Link: HSBC World Elite Mastercard | Return to Rewards Canada's Reviews
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OverviewThe HSBC World Elite Mastercard is a pretty strong contender in the market with its base rewards offering, benefits and insurance package. Much like its direct competitors this card provides utmost flexibility as it is a hybrid credit card. That is, it has its own proprietary reward program but it also allows you to convert point from the HSBC Rewards program to several airline frequent flyer programs. Costs & Sign up FeaturesThe HSBC World Elite Mastercard comes with a $149 primary card annual fee which is higher than the average seen for most other World Elite Mastercards or Visa Infinite cards. The good news is that if you apply for the card before June 30, 2019 you'll get the first year annual fee waived on the card. Don't let the annual fee sway you in anyway though as the card has lots of benefits to make up for the higher annual fee difference. Supplementary cards run $50 each. Also until June 30, 2019 the card is offering up to 60,000 bonus HSBC Rewards points as the sign up bonus. The first 20,000 come on approval of the card. Then you'll get 2x points on all your spending within 90 days with a maximum of 40,000 bonus points. If you live in Quebec, the sign up bonus is different since they don't offer first year free, 20,000 Welcome Bonus and 70,000 Points when you keep your account open and in good standing for 90 days from account open date. EarningThe card earns HSBC Rewards points and earns those points as follows 6 points per eligible dollar spent on all eligible travel spending - This earn rate is only awarded on the first $50,000 spent in this category annually. Point Valuation Chart
RedeemingPoints earned on this card are worth 0.5 cents each when redeemed for travel from any travel provider On the redemption side, the points earned with the HSBC World Elite Mastercard can be redeemed for any travel that is booked with any provider. Simply put, you book the travel where you want and charge it to your card, you can then call up HSBC Rewards or go online to redeem your points against that travel charge. This is the same feature found on quite a few cards in Canada that have their own proprietary rewards program. One thing that does make HSBC's program different than most of the other programs is the fact that this is the only way to redeem for travel with HSBC. HSBC Rewards discontinued their own travel booking service. What this means is that you can go to any travel provider, be it an airline, hotel, all inclusive, travel agency, car rental company, you name it, you book your travel with them. he beauty of this is that you have complete control and flexibility to book the travel you want, on the days you want and choose to pay for a portion or all of it with points. Once the charge shows up you redeem your points against that charge and you may ask what is the points value associated with these redemptions. The value ranges from 1.5% to 3% of your spending, that is the 3 points per dollar you earn on the card for all purchases except for travel is worth 1.5% towards travel. Think of it this way, 1,000 points will be worth a $5 credit towards travel. For travel purchases made on the card the earn rate is double which means you are effectively getting a 3% return. What's also cool about cards like this one is you don't need any points at time of booking as you have up to 60 days after the charge posts to redeem points against it. Which means you can actually be travelling and make additional bookings while away from home and redeem points for it at a later date.
Features and BenefitsThe number one feature of the HSBC World Elite Mastercard that most people will be getting this card for is the No Foreign Transaction fee benefit. Most cards in Canada charge between 2% and 3% on purchases that are made in a foreign currency. This can provide a significant savings if you make a lot of purchases in US$, Euros or any other currency. Another key benefit of this card is the $100 annual travel enhancement credit. This is a credit that can be used towards travel related charges like seat selection fees, baggage fees, lounge access passes and more. The credit renews on the card anniversary date each year. On the insurance side of benefits the card has the full slate of coverage that can be expected with a premium travel card. It has the standard Travel Accident, Flight Delay and Car Rental insurance. On top of that it has Trip Cancellation and Interruption insurance as well as a really good 31 day out-of-province emergency medical insurance benefit for those up to 65 years old. As with the majority of World Elite Mastercards in Canada, the card offers Mastercard Airport Experiences Provided by LoungeKey. This means you get free membership in LoungeKey which is a lounge access program that is pretty much the same as Priority Pass (they are both run by the same company) While the card covers your annual membership it does not cover the actual lounge visit fees which are currently US$27 per person. Recently Priority Pass raised their fees to US$32 from the US$27 so I would expect LoungeKey to do the same very soon. Finally another benefit to be aware of with this card is unlimited free Wi-Fi through Boingo at over 1 million hotspots worldwide for up to four devices. What is good about this cardThe best thing about the HSBC World Elite Mastercard is the no foreign transaction fee benefit. Whether you travel lots outside Canada, shop online a ton from the U.S. or import goods for you business, being able to save 2 to 3% on each transaction is a huge deal. The current sign up bonus is also a great feature as long as you can make the $10,000 in spending in the first four months. The 75,000 points equates to a $375 travel credit or 30,000 British Airways Executive Club Avios. That's enough Avios for an economy class flight between Toronto or Montreal and Dublin, Ireland. Couple this with the first year free offer and you can see why this card should be applied for! Remember the current sign up bonus and first year free offer are only good for applications made up until December 31, 2018 The earn rate for travel expenses on the card is also another good feature of the card. The entire card earn rates of 3 points and 6 points per dollar are especially good if you convert to any of the card's three airline partners as they can provide outsized value when redeeming for business or first class. What is not so good about this cardThere isn't too much that is bad about the HSBC World Elite Mastercard, probably our biggest gripe is the earn rate on the card. Don't get us wrong, it's not that bad when you take in to account all the benefits and features of this card, like we've said it's a pretty strong contender but when looking at non-travel spending earn rate only, this card comes up short when you compare it to some other cards. Most people who have this card will be earning 3 points per dollar which translates to a 1.5% return and there are lots of cards that offer more than that for non-travel spending. The 60 day redemption limit for using points to pay for any travel is on the low end. Competitors to this card offer 90 days, 9 months and even 12 months of time to where you can use points to redeem against a travel charge. Who should get this card
ConclusionYears ago we wrote a piece on how credit cards in Canada didn't have No Foreign Transaction Fees and why the trend that was seen in the U.S. wasn't seen here. Well it appears the trend is finally here. Credit card issuers in Canada are finally giving up that piece of the revenue pie that is the Foreign Transaction Fee. Until 2018 there were only a few small players in our market that offered the No FX Fee benefit but we have stated all along that as soon as one major player begins offering No FX Fees we'll see other follow suit. HSBC isn't considered a major player in our market, at least not yet, but that's because of how they used to market their cards. Now that they are after the Canadian public with this card it is bound to change. With this card and Scotia having the No FX Fee Passport Visa Infinite Card it shouldn't be too much longer before we see other major card issuers in Canada head down the no FX fee route as well. In conclusion, this card is great for the person who travels a lot and has a lot of that travel outside of the country. 6 points per dollar on travel spending and no FX fees should really appeal to the international traveller. Not only that, it is a card that should be eyed by someone who makes lots of online purchases from outside of Canada thanks to the no FX fee and also for those looking for utmost in flexibility offered by a hybrid card. All in all this card is a big time contender in our market, easily in the top 10 cards overall in Canada.
Related Links:HSBC World Elite Mastercard on hsbc.ca Other cards to consider if you are looking at this card:American Express Cobalt Card Talk to us!We would like to hear your thoughts on the HSBC World Elite Mastercard by commenting below!
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