Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

HSBC Premier offering you £200 to switch – and get the best Avios non-Amex credit card

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I have covered the new HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard in some detail recently.  It is a VERY attractive MasterCard product if you want to earn Avios.

There is a £195 annual fee but you will receive 40,000 Avios points for spending £12,000 in the first year.  You also earn an unbeatable 1 Avios per £1 on your Mastercard AND get access to 500 airport lounges worldwide via LoungeKey.  Full details can be found here.

The standard HSBC Premier Mastercard is also attractive.  As you can see here, the card is free – albeit there is no sign up bonus – and you earn 0.5 Avios for every £1 you spend.

Join HSBC Premier

The only snag with these cards is that you must have a HSBC Premier current account.

HSBC Premier has tough eligibility criteria.  See here and click on the Eligibility button to see the details.

As well as opening a HSBC Premier current account, you must ALSO have £50,000 invested with HSBC, either in a savings account or via an investment product.

Alternatively, if you earn over £100,000, you qualify if you just have a HSBC mortgage or any investment or insurance product.

If you earn six figures and are attracted by the HSBC Premier credit card package, there is a new bribe available to persuade you to switch.

HSBC will pay you £200 if you open a Premier current account before 10th July and switch at least 2 standing orders or direct debits across to it.  £150 is paid within 30 days and the final £50 after 12 months.

Once your Premier bank account is open, you will be able to apply for either the HSBC Premier or HSBC Premier World Elite credit cards and start earning Avios, or other airline miles, at the generous HSBC rates.


Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Comments (56)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Nathan says:

    Does anyone know if this can be a joint account and if so what the conditions are for that?

    • Genghis says:

      It can be but one of the individuals must meet the criteria – i.e. either salary of >£100k with investment product or £50k in investment product.

  • PeterC says:

    To be clear, the investment only needs to be > £50k if you DON’T meet the income criteria. Income is gross (they do a gross up calculation as part of the criteria check). I don’t have joint account so don’t know that angle.

  • Wayne Phillips says:

    Not much to do with miles but uou can get the £200 for switching accounts to HSBC without worrying about income for the Premier account etc. There’s quite a bit of money to be had in switching accounts over, and much less work than it seems. Go from one, to the next, to the next

    If you need to set up a direct debit, you can use lottery or a charity and cancel once the switch has gone through.

    Have a look on money saving expert

  • Steve Owen says:

    Upgraded today through HSBC Internet banking, card should be within the next few days, my existing HSBC Premier will be cancelled once this new elite card is active.

  • harry says:

    Or just work for them in mgt

  • Steve Owen says:

    Just wondering, when this new HSBC elite card arrives and my existing HSBC premier card is cancelled…..will I loose the free travel insurance & the extended guarantee that the old HSBC premier card offered….?? Would value thoughts on this.

    • Rob says:

      Travel insurance is a benefit of the Premier current account isn’t it? I have it despite not having the credit card.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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