Got this by email a few days ago.
2025 HSBC Credit Card “Red Hot Rewards of Your Choice”
Thank you for participating in the current programme, which will end on 31 December 2024. A new one-year programme will continue to reward you with up to 6X RewardCash (equivalent to a 2.4% RewardCash rebate) among your preferred spending categories from 1 January to 31 December 2025, registration will open on 13 December 2024, remember to register again to enjoy the offers!
If you have any questions, please call our Credit Card Offers Hotline at 2748 8033 or refer to HSBC HK website > Borrowing > Get a New Credit Card > See all > Red Hot Deals for more details of the 'Red Hot Rewards of Your Choice' programme.
I don't think tax payment is eligible txn. This is their TnC translated
"Eligible retail transactions do not include (but are not limited to) automatic reloading of Octopus, transactions of purchasing and/or recharging stored-value cards (including transactions of reloading Octopus through e-wallet or any other means), autopay transactions, credit card cash-out, Installment plans, authorized transactions that cannot be executed immediately, credit card fees (including annual fees, interest/finance charges, overdue fees, over-credit limit fees, cash advance fees and other fees), spin-off transactions, fund investments, Casino transactions, purchase of cash coupons, various types of consumer deposits, payments, any money/electronic money transfers, value-added e-wallets, any transactions involving ongoing claims, unaccounted/cancelled/returned/forged transactions and all unauthorized transactions Authorized transactions"
Hello,
What would be the best card right now for Octopus AAVS? And a free (ie. no annual fee) Visa/MC backup for Amex. My current setup is basic:
* AMEX Explorer - for everywhere that takes AMEX
* BoCHK "Chill" Card for everywhere else
* HSBC Visa Gold Card for the pub
I wasn't too aware of RHRYC until now, I don't do much dining, but I think the pub counts, so probably missed out on the 5x buff over there.
Wondering if there's any card with good AAVS benefits but no annual fee, since I probably will stick to my AMEX for most stuff.
The AMEX is pretty worth it to me, for the 8x lounge access and the points. It has the equivalent of HK$6/AM , or HK$3.6/AM for select merchants, which is actually a decent overlap for where I actually use it (Amazon, Foodpanda, Trip.com, Direct Airlines).
For the flights I would typically redeem, this works out to the equivalent of 4%, 6.66% cashback respectively, so I think I will stick with this as my primary.
But wondering if there is a better option for the MC / Visa backup, which doesn't see that much action anyway, with basically ~HK$500/mo on the AAVS.
Doing some basic research, it seems like Visa Gold w/ RHRYC + AM in my case makes it ~5.7% cashback equivalent, which means for IRL dining it may be better than Amex. Am I correct to assume RHRYC for dining would apply to most restaurants by default?
The BoCHK "Chill" Card is 10% cashback by default in Uniqlo, IKEA and McDonalds, so will probably micro-manage that with those shops...
Actually looking a bit more into HSBC Red, for generic online txns it works out better than Amex Explorer, if considering "effective cashback" as value of the Asia Miles.
I was looking into these from earlier mentions in the thread, unfortunately the annual fee just makes them not worth it in my case. As an example:
* SCB Simply Case: HK$2000/yr for 1.5% -> Need to spend ~HK$133k to cover the fee
* Citi Cashbank: HK$1800/yr for 1% -> Need to spend ~HK$180k to cover the fee
I was wondering if there might be a "free card" with good value, but of course no such thing as a free lunch :smile:
I think I'll just go with HSBC's 0.4%, with my Octopus usage it probably only equals one pint per year, but still better than nothing (aka ATM cash recharge)!