonus cap boosted to S$1,500 Permanent annual fee waiver 20 airline and hotel transfer partners Instant conversions with no admin fees	Omission of MCC 5814 (Fast Food) and 4722 (Travel Agencies) will catch some people out Inferior conversion ratio to KrisFlyer miles
Full List of Credit Card Reviews

Overview: HSBC Revolution

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

Apply
Income Req.	S$30,000 p.a.	Points Validity	37 months
Annual Fee	None	Min. Transfer	25,000 HSBC points (10,000 miles)
Miles with Annual Fee	None	Transfer Partners	20
FCY Fee	3.25%	Transfer Fee	None
Local Earn	0.4 mpd	Points Pool?	Yes
FCY Earn	0.4 mpd	Lounge Access?	No
Special Earn	4 mpd on dining, shopping, transport & membership clubs, travel	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.

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. 

You’ll never again have to call up the bank for a fee waiver!

What welcome offers are available?

HSBC Revolution Card

Apply (HSBC)

Apply (SingSaver)

If you don’t have a HSBC Revolution Card yet, you might be eligible for a welcome offer either with HSBC or SingSaver.

Both offers require you to be a new-to-HSBC cardholder, defined as anyone who:

• Does not currently hold any existing principal HSBC credit card, and
• Has not cancelled a principal HSBC credit card in the past 12 months before application

You must also consent to receive marketing and promotional materials at the time of application, and do not revoke that consent until the gift is fulfilled.

If you’re an existing HSBC cardholder, you may be eligible for S$50 cashback with a minimum spend of S$500. This requires that:

• Your most recent principal HSBC credit card was issued more than 12 months ago, and
• You have not cancelled a principal HSBC credit card in the past 12 months before application

HSBC’s eligibility criteria is unique, and rather confusing. While most banks define an existing cardholder as “anyone who is not a new cardholder”, HSBC says that not only must you not have cancelled a principal HSBC credit card within the past 12 months, the principal HSBC credit card you currently hold must have been issued at least 12 months ago.

Therefore, when it comes to HSBC, it’s possible to be neither new nor existing, in which case there’s no welcome offer for you!

For the avoidance of doubt, you cannot stack the HSBC and SingSaver offers; you must pick one or the other.

How many miles do I earn?

Regular SGD/FCY Spending

The HSBC Revolution Card usually earns 1 HSBC point for every S$1 spent (0.4 mpd) in Singapore Dollars or foreign currency (FCY). 

All foreign currency transactions are subject to a 3.25% fee.

Bonus Spending

The HSBC Revolution Card earns 10X HSBC points per S$1 (4 mpd) on dining, shopping, travel, transportation and membership clubs, split into:

• A base reward of 1x HSBC points per S$1 (0.4 mpd)
• A bonus reward of 9x HSBC points per S$1 (3.6 mpd)

The bonus reward is usually capped at 9,000 points per calendar month, equivalent to S$1,000 of spending. However, from 1 July 2025 to 28 February 2026, the bonus cap has been increased to 13,500 bonus points per calendar month, equivalent to S$1,500 of spending.

Any spend in excess of the bonus cap will only earn the base reward of 1x HSBC point per S$1 (0.4 mpd).

The bonus reward is normally available for online transactions only. However, from 1 July 2025 to 28 February 2026, in-person contactless payments will also be eligible for the bonus.

Contactless payments refer to transactions made via Visa payWave (i.e. tapping the physical card), Apple Pay or Google Pay. Payments made by swiping the magnetic stripe and/or using the chip will not be eligible for bonuses.

Here’s a quick summary of how the HSBC Revolution normally works, and how it works during the special 1 July 2025 to 28 February 2026 period.

	Regular	1 Jul 25 to 28 Feb 26
Dining	4 mpd Online	4 mpd Online Contactless
Shopping	4 mpd Online	4 mpd Online Contactless
Transport & Member Clubs	4 mpd Online	4 mpd Online Contactless
Travel	N/A	4 mpd Online Contactless
Bonus Cap	S$1,000 per c. month	S$1,500 per c. month

As you can see, 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).

Blacklist vs whitelist cards: How I optimise miles between both

Dining

The HSBC Revolution earns 4 mpd for both online and in-person dining transactions at restaurants, bakeries and bars.

However it does not include MCC 5814 (Fast Food Restaurants), so this is the wrong card to use at Burger King, KFC, McDonald’s, Starbucks or Ya Kun. It might surprise you that even certain sit-down establishments like Shin Katsu, PS Cafe and Marche can code as MCC 5814, so if in doubt, always check the MCC!

Furthermore, food delivery platforms like GrabFood, Foodpanda and Deliveroo can switch between MCC 5812 or MCC 5814 with no apparent rhyme or reason. That makes the HSBC Revolution a risky card to use here, and my advice would be to purchase gift cards for these platforms as a workaround (refer to next section on Department Stores & Retail).

It also does not include MCC 5499 (Misc. Food Stores), which is used by Bee Cheng Hiang, 7-Eleven, Family Mart, Famous Amos, and iHerb, among others. 

Department Stores & Retail

The HSBC Revolution earns 4 mpd for both online and in-person transactions at department and retail stores.

There are two crucial MCCs here: 5311, and 5999.

MCC 5311 is used for department stores, but it also belongs to HeyMax, which sells vouchers for a wide range of online and brick-and-mortar merchants including Amazon, Best Denki, Courts, IKEA, NTUC FairPrice and Pelago.

Sign up here
Airalo Amazon Best Denki Courts Deliveroo Foodpanda Giant Grab IKEA Klook Lazada Muji	Natureland NTUC FairPrice Oddle Eats Pelago Pupsik Ryde Shein Shell Sheng Siong Sephora TADA TANGS ZALORA
All voucher purchases code as MCC 5311 (Department Stores)

These would normally code under a wide range of MCCs, but when purchased as vouchers through HeyMax, will universally code as MCC 5311. 

I hope you see where I’m going here. Maybe you want to order food delivery, but are worried that it codes as MCC 5814. No problem, buy a Deliveroo or GrabFood gift card. Maybe you want to book tours and attractions, but Klook and Pelago code as MCC 4722. No worries, buy their gift cards instead. Basically, every merchant selling gift cards on HeyMax can be turned into a 4 mpd opportunity for the HSBC Revolution.

To sweeten the deal further, HeyMax also awards Max Miles based on the value of your purchase, which can be transferred to more than two dozen airline and hotel partners at a 1:1 ratio with no conversion fees.

Max-imum Fun: The best sweet spots for Max Miles redemptions

MCC 5999 is used for Atome, which partners with Agoda, Cathay Pacific, EU Holidays, KKday and Trip.com, among others.

Again, Atome is a way of turning a diverse range of MCCs into 4 mpd opportunities with the HSBC Revolution Card, while optimising your bonus caps and double dipping on Atome+ points too.

What’s the best card to use for Atome?

Transport & Membership Clubs

The HSBC Revolution earns 4 mpd on MCC 4121, which includes Gojek, Grab, TADA and Ryde, as well as in-taxi payments where cards are accepted. However, it does not award 4 mpd for SimplyGo or petrol.

Cardholders can also earn 4 mpd on MCC 7997, which would cover Anytime Fitness, Fitness First, BFT and most other gyms.

Travel

The HSBC Revolution Card previously removed bonuses for travel-related expenditure on 1 January 2025.

But from 1 July 2025 to 28 February 2026, this bonus category has been restored temporarily, allowing cardholders to earn 4 mpd on airline, car rental, hotels and cruise line transactions.

Do note that MCC 4722 is not included, so online travel agencies like Airbnb, Expedia, Hotels.com, Pelago, Klook, KKday and Trip.com will not be eligible for the bonus.

Transaction date or posting date?

The bonus cap on the HSBC Revolution is enforced based on posting date, not transaction date. 

For example, if you made a transaction on 31 January 2025 and it posts on 2 February 2025, that amount will count towards February 2025’s bonus cap.

Therefore, you should exercise caution when spending towards the end of the calendar month, in case transactions “leak” into the following period.

Which cards track spending by transaction date vs posting date?

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 as a lump sum in following calendar month. While HSBC does not follow a fixed crediting date, historical data points suggest it typically falls between the 9th and 19th of the month.

How are HSBC points calculated?

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

This rounding policy gives the HSBC Revolution a slight advantage compared to some other specialised spending cards on the market, like the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa. 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

Of course, the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa has a much wider list of bonus categories than the HSBC Revolution, but assuming you were spending at a merchant that’s eligible for bonuses on both cards, then the HSBC Revolution would win.

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 highlight a few points in particular:

• 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 refers 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:

Pooling

HSBC points have been pooled ever since 1 May 2024, which means that if you have 10,000 HSBC points with the HSBC Revolution, and 15,000 HSBC points with the HSBC TravelOne Card, you can make a single redemption of 25,000 HSBC points.

However, do note that cancelling a HSBC card will lead to the forfeiture of points earned on that card, so you’ll need to convert them before cancelling. 

Partners and transfer fee

HSBC points can be transferred to 20 airline and hotel loyalty programmes at the following ratios. 

✈️ HSBC Airline Partners
Frequent Flyer Programme	Conversion Ratio (HSBC Points : Partner)
	50,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	30,000 : 10,000
	30,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000

🏨 HSBC Hotel Partners
Hotel Programme	Conversion Ratio (HSBC Points : Partner)
	30,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 5,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000

A minimum conversion block of 10,000 miles/points (5,000 points in the case of ALL) applies, but subsequent conversions can be as little as 2 miles/points. For example, you could opt to convert 25,100 HSBC points into 10,040 Asia Miles, or 183,750 HSBC points into 52,500 Aeroplan points. 

One important thing to highlight is that not all partners share the same transfer ratio, and the partner you choose affects the earn rate on your HSBC cards. 

The 4 mpd rates we’ve been referring to only apply if you pick a partner with a 25,000 pts = 10,000 miles ratio. If you want to use the HSBC Revolution to earn KrisFlyer miles (30,000 pts = 10,000 miles), your effective earn rate is 3.33 mpd at best, and if you pick JAL Mileage Bank (50,000 pts = 10,000 miles), it’s 2 mpd.

It’s beyond the scope of this review to discuss which frequent flyer programmes you should be transferring points to, but I do want to highlight that under no circumstances should you opt for Qatar Privilege Club.

Here’s why: the transfer ratio to Qatar Privilege Club is 35,000 HSBC points = 10,000 Avios. However, you can achieve a much better value by transferring 25,000 HSBC points to British Airways Executive Club for 10,000 Avios, then transferring those Avios to Qatar Privilege Club at a 1:1 ratio.

I’m also going to say that if you want to earn Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles, this is the wrong card for you. There are plenty of other specialised spending cards on the market which will earn you 4 mpd, so there’s no reason to resort to a 3.33 mpd rate.

Transfer time

All points transfers are completed instantly, with the exception of JAL Mileage Bank (10 working days) and Hainan Fortune Wings Club (5 working 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 have 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$85.

Terms and Conditions

• HSBC Revolution 10X Points Terms & Conditions
• HSBC Revo Up campaign (1 Jul 25 to 28 Feb 26)
• HSBC Rewards Terms & Conditions

Summary Review: HSBC Revolution

Apply

🦁 MileLion Verdict

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

For some people, the HSBC Revolution will be a “leave it” card for the simple reason that it has an inferior transfer ratio to KrisFlyer. Why bother with a finicky whitelist card, when the DBS Woman’s World Card, Citi Rewards and UOB Preferred Platinum Visa offer higher earn rates with less effort? 

But there’s a big world beyond KrisFlyer, and if you want to build balances with alternative programmes like EVA Air Infinity MileageLands, Flying Blue and British Airways Executive Club, then this card would be perfect.

In fact, with the limited-time enhancements, this is now the specialised spending card with the highest unified bonus cap in Singapore. Let that sink in. No other card on the market offers 4 mpd on more than S$1,500 of spending (except the UOB Lady’s Solitaire Metal Card, if you want to be pedantic), which either says a lot about how much the Revolution has improved, or how much the rest of the pack has declined.

Once you factor in the highly flexible points, with 20 transfer partners, instant conversions, small conversion blocks, and waived admin fees, I reckon this is one card you should give a second chance.

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