One fine day I wanted to open the HSBC Premier Account primarily for its Global account privileges, as that’s the most important privilege used by many. And that’s when I thought of exploring their credit card as well.
So here’s a detailed look at my experience in opening HSBC Premier Account along with the HSBC Premier Credit Card.
Table of Contents
HSBC Premier Account
HSBC Premier Account can be opened with any branch located in the nearest metro city either in same state (or) in a different state. They insist for a branch meeting to meet the account holder in person and to sign the forms.
My account was opened in a week post sharing required documents and it took another week for the debit card to be delivered.
The debit card looks OKAY in the dark grey design!
Overall it’s a pretty quick process and the mobile banking & netbanking setup was easy as well.
HSBC Premier Credit Card
Once the account is opened and the eligibility criteria is met, my RM took the application for the HSBC premier credit card. Infact the same was requested during account opening process.
Back then they had a nice offer which would give taj epicure membership with 1 complimentary night on HSBC premier a/c opening with credit card, post spending 25K or so. Decent offer I would say and it was fulfilled in ~2 months if I remember it correctly.
But before that a lot happened!
The Rejection
First, my HSBC Premier credit card application got “declined” after waiting for almost a month. And here was the reason given:
Basically they don’t like seeing so many credit cards on my profile. Obvious, because a typical customer wouldn’t have 20+ open credit card accounts and some (same bank cards) share the credit limit as you might know.
So I responded to the email as to why I’m not a high risk profile along with a polite request for a re-consideration.
After regular follow-up with RM, it took ~3 more weeks to finally hear a good news that my Credit Card has been finally approved.
The Credit Limit Issue
Secondly, there was a small concern!
They gave a lot lower limit than expected, in the range of a typical “premium credit card” I would say and nowhere close to a Super Premium Credit Card’s limit.
As I anyway didn’t intend to spend much on it, I didn’t care about it and left it as is.
And after 2 months of usage and re-payment, I requested my RM to look into the credit limit issue along with the other bank Credit Card stmt. The limit was more than doubled and it’s now in a decent range.
A Noteworthy Upgrade
HSBC recently rolled out a wonderful upgrade to the HSBC Premier credit card that it’s now worthy for the HNI’s to hold them.
The good news is that HSBC gave complimentary upgrade to all the existing HSBC Premier Credit Card customers with no action to be taken. In other words, all HSBC Premier Credit Cards are now treated equal.
But the phone banking was not aware of the details of the new features and fortunately the bank rolled out the below email for existing cardholders. I wish Banks alert such communications to support executives prior, like Amex does.
That’s a great news for most and I’m already seeing the reward points getting credited at 3% reward rate with my December 2023 Statement.
That said, one thing that HSBC wants to improve is that they need to add more features to access the credit card on app/website. At the moment you can hardly do anything except PIN change or view stmt.
You can’t request for miles transfer online, you can’t view reward points except on redemption catalogue page and so many more I could add.
Final Thoughts
It’s good to see HSBC getting aggressive in their Credit Card offerings in India. And on a quick look, it seems Indian version of HSBC Premier Credit Card is perhaps one of the best across the globe.
But it’s still not yet competitive to the aggressive competition in India. We would need “more” transfer partners at “better” transfer ratio, for ex, having Air India Flying Returns on list is great but the transfer ratio is a joke.
Perhaps they could run the temporary bonus miles offer on transfers from time to time to make it more attractive.
That aside, one thing that stands out with HSBC is that the bank has given a very good power to the RM and the relevant team to take requests that can’t be done via online/phone banking. In comparison, RM’s are usually clueless in other banks!
But the responsiveness of the RM is not something I’m happy with so far. I had to follow-up regularly to get things moving and that’s not something I would want to see with the account that has such a high eligibility criteria in place.
That’s my experience with HSBC Premier Credit Card so far. Have you been using HSBC Premier Credit Card? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.
My experience with HSBC Premier RM is the worst of all banks so far. They just don’t care, no matter what you do. Even if one complains to the nodal officer, the RM won’t care calling back. At best, Dy Branch Manager will call you, say that they will solve the request ok priority and then take a couple of months after multiple follow ups to revert.
Easily the worst in terms of service. Even the customer care is useless. If not for my free Premier status through the home loan, there is no reason for being a HSBC elite. Would rather opt for Deutsche elite, which is way better globally too.
Nowadays, i walk over to the branch itself and get it done.
I hold a Premier credit card but haven’t got such an email. When asked RM/SM they said its only for new cards and not for existing ones.
That’s wrong info. Ask him to given a written email of the same and see where it’s going. 😀
Can you explain a bit more on this point – HSBC Premier Account primarily for its Global account privileges, as that’s the most important privilege used by many
With HSBC Premier Ac, you’re also get HSBC Premier status globally. So you can open a bank ac in any country, like Singapore and invest in local stocks all while enjoying HSBC Premier privileges in respective country without having to maintain NRV separately for that country.
Hi Sid, any chance old Premier cc holders shall get Metal issued or we need to wait.
I’m assuming we would get metal card on card replacement but if you’re already into metal cards, it’s better to delay doing it as it makes your wallet weigh more. 🙂
True that 🙂
Hi Sid.
So you got the HSBC Premier Credit Card for FY free and still got the Taj complimentary night benefit as well?
Yes, it’s the old offer.
Most banks offer an on-ramp period to get your account to meet NRV requirements. Is this the case with HSBC or do they insist on starting the relationship at 40L?
Can we transfer points only to Air India or to any Star Alliance carrier’s loyalty program?
Air India and few other partners, not to “any” star alliance for sure. Idea is one can redeem AI points for partner redemptions but we rarely do it.
Have you been able to see Star Alliance availability on Air India? I spent a lot of time just this morning and didn’t see any from Delhi to Heathrow or JFK.
Never explored recently.
Ppl generally do the reverse: Book air India via partners like Aeroplan/Lifemiles.
Precisely! Which is my biggest concern in keeping a pool of miles with Air India, which in turn makes me wonder if the Premier CC is even worth the effort.
Premier is primarily for Apple vouchers and Avios IMO. Air India miles for direct redemptions are good at times but not popular for that yet.