2025 - Credit Cards / Deals / Discounts / Cashbacks

[xhkge]

Note that this scheme does not apply to the Red card or the EveryMile card.

I'd totally missed this subtlety - thanks!

Since it appears in the Reward+ app, I'd set the Red card as my main card for GPAY and have been using it around town assuming the multiplier applied, and hadn't paid much attention. I'll switch GPAY over to my regular Premier Mastercard and should see a big difference

Just now I re-registered my preferences for 2025 and it confirmed the multipliers only applied to the regular Premier Mastercard.

[xhkge]

I use HSBC RED for it's 4% discount on online shopping.

If you don't mind, have you noticed how the 4% discount is applied to online purchases? Is it visible when you checkout, or applied before it appears on your statement, or does it all come back through reward points? I buy a lot on Amazon, but haven't noticed any applied discount...same with online services such as Spotify, Netflix etc. However, the "DCC FEE NON-HK MERCHANT" fee is being dutifully applied in all cases

[PLamHK]

It's not a "discount" it's a rebate which appears in the form of Reward Cash which you can then use to pay off some of your credit card bill or to buy other things. At the moment, for example, I use RC to buy $50 FoodPanda coupons for RC45, thereby effectively getting a further $5 off each FP order (in addition to the 4% new RC which I earn by using the Red card for the order).

Note also that Red Hot Rewards of Your Choice applies to all HSBC personal cards except the Red and EveryMile cards, so that includes Premier Mastercard, Gold Visa card, Platinum Visa Card, Visa Signature card. The Visa Signature card also comes with an extra 1.2% on the first $100K of annual spending in all RHRYC categories in addition to the further 2% on the chosed RHRYC category.

I'm surprised you use a Premier Mastercard much - I've had one for many years but very, very rarely use it. It earns 0.4% or 2.4% on your chose RHRYC category. There are much better options available.

[poiasd]

Taobao, iHerb, Aliexpress, HKTVmall, are these all classified as online shops for HSBC Red? What other shops do you guys use?

I think it depends on how you pay on Taobao - I don't think you can use Mastercard on it directly yeah? If you do it via Alipay, then it doesn't qualify as "Online Transactions", since it's a mobile wallet. (it's probably worse since Alipay charges 3% for foreign cards, and I think AlipayHK is 1.5%)

[periphery831]

I think it depends on how you pay on Taobao - I don't think you can use Mastercard on it directly yeah? If you do it via Alipay, then it doesn't qualify as "Online Transactions", since it's a mobile wallet. (it's probably worse since Alipay charges 3% for foreign cards, and I think AlipayHK is 1.5%)

Taobao/Alipay currently supports international credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard and JCB for payment.

[poiasd]

Cool! I've always had trouble using a CC directly on their website - but maybe it's because my account is already linked to Alipay from way back in 2018 (and somehow my BoC Mastercard is a "Bank Card" with low fees, whereas anything I add to Alipay now is a foreign card with high fees).

Btw, I've tried the BoC Taobao card last week, through AlipayHK, and indeed no handling fees and stuff. But AlipayHK's exchange rate is inflated a bit.

[poiasd]

Just got an E-Mail from AMEX regarding their Explorer Overseas and 5X offers:

Please note that the Explorer Overseas Spend and 5X Offer are only valid till December 31, 2024.

To enjoy the Offers in 2025, Eligible Cardmembers are required to enroll again with the American Express Explorer® Credit Card before spending.
The 2025 online enrollment will commence from 00:01 on January 1, 2025
(Hong Kong time).

Please stay tuned for the announcement at americanexpress.com, through direct mail or email soon. You may start earning extra bonus points after completing the online enrollment.

Not clear if the terms will be the same yet, hopefully it will be for FX at least.

[freeier]

Oh, sorry - yes, I missed that: Visa Infinite 4% reward is capped at HK$25,000 spend per month.

my latest bill from boc visa infinite cheers card actually came with an automatic waiver (without having to apply for it) for the annual fee.. total usage for the year was around 200k hkd (plus another 100k for tax and TVC purchase) and i got close to 10k hkd of cashback. Granted a fair bit are overseas spending which gave them some buffer (2%) to rebate me more. but it think overall a very good deal for the year. Hope they continue their offers into next year.

[poiasd]

Just got an E-Mail from AMEX regarding their Explorer Overseas and 5X offers
...
Not clear if the terms will be the same yet, hopefully it will be for FX at least.

So updated enrollment page is out: https://www.americanexpress.com/en-h...s-spend-offer/

It's actually better than last year, because now the online travel agencies / airline partners are also in this 10.75x reward category (previously they were 5x):




Main catch is limited to HK$10,000 per quarter, but still pretty decent (seems to be FX, travel are separate $10k, for total $20k). Make sure you enroll manually from the link above!

[PLamHK]

Are there any users of the HSBC Mastercard Debit Card here? It seems to me that every Premier (and up) should have one of these simply to use as their overseas ATM because it has zero transaction fees for any overseas ATMs (not just HSBC ones). It's also not bad as an overseas payment card because it has no transaction fee and 0.4% cash rebate. So it seems equivalent to a credit card offering 2.35% whilst also having the 1.95% fee - i.e. maybe not the best, but not bad.

My only concern is on the exchange rates used - on a credit card as I understand it the exchange rate is the Mastercard/Visa mid-point rate (and then the 1.95% charge), but on the debit card it is the "normal HSBC rate". Has anyone got data on what these "normal HSBC rates" are compared to the rate you get on a credit card?

The other thing you lose, of course, is credit card protection, but for many card-present transactions when overseas (e.g. in a restaurant) that's not important.

https://www.hsbc.com.hk/debit-cards/...rd-debit-card/