Review: HSBC Revolution Card

Even by the crazy standards of the miles game, the resurrection of the HSBC Revolution Card has been nothing short of extraordinary.

It wasn’t so long ago that this card looked dead and buried. Bonuses for airlines, car rentals, cruise liners, hotels, travel agencies, supermarkets, food delivery and fast food were removed. Bonuses for offline spending were cut. Conversions to KrisFlyer miles were devalued, and complimentary travel insurance was axed.

But then in July 2025, the HSBC Revolution launched Revo Up, a limited-time campaign which reinstated bonuses for travel-related and contactless spending, while boosting the bonus cap by 50% to S$1,500 per month. This promotion, originally set to run until 31 October 2025, was later extended twice to 31 March 2026.

Then on 1 April 2026, bonuses for travel and contactless spend were permanently reinstated, and the earn rate was buffed to as high as 8 mpd for those willing to deposit S$50,000 in an Everyday Global Account (EGA).

We can have a spirited debate about whether the additional miles are worth the deposit. However, what’s unquestionable is that the HSBC Revolution is back — and how!

HSBC Revolution Card
🦁 MileLion Verdict
☑ Take It ☐ Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It
With bonuses for travel and contactless payments restored, and up to 8 mpd on many everyday categories, the HSBC Revolution is a force to be reckoned with once again.
👍 The good	👎 The bad
Bonuses for travel and contactless payments permanently restored Up to 8 mpd on dining, shopping, transport, travel and member clubs No annual fee 20 airline and hotel transfer partners Instant conversions with no admin fees Free copy of The Entertainer	Omission of MCC 5814 (Fast Food) and 4722 (Travel Agencies) will catch some people out Inferior conversion ratio to KrisFlyer miles S$50,000 EGA deposit required for 8 mpd will incur some opportunity cost S$65,000 minimum income requirement for those without S$50,000 TRB
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. (with S$50K TRB) S$65,000 p.a. (otherwise)	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 -8 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?

Back in October 2025, HSBC made a major change to the minimum income requirements for its entire suite of cards.

The HSBC Revolution now has a minimum income requirement of:

• S$30,000 a year, for customers with a minimum Total Relationship Balance (TRB) of S$50,000
• S$65,000 a year, for everyone else

The S$50,000 does not necessarily have to be in a fixed deposit or savings account; you can use it to invest in equities, money market securities, insurance or whatever other products HSBC has to offer.

Still, that’s quite a hurdle for fresh graduates who don’t already have a pre-existing banking relationship with HSBC, and from what I understand the bank is enforcing the requirement quite strictly.

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?

Bonus spending

The HSBC Revolution splits customers into two categories: 

• Regular cardholders
• Enhanced cardholders (defined as those who maintain ≥S$50,000 ADB for a given month in a HSBC Everyday Global Account in SGD)

	Regular	Enhanced
Dining	4 mpd Online Contactless	8 mpd Online Contactless
Shopping	4 mpd Online Contactless	8 mpd Online Contactless
Transport & Member Clubs	4 mpd Online Contactless	8 mpd Online Contactless
Travel	4 mpd Online Contactless	8 mpd Online Contactless
Bonus Cap	S$1,000 per c. month	S$1,200 per c. month

Regular cardholders earn 10X HSBC points per S$1 (4 mpd) on bonus categories, 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 capped at 9,000 points per calendar month, equivalent to S$1,000 of spending. 

Enhanced cardholders earn 20X HSBC points per S$1 (8 mpd) on bonus categories, split into:

• A base reward of 1x HSBC points per S$1 (0.4 mpd)
• A bonus reward of 19x HSBC points per S$1 (7.6 mpd)

The bonus reward is capped at 22,800 points per calendar month, equivalent to S$1,200 of spending.

Do note that bonuses will only be awarded for online transactions, or in-person contactless payment, defined as:

• Visa payWave (i.e. tapping the physical card)
• Apple Pay
• Google Pay
• Samsung Pay

Payments made by swiping the magnetic stripe and/or using the chip will not be eligible for bonuses.

Bonus categories

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

The good news is that the whitelist is fairly broad, and includes dining, shopping, transport, membership clubs, and travel.

Dining

Dining includes caterers, bakeries, restaurants 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. 5814 can also pop up in unexpected places 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 Shopping).

Dining 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. 

Shopping

Shopping covers a wide range of MCCs, but the four crucial ones here are 5311, 5947, 5965 and 5999.

HeyMax gift card purchases code as MCC 5311 (Department Stores), and include a wide range of online and brick-and-mortar merchants such as Amazon, Best Denki, Courts, IKEA, NTUC FairPrice and Pelago.

Get 200 Max Miles when you sign up for a HeyMax account and complete one transaction
Sign up here
7-Eleven % Arabica Airalo Amazon Best Denki Courts Foodpanda Giant Golden Village Grab IKEA Imperial Treasure Klook Lazada	Natureland NTUC FairPrice Pelago Pupsik Ryde Shein Shell Sheng Siong Sephora TADA TANGS TungLok ZALORA Zig

Wog gift card purchases code as MCC 5947 (Gift Card, Novelty and Souvenir Shops), and cover additional merchants plus eCapitaVouchers- which in turn open the door to bonuses at hundreds of shops across the CapitaMalls portfolio.

Amazon Best Denki Caltex Challenger Cold Storage Courts eCapitaVoucher Giant GrabGifts Guardian IKEA	iStudio Klook Lazada Muji NTUC FairPrice Shell Shopee TADA TANGS Trip.com Watsons

FRx gift card purchases code as MCC 5965 (Direct Marketing- Combination Catalog and Retail Merchant), and can be spent across the entire Frasers Experience portfolio.

Causeway Point Century Square Eastpoint Hougang Mall Northpoint City	Tampines 1 The Centrepoint Tiong Bahru Plaza Valley Point Waterway Point White Sands

Atome transactions code as MCC 5999 (Misc. and Specialty Retail Stores), and partners include Agoda, Cathay Pacific, EU Holidays, KKday and Trip.com, among others.

What’s the best card to use for Atome?

Basically, even if a merchant’s MCC is not on the HSBC Revolution’s whitelist, it may still be possible to turn it into a 4 or 8 mpd opportunity through one of these platforms.

Transport & Membership Clubs

The transport category includes Gojek, Grab, TADA and Ryde, as well as in-taxi payments where cards are accepted. However, it does not include MCC 4111 (Local and Suburban Commuter Passenger Transport), which is used by SimplyGo, or MCC 5541 (Petrol Stations).

Membership clubs include Anytime Fitness, Fitness First, BFT and most other gyms.

Travel

The travel category includes airline, car rental, hotels and cruise lines.

However, MCC 7512 (Auto Rentals- Not Elsewhere Classified) is not included, which is used by smaller car rental agencies like Burswood, Centauro or Omega Car Rentals. 

Also note that MCC 4722 (Travel Agencies) is not included, so online travel agencies like Airbnb, Expedia, Hotels.com, Pelago, Klook, KKday and Trip.com will not be eligible for bonuses.

Are the extra miles worth the deposit?

It should be obvious that the HSBC Revolution’s revised reward structure is intended to nudge people towards the EGA.

The incremental reward for an enhanced cardholder is 13,800 HSBC points per month (22,800 – 9,000). But those extra points aren’t free, because of the requirement to deposit at least S$50,000 in an EGA.

Now, it’s tricky to make direct comparisons between the HSBC EGA and other high-yield savings accounts because the EGA rewards incremental balances, rather than total balances.

HSBC EGA promotions change every month, but here’s an illustration of how they’re structured.

On top of this promotion, EGA customers can earn an extra 1% p.a. bonus interest on incremental ADB through the Everyday+ Rewards programme. To qualify, they must satisfy both conditions below:

• Deposit fresh funds via salary crediting or inward transfers from a non-HSBC account
  • Personal banking: S$2,000 minimum
  • HSBC Premier: S$5,000 minimum
• Make at least five eligible transactions with an Everyday Global Debit Card or any HSBC credit card

If your brain turned to mush reading all that, I don’t blame you. Mine did too, and I’ve not even gotten into the tricks that some customers use, like emptying their account on alternate months to maximise the returns.

All this to say: for this to make sense, the value of the incremental points + return on the EGA needs to be more than what you could have earned on the S$50,000 elsewhere. 

If we take Accor points as our frame of reference (5 HSBC points : 1 Accor point), then 13,800 points are worth roughly S$80 — though I could certainly see an argument being made for a higher valuation, depending on which programme you cash out to. As for the actual EGA return, and what you could have earned elsewhere, I’ll let you calculate that yourself!

It’s also worth remembering that this S$50,000:

• Will count towards the S$200,000 minimum TRB required to maintain HSBC Premier status, which is useful if you’ve decided to get the HSBC Premier Card
• Will satisfy the S$50,000 minimum TRB to qualify for this card with a minimum income of S$30,000 (otherwise, you need to earn at least S$65,000)

What is the FCY transaction fee?

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

With a 4/8 mpd earn rate and a 3.25% FCY fee, using the HSBC Revolution Card overseas represents buying miles at 0.81/0.40 cents each.

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 9/19X HSBC points will be credited as a lump sum in the 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 Visa. Consider the following illustration:

	HSBC Revolution 4 mpd	UOB Pref. Visa 4 mpd
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 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 are 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 the purpose of illustration:

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 4/8 mpd rates we’ve been referring to only apply if you pick an airline 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 3.33/6.66 mpd, and if you pick JAL Mileage Bank (50,000 pts = 10,000 miles), it’s 2/4 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.

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.

Complimentary travel insurance

Principal and supplementary HSBC Revolution Cardholders receive complimentary travel insurance coverage when they:

• Purchase air tickets with their credit card, or
• Redeem air tickets with their miles, and use their credit card to cover the taxes and surcharges

Coverage includes: 

• Emergency medical evacuation and repatriation: S$1M
• Accidental death or total and permanent disablement: S$500,000
• Trip cancellation: S$2,000
• Travel delay: S$500
• Luggage loss: S$500
• Luggage delay: S$200

It’s decent basic coverage, though you’ll definitely want to supplement it with something else to cover overseas medical expenses and personal liability.

Terms and Conditions

• HSBC Revolution Terms & Conditions
• HSBC Rewards Terms & Conditions

Summary Review: HSBC Revolution

Apply

🦁 MileLion Verdict

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

The HSBC Revolution is back, and there’s a lot to like about it.

No annual fee, up to 8 mpd on dining, shopping, transport, membership clubs and travel, 20 transfer partners with no conversion fees, and a free copy of The Entertainer are all compelling reasons to get this card.

Of course, that does assume that you’re willing to deposit S$50,000 in an EGA, and do the kind of finessing necessary to get a decent return on those funds. It also assumes you’re not dead set on earning KrisFlyer miles, for which the conversion ratio is comparatively inferior (though if you meet the EGA requirement, 6.66 mpd still isn’t bad!).

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