The HSBC Revolution card was a staple in any miles chaser’s wallet less than a year ago.
Between the wide range of transactions that earn 4 miles per dollar (mpd), no annual fee, Entertainer with HSBC, and bonus cashback from the Everyday Global Account (EGA), it was one of the best miles cards.
But it has since been thoroughly butchered by HSBC, being hit by multiple rounds of nerfs since the start of 2024 – and they’re still not done.
As of 15 July 2024, the HSBC Revolution card has been slapped with yet another nerf – a huge one.
Let’s take a look at how bad the nerfs have been, what the card has come to be, and explore possible alternatives for the HSBC Revolution card.
Previous Nerfs
Round 1: Travel Agencies
From 1 Jan 2024, the HSBC Revolution card no longer earned 4 mpd for transactions made with travel agencies.
The majorly affected merchants include Klook, Trip.com, Agoda, Expedia, etc.
This was quite sad because the HSBC Revolution was among the few 4 mpd cards for travel-related transactions.
On the bright side, travel agencies aren’t a category that the average user spends on frequently, so the impact was mitigated in some way.
Also, it’s still possible to earn 4 mpd in the Travel category by booking directly with airlines or hotels instead of going through a travel agency.
Round 2.1: Groceries, Fast Food, & Food Deliveries
From 1 May 2024, several other categories were removed from HSBC Revolution’s 4 mpd list.
This includes groceries, fast food, and food delivery transactions.
This is quite a huge blow to HSBC Revolution because these are categories that people spend on daily.
HSBC Revolution was a safe choice to use when paying at small bakeries and cafes and any supermarket, but that’s no longer the case.
While the removal of these categories hurt, the HSBC Revolution was still good enough to keep.
Round 2.2: 1% Cashback From EGA Rewards Program
This nerf wasn’t applied directly to the HSBC Revolution card, but rather to an HSBC rewards program that was tied to it.
For those who didn’t know, the HSBC Everyday Global Account (EGA) has a rewards program called the Everyday+ Rewards Program.
This awarded 1% cashback for transactions made with HSBC credit cards like HSBC Revolution – a neat bonus on top of the 4 mpd that it normally earns for bonus categories.
However, as of 1 May 2024, the Everyday+ Rewards Program no longer awards cashback for transactions made with HSBC credit cards, which is an indirect nerf to the HSBC Revolution card.
The same rewards program awards 1% cashback for GIRO payments made for bills.
This includes credit card bills from non-HSBC credit cards, which means that you can earn this 1% cashback with any non-HSBC credit card as long as you make the bill payment via GIRO from the HSBC EGA.
So, technically this wasn’t a nerf to the HSBC Revolution card, but it was.
Latest & Upcoming Nerfs
If you thought the nerfs have been bad so far, you’re in for a ride.
Round 3: Contactless Payment
Previously, the HSBC Revolution could earn 4 mpd on eligible categories for any of the following payment methods:
- Physical contactless payment (with the physical card)
- Mobile contactless payment (Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.)
- Online payment
- In-app mobile payment (Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.)
As of 15 Jul 2024, it no longer earns 4 mpd for contactless payments.
This means that the HSBC Revolution is now unusable for the majority of offline transactions, and will only be good for some online transactions.
This is a huge nerf because its overall utility is severely degraded.
Going shopping at your favourite mall? Can’t use it.
Dining out with friends? Can’t use it.
Enjoying a few drinks during happy hour? Can’t use it.
You get the idea.
There are some workarounds you can use and I’ll cover them in my next post, but they don’t apply to the majority of cases regardless.
The HSBC Revolution card is now effectively online-only, and it doesn’t stack up well against other cards in this space.
Round 4: Travel
Not to be confused with the 1st round of nerfs for travel agencies, this nerf omits Travel as a bonus category entirely.
From 1 Jan 2025, the HSBC Revolution card will no longer earn 4 mpd for transactions made with airlines, hotels, cruises, car rentals, etc.
Just to be clear, the categories listed above are still eligible for 4 mpd in 2024, as long as they are made online and direct with the companies (ie not via travel agencies).
While this is certainly bad, at this point, it’s just pouring salt on the wound.
Remaining Bonus Categories
So, with all the nerfs that the HSBC Revolution card has been hit with, what is it still good for?
Currently, it still earns 4 mpd for the following categories:
- Shopping
- Dining
- Transport (PHV, excluding SimplyGo)
- Membership clubs (gyms)
- Travel (until 31 Dec 2024 only, direct with airlines/hotels/car rentals/cruises)
Remember that only online payments or in-app mobile payments will be eligible to earn 4 mpd, and the Travel category will be omitted entirely from 1 Jan 2025.
You can still use the HSBC Revolution card for online shopping at sites like Shopee, Lazada, Amazon, Zalora, Uniqlo, etc.
This would probably be the main way you use it from now on, assuming you keep the card.
It will be quite hard to use it for Dining, unless the place you’re eating at processes payments online via an online ordering system or allows online payment methods like ShopBack Pay, FavePay, or Kris+.
You can still use the HSBC Revolution card for Grab/Gojek/Tada/Zig rides.
You can also continue using it for your gym membership payment, as long as you can make the payment online.
Like Citi Rewards/DBS Woman’s World, But Worse
The aftermath of all these nerfs is that the HSBC Revolution card is now a worse version of the Citi Rewards/DBS Woman’s World cards.
Both of these other cards also earn 4 mpd on online transactions but are not limited to the few bonus categories that HSBC Revolution has.
Also, paying your credit card bill for both of these cards via GIRO from the HSBC EGA will earn you 1% cashback, which you can’t get with the HSBC Revolution card.
What Alternatives Are There?
If you’ve been using HSBC Revolution as your primary card, you’ll probably need an alternative given how unusable the card is now for daily use.
Luckily, there are 2 great alternatives available.
1: UOB Preferred Platinum Visa (PPV)
The UOB PPV card earns 4 mpd on almost any offline transaction when you pay via mobile contactless payment such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.
Note that this refers to tapping your mobile device on the payment terminal; in-app or online payments made via Apple Pay/Google Pay do not count as mobile contactless payment.
It also earns 4 mpd for online spending on Shopping, Food, and Entertainment.
For both offline and online payments, you won’t earn 4 mpd on UOB$ merchants – you will earn UOB$ (cash rebates) instead of miles.
Prominent merchants include Cold Storage, Giant, Guardian, Cathay Cineplexes, the BreadTalk group, Crystal Jade group, and Starbucks.
You can see the full list of merchants on the UOB website.
The UOB PPV card will let you earn 4 mpd on most of your daily spending, so it should make for a good replacement for the HSBC Revolution.
Check out my review on the UOB PPV card here!
2: Citi Rewards + amaze
The Citi Rewards card earns 4 mpd on offline Shopping transactions and almost any online transaction except Travel.
But by linking the Citi Rewards card to the amaze card, we can easily convert offline transactions to online transactions, making it possible to earn 4 mpd on almost any transaction.
This makes it another strong contender as a replacement for the HSBC Revolution card.
For more details about the amaze card, you can check out this guide.
Check out my review of the Citi Rewards card here!
Keep Or Cancel?
With all the hits that the HSBC Revolution card has taken and will take in the coming months, its future looks grim.
However, deciding whether to hold on to it or to cancel it might not be as straightforward of a decision as you expected.
There are still ways to milk value from this card, and personally, I have a good reason to keep it around for at least a couple more months.
But I don’t think anyone would be surprised to find out that people have ditched the card to reset their new-to-bank status for HSBC credit cards.
I’ll share how you can continue getting value from the HSBC Revolution card in spite of these nerfs in my next post.
And don’t worry, you won’t have to wait 2 months this time… probably.
To summarise,
The HSBC Revolution card has been continually nerfed in 2024, and it’s not stopping anytime soon.
The current state of the card renders it an inadequate card for daily use by most people and there are far better options available like the UOB PPV and Citi Rewards cards.