While some credit cards publish income requirements as high as S$500,000 p.a., it’s worth remembering that any threshold above the MAS-mandated S$30,000 p.a. is essentially arbitrary.
Income requirements can affect the credit limit granted (anyone earning less than S$120,000 p.a. is capped at 4X their monthly income), but legally speaking, there’s nothing stopping DBS from approving you for an Insignia Card if you earn S$30,000 p.a. — they just don’t want to!
So in practice, income requirements are more about customer segmentation, and in recent years, the trend has been for banks to migrate any card with an income requirement of less than S$120,000 down to the S$30,000 level. This has happened to the Citi PremierMiles, DBS Altitude and UOB PRVI Miles Card, and more recently, the UOB Visa Signature.
With that background in mind, HSBC is making a very unusual move by more than doubling the income requirements for all its credit cards with effect from 1 October 2025— unless you maintain a total relationship balance (TRB) of at least S$50,000.
HSBC raising minimum income for credit cards
From 1 October 2025, HSBC will raise the minimum income requirements for its entire suite of cards, namely:
- HSBC Advance Card
- HSBC Live+ Card
- HSBC Premier Mastercard
- HSBC Revolution Card
- HSBC TravelOne Card
The changes are summarised in the table below.
| Till 30 Sep 2025 | From 1 Oct 2025 | |
| Singaporeans & PRs (Salaried) |
S$30,000 | S$30,000 TRB ≥S$50K S$65,000 TRB <S$50K |
| Singaporeans & PRs (Self-employed or Commission-based) |
S$40,000 | S$40,000 TRB ≥S$50K S$65,000 TRB <S$50K |
| Foreigners | S$60,000 | S$65,000 |
| 💳 Note: HSBC Premier Mastercard |
|
While the HSBC Premier Mastercard is also affected by this change, it will be a moot point for most because you need a minimum TRB of S$200,000 to open a Premier relationship in the first place. This mainly affects the edge cases of customers who qualify for HSBC Premier in Singapore by virtue of their relationship with the bank elsewhere. |
Basically, if you’re a Singaporean or PR with a TRB of at least S$50,000, nothing changes. You will still be able to apply for these credit cards with a minimum income of S$30,000 p.a.
However, if you do not have a TRB of at least S$50,000, the minimum income requirement will increase by 117% to S$65,000 p.a.!
If you’re a foreigner, the minimum income requirement increases by 8% from S$60,000 to S$65,000 p.a. (the HSBC Revolution’s webpage lists this as S$60,000, but since all the other four cards reflect S$65,000 I’m going to assume that’s a typo).
To be clear, this only applies to new applications, and will not have any impact on existing HSBC cardholders. For example, if you’re currently a cardholder who earns S$40,000 p.a., HSBC is not going to terminate your card just because you didn’t meet the TRB (though I also wouldn’t be surprised if it suddenly becomes much harder to get an annual fee waiver…).
How is TRB defined?
Here’s how HSBC defines TRB:
TRB refers to the total value of your deposits, investments, and insurance with HSBC, calculated based on the average monthly balance over the last 3 months.
-HSBC
A detailed explanation of how the TRB works can be found here. This document was published for HSBC Premier customers, but the same logic should apply where credit card applications are concerned.
What about the fixed deposit route?
|
⚠️ Story update: HSBC has provided the following clarification Specific to secured credit cards, they will remain available from 1 October 2025. To apply for a secured credit card, customers must have a TRB of at least SGD50,000 which includes a minimum fixed deposit of SGD10,000 committed to the secured credit card. This means that you won’t be able to circumvent the TRB by going the secured credit card route. In fact, it basically means that the minimum requirement for a secured credit card has risen from S$10K to S$50K |
What’s particularly interesting to me is that HSBC has preserved this line on its website:
If you do not meet these income requirements, a minimum fixed deposit collateral of SGD10,000 will apply.
-HSBC
Whether this is an oversight or deliberate remains to be seen, but assuming it’s the latter, it’s almost as if the “real” TRB required is S$10,000, not S$50,000.
Granted, it’s not quite a like-to-like comparison. This S$10,000 must be kept in a fixed deposit, where you’re at the mercy of whatever rates HSBC offers. In contrast, the S$50,000 can be deployed across the full range of HSBC products, including equities or money market securities.
Still, if you really want a HSBC credit card, but aren’t willing to commit S$50,000 to the bank, then the fixed deposit route would be an alternative.
Why is HSBC doing this?
This is an unusual move, to put it mildly. Given the cutthroat competition for cardholders in Singapore, it’s rare to see a bank adding more hoops for applicants to jump through.
The fact that they’re doing so suggests that they believe their cards are compelling enough to serve as loss leaders, bringing in customers who can be cross-sold other products like insurance and investment.
But is that really true? While I can’t speak to the attractiveness of the HSBC Advance or HSBC Live+, the HSBC Revolution is undeniably attractive — at least until 28 February 2026 — thanks to the restoration of bonuses for travel-related and contactless spending, and an enhanced bonus cap of S$1,500 per month (the HSBC Premier Mastercard has also been enhanced, but it’s not really germane to the discussion as the TRB was always S$200K).
However, assuming I didn’t already have a HSBC Revolution, and didn’t meet the revised income requirement of S$65,000, would I be willing to park S$50,000 with HSBC just to qualify? I think the jury’s still out on that, especially since S$50,000 is no small sum for someone earning in that range.
The other unanswered question is how strictly HSBC will enforce these new income requirements, and they’ve muddied the waters a little by adding this caveat, which basically gives them broad discretion to consider factors other than minimum income and relationship balance when granting approval.
In addition to the minimum income and relationship balance requirements set out above, the Bank may, at its discretion, take into consideration the applicant’s overall financial standing, creditworthiness, employment and other relevant factors in assessing eligibility.
-HSBC
So we’ll need to wait till 1 October 2025 rolls around to see, but my guess is that they’re going to be strict about it at the onset. If card application volumes drop precipitously, however, I wouldn’t be surprised if they turn this into a paper requirement and start giving more weight to the “other factors” mentioned above.
Conclusion
From 1 October 2025, HSBC will be hiking the minimum income requirements for its credit cards from S$30,000 to S$65,000 p.a., except for applicants who also maintain a TRB of at least S$50,000 with the bank.
That’s a bold statement, if you think about it. HSBC is basically saying that they don’t want anyone who earns less than S$65,000 p.a. as a cardholder, unless they’re prepared to deposit at least S$50,000 with them. This will cut out a large number of potential customers, and I’m sure the other banks will be watching closely.
What do you make of HSBC’s increase in income requirements?
(H/T: Ryan, Suite Smile)
Well, HSBC has been cost cutting and nerfing (0.5% EGA), so it could be that too many transactors and not revolvers are on their cards so they are losing out?
Hence, they only want to attract people that, as you point out, could potentially be cross sold. It’s something like the flagship deposit account / CF min. Balance because the card itself can’t sustain as people get smarter and pay off balances in full every month. Which is actually a good thing to say about financial literacy as a whole I guess.
What if i already have a card? if i apply for 2nd card, does the income requirement apply?
if your TRB is >50k then income requirement is 30k. if TRB < 50k then the new income requirements apply.
Go find out and report back.
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