The HSBC Premier Mastercards thread

[xefo]

Anyone know how quickly the first set of 40,000 points post once the spend target is hit? Is it pretty much immediate, on the statement date or on the 3-month mark?

[TonySoprano]

xefo wrote:

Anyone know how quickly the first set of 40,000 points post once the spend target is hit? Is it pretty much immediate, on the statement date or on the 3-month mark?

Hi xefo, 40k points were awarded at the 3 month mark for me.

[Sam]

Points are awarded up to 60 days after the £2,000 spend is reached

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/credit-cards/products/premier-world-elite/

[ch693]

So HSBC usually add rewards points to your account a few days after the transaction. I haven’t seen any points post since 16th July despite many cleared. Is anyone seeing something similar?

[ch693]

Update – they’ve posted. But took a week? I think it could have been the crowdstrike issue, but it doesn’t matter. All is well that ends well.

[Lawro]

Banner on the website saying they’re not accepting new applications for the WE card at the moment but that this is temporary. Are you expecting changes to the product @Rob?

[rum]

They did have a survey not that long ago on the HSBC Community forum, which is like a consumer insight forum for customers. I wouldn’t be surprised if they changed the offering somewhat. After all, there is tough competition from Barclays now so they can’t just keep this card as is…

[JDB]

It will certainly be interesting to see if HSBC can come up with an enhanced offering which would be a natural response to the other clearing banks all sharpening their offers in the paid account and paid credit card market. While @Rob mentions that Amex fears what Chase might launch, I would actually be much more afraid of these sleeping giant banks.

They have great advantages over Amex which may be big in the US but is a minnow in the UK and the local banks are far less affected than Amex or Chase by the low interchange fee because they are present in other parts of the credit card value chain. JP Morgan Chase is a very rational organisation and its shareholders have made quite a fuss about the loss making UK venture, so I don’t know what they will do, but they will proceed carefully. It’s a vast cost to build a UK credit card servicing structure from scratch.

HSBC has all the infrastructure and a large UK customer base and, like Barclays, a much deeper understanding of the credit underwriting conditions in the UK.

[Maples]

Get rid of the Premier requirement and I’ll give them my whopping £195 per year for the entire package the card offers. Platinum/Gold will probably get downgraded to the free card after that.

[polly]

Don’t think they actually want that many WE customers, who might just cost them too much…

[BBbetter]

@JDB, depends on which definition of ‘enhanced’ they are going to apply.

Not sure Barclays is a good example here. Barclays made a huge splash with their avios cards. Once the marketing budget was spent, they have gone quiet, inevitably reality setting in.

I’d be surprised if HSBC release any product that HfP community would like, unless they are happy with loss leaders like the Barclays avios card.

[QFFlyer]

HSBC Expat WE cards are suspended for new applications too – is Jersey/Channel Islands in general subject to the same 0.3% swipe fee cap, out of interest (if anyone knows)?

Interesting that they use UK format sort codes/AC numbers, but transfers are not fast by any means.

[points_worrier]

Not intrinsically. But HSBC expat use HSBC UK to issue their credit cards, so yes they will be.

Wonder why they have suspended the WE. I was considering downgrading and then upgrading in 6 months to get the bonuses again, but will stick for the moment if it’s future is unclear.

[QFFlyer]

points_worrier wrote:

Not intrinsically. But HSBC expat use HSBC UK to issue their credit cards, so yes they will be.

Wonder why they have suspended the WE. I was considering downgrading and then upgrading in 6 months to get the bonuses again, but will stick for the moment if it’s future is unclear.

Ah ok that makes sense, thanks. Wonder why transfers take a day or two instead of being instant then – I guess they’re just not integrated with Fast Payments.

Yeah I wondered why, must be recent as I’m sure Expat was still advertising it the other day (although online applications for both types for Expat have been suspended, have to call them, so maybe something’s changing all round). HSBC US still offer it, and HSBC Australia only offer one Premier credit card, so no change there.

[points_worrier]

I think the suspension of the world elite card must be annual fee related. With the priority pass now giving £18 credit at restaurants, and general PP costs going up pushing up Amex’s annual fees, I wouldn’t be surprised if HSBC are planning on increasing their £195 annual fee.

[JDB]

points_worrier wrote:

I think the suspension of the world elite card must be annual fee related. With the priority pass now giving £18 credit at restaurants, and general PP costs going up pushing up Amex’s annual fees, I wouldn’t be surprised if HSBC are planning on increasing their £195 annual fee.

It wouldn’t be at all surprising to see a fee increase given that it hasn’t changed in over five years, but I’m not sure why they would need to suspend applications for that. There is probably a bigger package of changes.

@BBBetter – has Barclays really gone “quiet”? Haven’t they just decided that offering enhanced SUBs leads to attracting bad customers and a downward spiral / vicious circle as Amex amply demonstrates. The standard card and Premier SUBs are very generous. Generally, I would think Barclays must be quite pleased with the Avios addition to its card range.

[QFFlyer]

points_worrier wrote:

I think the suspension of the world elite card must be annual fee related. With the priority pass now giving £18 credit at restaurants, and general PP costs going up pushing up Amex’s annual fees, I wouldn’t be surprised if HSBC are planning on increasing their £195 annual fee.

As JDB eludes, PP alone isn’t going to be the reason – they could simply exclude restaurants if it were that big a deal, just like Amex did.

[points_worrier]

Just spoke to HSBC Premier about my world elite card. Asked them incidentally about the suspension and ?upcoming changes. They were reticent to say everything, as they werent sure what they could say. But confirmed:
– They have had all the details today
– The card fee is increasing (would not say to what)
– The benefits are increasing: now including fast track, more airline partners, greater earn rate to ?1.25 or ?1.5 miles per £
We should find out at the end of next week officially. She felt it was an improvement. But then the agent would never say it wasn’t…
Anyone else want to see if they can wheedle any more information out?

[JDB]

@points_worrier – great intel, thank you! It’s the one card I have which doesn’t directly earn its keep, but it stays as I’m well disposed towards them after covid fee waivers, good combined chargeback/s75 experience and I have always felt they had scope to do much more in a way other UK banks can’t and they are rather slow and lumbering, but ultimately smarter and longer term than Amex.

They have announced the changes in the US but I’m not sure there’s much read across for UK cards.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240806234599/en/

[rams]

points_worrier wrote:

Just spoke to HSBC Premier about my world elite card. Asked them incidentally about the suspension and ?upcoming changes. They were reticent to say everything, as they werent sure what they could say. But confirmed:
– They have had all the details today
– The card fee is increasing (would not say to what)
– The benefits are increasing: now including fast track, more airline partners, greater earn rate to ?1.25 or ?1.5 miles per £
We should find out at the end of next week officially. She felt it was an improvement. But then the agent would never say it wasn’t…
Anyone else want to see if they can wheedle any more information out?

Thanks for sharing. An increased earnings rate is good. Needs more retailer offers as well

[BBbetter]

If they can add one guest for the PP, that’ll be a killer. A family of 4 can enter on a main and supplementary card.

[meta]

I hope they put Hyatt and ANA as a partner.

[polly]

US WE admits 2 guests on main card. Plus more importantly NO forex fees. But their fee is quite high. Would be ok if combined with the free curve card for debit card only payments. Interesting to see what they come up with by next week.

[Numpty]

rams wrote:

points_worrier wrote:

Just spoke to HSBC Premier about my world elite card. Asked them incidentally about the suspension and ?upcoming changes. They were reticent to say everything, as they werent sure what they could say. But confirmed:
– They have had all the details today
– The card fee is increasing (would not say to what)
– The benefits are increasing: now including fast track, more airline partners, greater earn rate to ?1.25 or ?1.5 miles per £
We should find out at the end of next week officially. She felt it was an improvement. But then the agent would never say it wasn’t…
Anyone else want to see if they can wheedle any more information out?

Thanks for sharing. An increased earnings rate is good. Needs more retailer offers as well

an increase in earning rate would be welcome, but would they then drop the annual avios conversion bonus? especially after making a mess of it this year.

[Wiseoldman]

@pointswarrior and @JDB thanks for the intel. Hopefully it is an improvement that justifies whatever the new higher fee is