HSBC Advance Card Review | What You Need To Know

Best Used For Large Monthly Spending of S$2,000 to S$2,800

• You can earn 2.5% base cashback for monthy transactions above S$2,000. This has a higher than a general cashback card with no minimum spend. Even though there is no maximum spending cap, the maximum cashback that you can earn per month is S$70. This means at S$2,800 per month of spending, you would have earned the maximum cashback, assuming you spent on transactions that are not in the exclusion list.

Best Used Locally

• Even though you can spend locally or overseas, you should stick to local purchases and avoid the 3.25% FX Fee. Check out my post, ‘Best Cards for Overseas Spending’ to know more.

Best Used for the Following

• Wedding Banquets (See Best Cards for Wedding Banquets)
• Large Hospital Bills at Private Hospitals (See Best Cards for Hospital Bills)

Use HSBC’s Free Entertainer Program

• You can get 1-for-1 discounts for dining places etc., and 15% discounts for selected restaurants with HSBC’s ENTERTAINER programme

Exclusion List:

• Foreign exchange transactions (including but not limited to Forex.com);
• Donations and payments to charitable, social organisations and religious organisations;
• Quasi-cash transactions (including but not limited to transactions relating to money orders, traveler’s checks, gaming related transactions, lottery tickets and gambling);
• Payments made to financial institutions, securities brokerages or dealers (including but not limited to the trading of securities, investments or crypto-currencies of any kind);
• Payments on money payments/ transfers (including but not limited to Paypal, SKR skrill.com, CardUp, SmoovPay, iPayMy);
• Payments to any professional services provider (including but not limited to GOOGLE Ads, Facebook Ads, Amazon Web Services, MEDIA TRAFFIC AGENCY INC);
• Top-ups, money transfers or purchase of credits of prepaid cards, stored-value cards or e-wallets (including but not limited to EZ-Link, Transitlink, NETS Flashpay and Youtrip);
• Payments in connection with any government institutions and/or services (including but not limited to court costs, fines, bail and bond payment);
• Any AXS (including AXS Pay+Earn) and ATM transactions;
• Tax payments (including HSBC Tax Payment Facility);
• Payments for cleaning, maintenance and janitorial services (including property management fees);
• Payments to insurance companies (including but not limited to sales, underwriting, premiums and insurance services);
• Payments to educational institutions;
• Payments on utilities;
• The monthly instalment amounts under all card instalment plan (including HSBC 0% Card Instalment Payment Plan, HSBC PayLater Instalment Plan and HSBC Spend Instalment);
• Total purchase amount under HSBC 0% Instalment Payment Plan and HSBC PayLater Instalment Plan;
• Balance transfers, fund transfers, cash advances, finance charges, late charges, HSBC’s Cash Instalment Plan, any fees charged by HSBC;
• Any unposted, cancelled, disputed and refunded transactions;

Nerfs: 

• Effective 01 October 2025, the minimum income requirement will change depending on your total relationship balance with HSBC; existing cardholders will not be affected by this

Advantages:

• One of the higher cashback in the general credit card category
• No minimum spend

Disadvantages:

• cashback capped at S$70 per month
• Not eligible to receive cashback on other bills, insurance premiums, or utilities.

How will my base cashback be reflected on my account: It is computed using the eligible purchases that are posted within the current calendar month, rounded to the nearest cent. It will appear on your card statement and be credited to your account before the end of the next calendar month.

Read Terms and Conditions here