Over the past year, HSBC has been killing it on the credit card front to indicate its reoriented seriousness in the business. First, they revamped the cashback card and relaunched it as the HSBC Live+ Credit Card, in addition to reworking the lifetime-free HSBC Visa Platinum Credit Card. Then, they focussed on reworking the HSBC Premier Credit Card and launched a top-of-the-line co-brand credit card with Taj Hotels (which we still haven’t discussed yet!). Now, they are out to challenge some of the more prominent players in the market, and they started with the travel space, where people have a propensity to spend a lot!

HSBC TravelOne Credit Card

HSBC has launched a new hero product in the travel category, going head to head with the Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card in India. The card was previously launched in Singapore and Malaysia and is a success there.

The new card offering has a lot going for it, so let’s unpack it one by one.

• Rewards: HSBC’s new card offers 2 points/INR 100 spent on everything not on the exclusion list. For travel, the card offers 4 points/INR 100 spent on flights at the airline website, on aggregators such as Yatra, MakeMyTrip, and others, and also when you spend money in foreign exchange (albeit at a forex conversion charge of 3.95%++). The accelerated rewards are capped at 50,000 points per month (basically, spending INR 12.5 Lakhs monthly is a lot of money!). Reward points are valid for three years.
• Welcome Benefits: You need to use the HSBC India Mobile Banking app to log into the account connected with your credit card. When you spend INR 10,000 within the first 30 days of opening your card account, you will get an INR 1,000 cashback, apart from an INR 3,000 voucher for PostCard Hotels and a complimentary. 3-month EazyDiner Prime membership. This offer is only valid for those who apply for the card in 2025. Additionally, when you spend INR 1 Lakh in the first 90 days of holding the card, you get 3,000 bonus reward points.
• Milestone Benefits: When you spend INR 8 lakhs on the card during the year, you will get an annual fee waiver. When you spend INR 12 lakhs on the card during the year, you will get an additional 10,000 points.
• Exclusion List: A pretty long list of spending does not earn points but is nothing different from others in the market. Exclusions include bail and bond payments, education and government, e-wallets, financial institutions, fuel, insurance, jewellery, money transfers, non-financial institutions, real estate agents and managers, tax payments, and utilities.
• Lounge Access: Cardholders can access six domestic and four international lounges annually.
• Rewards Conversion: The list of reward conversion partners is long but not the longest in India. While Axis Bank offers 19 and HDFC Bank offers 14 conversion partners, HSBC provides conversion for 21 hotel and airline loyalty programmes (I refuse to count InterMiles as an airline loyalty programme anymore. Here are the partners,
  • Airmiles
    • Air India Maharaja Club
    • airasia rewards
    • Aeroplan
    • Air France–KLM Flying Blue
    • British Airways Executive Club
    • Etihad Guest
    • EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
    • Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club
    • JAL Mileage Bank
    • Singapore Airlines Krisflyer
    • Qantas Frequent Flyer
    • Qatar Airways Privilege Club
    • Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
    • Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
    • United MileagePlus
    • Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles
  • Hotels
    • Accor ALL
    • IHG One Rewards
    • Marriott Bonvoy
    • Shangri-La Circle
    • Wyndham Rewards
• Additional Benefits: The TravelOne card offers discounts with various online travel agencies (OTAs) like Yatra, EaseMyTrip, Paytm, and ClearTrip, providing up to 15% off on bookings for hotels and flights. It also includes purchase protection up to USD 20,000 for items bought with the card for 180 days from purchase. Buy-one-get-one on movie tickets and dining discounts are available as well. Golf privileges are around as well, including lessons and rounds.

The card costs INR 4,999 for the first year, but you must be either salaried or an existing HSBC customer on the banking side to get it. Then, you can be self-employed and get the card. I don’t know whether HSBC offers more than one credit card to its customers in India.

Does this compete with Atlas?

Yes and no. The card provides accelerated points for spending on OTAs. Still, it does not come close to Atlas, which provides points for hotel spending and has a higher conversion ratio. This means you are usually earning 10 air miles per INR 100 spent. Also, the exclusion list for Atlas is a bit more liberal than this one.

Bottomline

This is a good attempt from HSBC to enter the travel (airline-agnostic) credit card market. The product is well-researched and avoids the pitfalls of some other credit cards in the market that are offered in the same space, which should help in stretching the card over a stable period and reduce devaluations later. However, given that the footprint of HSBC is not as large and the rewards are not as competitive compared to Axis Bank Atlas, this might complement Atlas rather than replace it.

What do you think of the new HSBC TravelOne Credit Card?

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