HSBC Advance Reward Credit Card - Worth It?

Jlawson118

I recently applied for the HSBC Advance bank account and was accepted, reason being I want to keep this and my First Direct account and take advantage of both regular savers.

HSBC are trying to sell me the Advance Reward CC. Which sounds interesting but 1 point per £5 spent just seems a little steep. But the part I'm curious about are the bonus point offers? What kind of brands/offers are available on there? It states on the website that this can be 10 points per £1 at a 'Range of national brands'?

I'm wondering if this is similar to other cashback/rewards, where the stores on offer are either ones you've never heard of, or tend to be based far away from where you're located? Or are these Mastercard offers with the HSBC card popular brands/offers?

Now I currently have the AMEX Gold card, but quite frankly I rarely use the bonus offers on there, again I've never heard of them, not my sort of brand or whatnot. I tend to use Supermarket offers on there or Shop Small come this time of year.
For places I can't use my AMEX, I've got my Barclaycard Freedom rewards, it's my highest credit limit although to my understanding, I see that they're slowly trying to phase this card out?

I am also considering the 25 month 0% BT card with HSBC instead and just staying put with all the others as my current 0% on a Virgin Money card expires around March time. Though I am considering the 6 month 0% on purchases on the reward card as I am in need of a new laptop

[Deleted User]

The reward rate works out at 0.2%.

You can use the points to pay off transactions

You can also gain additional points from select retailers, for example 2 points per £1 spent at H Samuels on transactions over £100, 5 points per £1 spent in Waitrose on transactions over £19.99, 10 points per £1 spent in Morrisons on transactions over £49.99.

I use it as my “backup” card for places that don’t accept Amex, which I rarely encounter, or I use it at shops where they are doing the multi-points offer instead of my Amex to garner the extra points.

18cc

No at 0.2% it's not worth it spend your time and energy admiring the roses instead

Jlawson118

I am quite strongly considering it so far, but like I said in my overall thread, that I am wondering typically what brands work as offers.

I use Halifax’s cashback scheme on my Clarity card and usually get around 20 brands offered. But about 2 brands, if that, I’ll use. Sometimes things like Costa, Miller & Carter, Toby Carvery, etc, crop up. The remainder are brands where they either don’t interest me, or aren’t in my vicinity.

And same with AMEX really. Every so often I’ll get a few brands I’ll use but not very often. So I’m thinking maybe the HSBC/Mastercard reward isn’t the scheme for me if it’s to offer similar brand rewards to other CCs

[Deleted User]

It varies and there’s no pinpointing.

Just go with the card you want to