HSBC Cards?

[TyRacing]

Anyone have the HSBC Cash Rewards MC? they any good? Thanks

[FinStar]

I have it, but you'll have to define what is "good" from your perspective.  They are somewhat conservative with CLs unless you have an excellent credit profile.  Some highlights from their current promotion:

• $150 Cash Back after spending $500 or more in new card purchases during the first 3 months from Account opening
• 0% Introductory APR on Balance Transfers for the first 15 months from Account opening. After that, a competitive variable APR of 14.74%, 18.74% or 24.74% will apply
• 1.5% Unlimited Cash Back on all purchases
• 10% Anniversary Bonus on all Cash Rewards earned each year
• No Annual Fee
• No Foreign Transaction Fees

[TyRacing]

need excellent credit like the Cap 1 QS?

cash back easy to redeem? statement credit, gift cards?

cash back worth 1 to 1? more or less? how does 10% Anniversary Bonus work?

HSBC site easy to use? can pay statement with other bank accounts?

free FICO 8 Credit Score? Equifax?

how does it compare with the Cap 1 QS card overall? 

what are the pros and cons of this card and of HSBC?

[patoot10]

need excellent credit like the Cap 1 QS? not really unless you have deragatories

cash back easy to redeem? statement credit, gift cards?  yes

cash back worth 1 to 1? more or less? how does 10% Anniversary Bonus work? yes 1 cent per point, after 365 days of owning the account they will match 10% of your earned cashback which includes $15 just from the signup

HSBC site easy to use? can pay statement with other bank accounts? No there website is outdated but you can pay with other banks

free FICO 8 Credit Score? Equifax? free Equifax score but the model is weird NG2 and pretty much no one uses it

how does it compare with the Cap 1 QS card overall?  capital one is not a good lender and HSBC is definetly better and I have both

what are the pros and cons of this card and of HSBC? pros they have good deals on mortgages long term if you start a relation, cons  they are a bank like chase, bofa and not a credit card issuer like amex and discover

[Anonymous]

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@patoot10 wrote:

,,, cons  they are a bank like chase, bofa and not a credit card issuer like amex and discover

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Thanks for the informative post, p10. Would you mind expanding your thoughts on this last comment? I don't follow the distinction, at least as a negative. 

[Anonymous]

I’ve got the HSBC Cash Rewards MC. I like the card, have had no troubles with HSBC. Website is a bit clunky as is app. No problem with redemptions. Unlike QS, it is incremental though, I believe $5 increments. Statement credit is the quickest and easiest way to redeem. If you have an HSBC bank account, you can also direct deposit. I think there were also some gift card and travel type redemptions, but when I originally researched this card there were cautions on those as the value may not be 1 : 1. With the annual bonus, this goes from a 1.5% cash back to a 1.65% cash back and in my view that was worth it to me. As previously stated, HSBC is a conservative lender, and a low SL is apparently the norm. My SL (current limit) is only $1.75K. I still consider it a good card to have, and although not a daily driver, I keep it active and do find value.

[fuzzle]

After the bonus a sock drawer card for me since paypal 2% is better. QS has more reasonable SLs and I prefer its no minimum cashback redemption to a 10% anniversary bonus

[patoot10]

James_A

Banks are greedy, they want your business only when it suits them and at any time they will shut down all of your accounts and deem you risky/undesirable customer to do business with and send you a check with whatever money or bonus they owe you and that's it even CFPB won't help you.

On the other hand credit card issuers that only focus on issuing credit cards favor the customer. They have better customer service and always do their best to keep their customers happy and satisfied.

I have a lot of accounts with both parties and I can tell the difference. Also by reading these forums you start to know how banks deal with people. A small example is a long time Chase customer being approved for two new cards on the same day and worrying that Chase will shutdown his accounts even though he didn't do anything illegal and Chase already approved him but it remains to be seen if Chase will keep him as a customer or no. Even though banks depend on customers money and without that money banks are nothing, the way they deal with customers tells you that they don't appreciate this fact.

FYI, I never had to deal with adverse action and am not blacklisted by any bank but I understand how they operate.

[darkpearl]

cash back easy to redeem? statement credit, gift cards? I redeemed for Amazon gift cards

HSBC site easy to use? can pay statement with other bank accounts? Website is terrible. Took a tech ticket to be able to pay. Paid with wells fargo account.

how does it compare with the Cap 1 QS card overall? I had QS. I ended my relationship with them for personal reasons. QS had been my daily driver. Uber is now my daily card, this one is a sock drawer card. Otherwise they are similar. QS better website.

what are the pros and cons of this card and of HSBC? Pro: sign up bonus, MC. Con: website.

[DaveInAZ]

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@FinStar wrote:

I have it, but you'll have to define what is "good" from your perspective.  They are somewhat conservative with CLs unless you have an excellent credit profile.  Some highlights from their current promotion:

• $150 Cash Back after spending $500 or more in new card purchases during the first 3 months from Account opening
• 0% Introductory APR on Balance Transfers for the first 15 months from Account opening. After that, a competitive variable APR of 14.74%, 18.74% or 24.74% will apply
• 1.5% Unlimited Cash Back on all purchases
• 10% Anniversary Bonus on all Cash Rewards earned each year
• No Annual Fee
• No Foreign Transaction Fees

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How does that anniversary bonus work? I got $189 in rewards including $150 SUB, so on my anniversary in Nov. I'll get credited with $18.90 in rewards?

The $150 SUB for only $500 spend is about the only thing to recommend this card for. Getting approved is a royal PIA, not for their credit requirements but for their security. When you app it goes to security who won't release it to underwriting until you prove it is really you beyond any possible doubt - copies of DL, SocSec card, maybe a utility bill, sometimes a note from your mother.  Conservative CLs, I got only $2500 just months after Amex gave me a $15k SL. Their website is atrocious, to make a payment & enter external bank account is a link to one external website, to redeem rewards is another link to another external site. I tried to dispute a charge a couple times when UPS added a surcharge after I paid for a shipping label, every dispute came back to my email inbox as undeliverable.

I've had this sock drawered since I reached the last $25 in rewards to redeem, except to toss it a $10 tracfone prepaid every few months to keep it active. If they give me $18.90 anniversary rewards in Nov. I'll do enough spend to get $25 to redeem and then close it.