For the past year, Heartland Boy has only been receiving up to 2.5% cashback on his HSBC Advance Credit card. That was because he did not think it was worthwhile to qualify for a HSBC Advance Banking relationship just to earn an additional percentage of cashback on the HSBC Advance Credit card. However, a recent chat with a friend at a wedding lunch made him realise that there are actually a variety of ways to qualify for HSBC Advance status. One of them has such a low barrier to entry that almost ANYONE can qualify for HSBC Advance! Here is how to easily earn up to 3.5% cashback on the HSBC Advance Credit card.
How To Qualify For HSBC Advance
There is a total of 5 ways to qualify for HSBC Advance.
Diagram 1: Eligibility criteria for HSBC Advance (Source: HSBC.com.sg)
Heartland Boy would like to pinpoint the simplest way to qualify for HSBC Advance. Particularly, he is referring to the eligibility criteria of “Salary crediting or reoccurring deposit of at least S$3,500 per month AND have applied for/hold a HSBC Credit card”. Within that clause, there are 2 conditions that must be fulfilled:
- Salary crediting or reoccurring deposit of at least S$3,500
- Applied for/hold a HSBC Credit card
Heartland Boy will share his friend’s tip on how you can qualify for HSBC Advance. To fulfil sub-clause A, simply arrange GIRO instructions from one of your bank accounts (say Bank ABC) to transfer $3,500 into your HSBC Advance account on Day X. On Day X+1, set up GIRO instructions to transfer $3,500 from your HSBC Advance account back to Bank ABC. Remember to set this as a recurring transfer so that you do not need to manually perform the transfers yourself. Note that this remains one of the eligible 5 ways to qualify for Advance relationship post 1 April 2019. (i.e. It did not get nerfed) Heartland Boy has called a Customer Service Officer to confirm.
You may sacrifice one day of interest on $3,500 (which by the way is really negligible) but you immediately get upgraded to a higher-tier of interest rate for your HSBC Advance Credit card. A 10-minute effort for a lifetime (at least until HSBC changes its terms and conditions) of higher cashback rate, it is damn worth it!
$3,500 is all you need and that is why Heartland Boy claims that the barrier to entry is extremely low. Do note that a penalty of $10 will be imposed if you fail to fulfil the eligibility criteria in any given month. However, if you have set up GIRO transfers like what Heartland Boy has recommended, it is impossible to be penalized unless there are insufficient balances in Bank ABC to begin with.
On the other hand, Heartland Boy would not encourage you to deposit your salary into the HSBC Advance account. Salary crediting is a rare and precious commodity, so Heartland Boy will preserve it for any of these high interest rate bank accounts.
To fulfil sub-clause B, simply apply for the HSBC Advance Credit Card (this is Heartland Boy’s affiliate link). Only $30,000 annual income is required, and this is typically the lowest base to qualify for an adult credit card. The annual fee is also perpetually waived for HSBC Advance customers, which you would qualify based on Heartland Boy’s tip aforementioned.
Benefits of HSBC Advance
One of the main benefits of qualifying for HSBC Advance is the instant upgrade of your cashback tier for your HSBC Advance Credit card as shown in Diagram 2.
Diagram 2: Cashback tiers for HSBC Advance Credit card
Heartland Boy’s household has some major expenditure upcoming as he has just collected the keys to his BTO not too long ago. As a cashback boy, his simple strategy for his home renovation was to:
- Use Amex True Cashback card and receive vouchers at Harvey Norman/Gain City by choosing to pay with the interest-free instalment plan (6.66% cashback)
- For payment of non-electronic appliances, eg: curtains, electrician, sanitary fixtures, he used his HSBC Advance Credit card to earn 3.5% cashback.
- If such miscellaneous spend exceeds $3,570 per month, he swiped his Standard Chartered Unlimited Cashback card (1.5% cashback)
Furthermore, there is no minimum spend required for you to start earning at least 2.5% cashback on the HSBC Advance Credit card.
Heartland Boy understands that from 3 June onwards, an additional 0.03% cashback is now awarded for spend beyond the initial cashback caps of HSBC Advance credit card. However, this is so insignificant that he will advise you not to bother with them. If you want to get your hands on one of the best cashback credit cards in Singapore, sign up using this LINK !
If you require a personal loan, consider applying it from HSBC.
Disclaimer: Note that this article contains some affiliate links that allow Heartland Boy to earn a small fee for every successful referral.
With effect from 1 April 2019, HSBC Advance has ceased qualifying new customers under the criteria “Salary Crediting or recurring deposit of at least S$3,500 per month and have applied for / hold a Personal Loan with HSBC”.
Existing customers currently enrolled under this criteria will continue to enjoy the benefits of Advance as long as the criteria is met.
For queries, please contact 1800 227 8886.
Source: https://www.hsbc.com.sg/advance/
Hi Gerard,
See my reply to Anon. There seems to be a lot of confusion on this 😀 initially i was baffled too until i called the CSO to confirm
Hi Heartland Boy, HSBC no longer allows customers to obtain a HSBC Advance credit card simply by depositing $3,500 into their bank accounts monthly. They have updated their terms as of 1 April 19
Hi Anon,
Yes they do, my screen shot is post 1 Apr. They only took away the condition of [recurring deposit + home loan]. That specific combo used to be one of the six criteria that allows the customer to qualify for Advance Status. The rest of the 5 criteria remains, including what i have recommended!
I have checked with Hsbc on this.
Hi Alison,
Is there a minimum amount required in the HSBC Advance account? If I were to transfer 3.5k out of bank A to HSBC and then back to Bank A the day after, i.e $0 in HSBC, will there be an issue? I read the tncs but don’t see anything about a min sum. Thanks!
Hi,
There is no minimum sum required. The only requirement is to ensure you continue to perform any of the 5 eligible criteria, if not you will be penalized for $10. However, if you instruct your bank to perform monthly GIRO transactions, the only way to fail is that you dont even have $3,500 in Bank A
hmm.. take 150 or samsonite ? haha
1st world dilemma- I would take the $150, too many luggages at home haha
Hi if i do the recurring transfers as you have described, I can leave the account with a $0 balance with no charge? I didn’t see a fall below fee.
Hi Wilson,
Yes you are absolutely right. My account has only $1. There is no fall below fee. Only a $10 penalty applies if you fail to fulfill any of the 5 conditions to qualify for Advance status
So based on the diagram 2 we will need min spend 2k per month right ?
Hi Lynn,
Nope. If you do not hit $2,000 min spend, you will still get 1.5% (no Advance Status) to 2.5% cashback (with Advance status)
Hi Alison, can I check why you feel this is better than the UOB One card?
Hi Rebecca,
UOB One Card requires minimum spend of $500 for 3 consec quarters to hit 3.33% cashback. HSBC Advance gives 2.5% cashback (based on the tip in my article) with no min. spend required.
The eligible spend criteria for UOB One Card is more restrictive- eg: govt institutions are excluded (hospitals, polyclinics, town councils etc)
thanks for your reply!
HSBC eligible spend includes the govt institutions, wallet topup and hospitals?
Do you have to leave the $3,500 sitting in HSBC Advance account overnight until Day X+1? Or can you transfer it back to Bank A account on the same day (Day X)?
I don’t see anything in the Ts & Cs which requires the $3,500 to sit in HSBC overnight.
Hi Tom,
I am not sure about it. As mine is done via GIRO, it automatically became X and X+1. perhaps you can try for one month and let us know?
Hi Tom did you try transferring out the $3500 on the same day?
Hi Alison, I was trying out your suggested hack by applying for HSBC adv account and credit card. Just to check – do you know if anything has changed regarding the tnc and whether your hack still applies?
Thanks!
Hi HK,
it still works. i am enjoying the benefit even now
Thank you sir! Great to have your response, I’m anticipating the arrival of my little one so intend to use the HSBC adv card at TMC for the cashback!
Hi Alison,
will like to check, does the type of transaction code matters when i deposit $3500 into my HSBC account? Mine is reflected as ADV instead of GR/GRO. thanks in advance
Hi Sam,
I am not too sure lei. Here is the terms “Salary crediting or recurring deposit of at least SGD3,500 per month and have applied for / hold a HSBC Credit card”. Is ADV recurring?
Maybe you would like to chat with the bank directly to avoid disappointment. I m afraid I cant be of much help here
Does this still work? I tried this and was charged the fee for 2 mths in a row.. 🙁
Hi Ming,
Yes, it still works. What fee have you been charged?
Just the standard HSBC advance maintenance fee of $10 lor.
Wondering if the bank caught on to the depositing of $3501 and subsequent +2 days withdrawal of $3500! lol
Looks like they changed the hsbc advance conditions today. Not sure if the recurring deposits / withdrawals into the account will work going forward.