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Should I keep my US credit card as my main card?

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  1. #11

    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    16

    I also have the csr and here's my strategy

    Use this card as a supplement card and spend on large dining, travel, and bi nights out in lkf. You'll get the 4.5% return (for travel) and have almost 0 fx costs. I also have USD savings and income so this pays the bills. However a tip for you if you have premier and global transfer to another hsbc location, the hkd to USD rates are quite good, like 15 pips off xe.com

    For everything day to day, use the SCB Asia miles or the ba avios card and connect it to your octopus card for aavs. This will help you collect for alot of places that accept cash or octopus only (mtr, restaurants like la rotisserie, etc).

    You may want to use the hsbc signature card to supplement spending in the lucrative categories such as groceries.

    Hope this helps


  2. #12

    Join Date
    May 2018
    Posts
    29

    Thanks! I think that's what I'll do - keep the CSR for at least another year and use it for all travel and dining that will take it, and use USD savings to pay it off. Then get the HSBC visa signature for groceries or overseas (or maybe 2 cards for both) and SCB Asia miles card for online and octopus. Does shopping on Taobao and Amazon US count as both online and overseas category?

    I won't have enough tied up at HSBC to qualify for premier, so I'll open up a Citi bank account in the US before I leave so I can use the free Global Transfer feature to convert new HKD income back to my US savings. @laguy888 I'm using Marcus by GS which is at 1.8% currently and was at 1.9% a month ago. I think Barclays also has a high yield savings account which is at 1.85% now if you don't want to use GS.


  3. #13

    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Location
    Mid-Levels
    Posts
    126

    Great post and looks like a lot of us pledging our loyalty to CSR. We have kept our card (I have my wife as authorized user as well). What we use CSR for:
    a) Travel bookings - we do some personal travels in the region. I switch between CSR and Cathay Amex (Asia miles).
    b) Priority Pass - Our effective fee of USD 225 is offset by the $$ we save in our airport visits. For two of us, a beer and a meal each would easily run us about USD 30 in any airport in the region.

    Use HSBC global transfer to send funds back to US for CC payments, other expenses and yes, 1.85% (now) online savings with Marcus.


  4. #14

    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Singapore
    Posts
    2,578
    Quote Originally Posted by mmocha:
    I would like some advice on whether to keep my US credit card as my main card after I move to HK.

    So currently I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card which gets me 3x points on dining and travel, and each point is redeemed at 1.5x on travel, so effectively I get 4.5% return for dining/travel spending when redeeming for travel. It comes with an effective $150 USD annual fee. Most of my spending is on dining and travel, and I like the flexibility of being able to redeem at 4.5% on ALL travel (any airline even budget, any hotel, can use points for partial trip if not enough). This card has no foreign transaction fees and the exchange rate is quite good. It also recognizes worldwide dining and travel for the 3x points bonus.

    It looks like most credit cards in HK offer Asia Miles or max 2% cash back. So nothing quite as attractive as 4.5%. It also seems the Asia Miles award sweet spots are mostly business class or long haul flights, and our vacation plans puts us mostly in Southeast Asia which is well serviced by the budget airlines.

    So I'm thinking it's better for me to keep using my Chase card and get 4.5% back, and keep paying the $150 USD annual fee, rather than switch to a HK card. I will still get a couple HK cards for non-dining/travel expenses like groceries where I won't earn 3x points on the Chase card. But the key thing is I will be getting paid in HKD not USD once I move, so I will have to continue to change HKD into USD and move money from a HK bank account to a US bank account to pay off the US credit card.

    I heard Citi has free Global Transfer so am planning on opening up a Citi bank account in the US before I leave. I also have a high yield savings account here that offers 1.8-1.9% interest, and again I can't find anything in HK that's quite as good. So I'm thinking maybe I should be converting HKD to USD and transferring to my US account even for savings.

    Am I missing anything? Does anyone else do this?
    I have a bunch of US issued cards as I travel back and forth every 4-8 weeks.
    the one I use the most in HK is Amex Platinum for air ticket purchases, Centurion Club access and Priority Pass.
    With all the perks and rebates, you are almost getting the card for nothing so its worth holding on to.
    All other HK and regional expenses go on my SCB AM & BA cards.

    I also have all the hotel cards (SPG, Hyatt, IHG, Hilton), AA Citi Cards, Alaska Card, CSR etc as I use them regularly in the US (manufactured spending) and they earn me 2-3 million miles a year. It all depends on what you hope to gain from them and if you are able to pay them off promptly in the US.
    Paxbritannia and medaman like this.

  5. #15

    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    NT/CUHK
    Posts
    910

    So, I'm not following the various rewards/miles/etc details. I will say this - I've been here a while, I have a US card but no HK credit card. I use it from time to time but not that often. As others have mentioned, there's usually a smarter/more convenient way to pay, esp since the card I use in ATMs can also work in supermarkets. There's just also a lot of times where it makes sense to pay cash. And since things are generally safe here I'm less wary of walking around with cash than I would be in the states.

    One side point worth noting - I have a united mileage plus branded visa card, but I don't use it to buy the various united airline tickets we get - it's turned out to be much cheaper (hundreds of dollars US) to buy them with my wife's HK card. the prices vary based on the home currency of the card. i'm sure they have some reason for that, but in my case it's just one more way of them saying they don't give a f*ck about someone like me, even though i rack up a ton of miles.


  6. #16

    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    The World
    Posts
    1,948

    You will not find a HK-issued card which is equal to or better than the Chase Sapphire Card. You should definitely keep using it.

    Transferwise does work in HK now too in terms of sending money home to pay off your CC each month.

    z754103 likes this.

  7. #17

    Join Date
    Sep 2018
    Posts
    7

    If you have enough USD in your account, would suggest you maintain your CSR with the no foreign transaction fees. Along with the perks the travel rewards are just too good to pass up compared to HK credit cards. Must be the volume of people getting them because I have yet to see any cards compare to US ones for perks.

    Especially good if you want/will be traveling in and around Asia for rail/uber/flights with the $300 annual statement credit. I think I did a break-even analysis and if you spend $2200 USD /year on travel/dining you already make back the net annual fee of $150 ($450 annual - $300 travel credit) on top of the Priority Pass stuff. Looks like your limiting factor is how much USD you have in your savings !

    shri likes this.

  8. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by bdw:

    fyi, HSBC Visa Signature , if you set it to overseas spending category, will give 5.6% cashback if you spend minimum HKD$3k on overseas transactions every 3 months. If you fail this, it gives 3.6% cash back.
    Hi, I have been looking for a card like this. Every 2 months I am likely to spend far more than that minimum in USD and keep getting charged 2% for the conversion with my current HSBC Visa Platinum card. Are you saying that they'd return 5.6% of this spend?

    I am a novice with this credit card stuff, my spend is done here online within Hong Kong but in USD to another country, does 'overseas' actually mean myself being overseas using the card in another country or does my scenario qualify?

    Thanks for any help.
    Last edited by benchesters; 11-02-2019 at 10:57 PM. Reason: Typo

  9. #19

    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Posts
    1,896

    Depends on the T&C of the card issuer but if it is charged by a foreign merchant in a foreign currency you’re usually safe. It’s the edge cases (local merchant charging USD or overseas
    Merchant charging HKD (iHerb, looking at you) where you get shafted)


  10. #20

    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Cramped island
    Posts
    5,585

    HSBC is quite a chore.. their rules for reward category has tonnes of lines.. go through them.
    i suspect online spending is not considered as 'overseas spending' as far as the 5.6% rebate is concerned. i.e. you only get the minimal rebate. I know most of the reward offer they have where you need to register and sign up for, online purchase is always left out of the computation of eligibility criteria