I am being offered HSBC Premier for Rs. 12000 of the joining fees but lifetime free until I maintain the Premier status through my salary account. Is it worth it? The HSBC official has also agreed to giving me 3 add-on cards for my family members with all the benefits like discounts and lounge access which is super helpful and needed to allow lounge for my family.
I currently use HDFC Regalia First and Axis Atlas and have yearly spend of ~6 lakhs combined on both my cards.
The additional benefits on top of unlimited lounge visits for all the card members also look good. Only the reward redemption looks a little subpar compared to the other cards like infinia and magnus
I just got the HSBC Premier card last week. For the joining fee(12K + GST), you will get the Taj hotel voucher for equal value i.e. INR 12000, which is fine if you planning a travel in the upcoming months and compensates for the joining fee.
Premier metal credit card gives you 3% cash-back with no limit and no expiration. You can redeem them directly as 1:1 for Apple products (via Imagine voucher), Airline miles etc. And HSBC supports one of the widest networks of airlines for miles conversion/transfer.
As long you are getting it as free, the card is worth as you will get unlimited international lounge access + 8 guest lounge access. Also, the rewards points are comparable if not better than other premium cards in the market
One of the major factors for me is having peace of mind than 1% extra reward rate. In HSBC premier there is no exclusions, you don’t have any renewal fees etc until you are in premier status, reward points don’t expire, no milestones. No bullshit.
I have a DCB metal and regalia. I don’t want to upgrade to infinia. Rather I will take a HSBC premier.
I have never really optimised and looked to get much benefits from smartbuy as there is a limit of buying only 10k per month of amazon GV. So those 16% and all don’t make sense to me for just 10k.
I also have axis atlas, but I don’t trust axis after seeing how it devalued its cards last year.
Axis atlas is decent but the problem again with Atlas is that Axis Bank similar to what HDFC does is not allowing salary account from a US based company. Only HSBC seems to be allowing that even if they don’t have a corporate tie-up with the company. I have an Axis account for last 6 years with proper balance and PPF, still they not treating me rightly. My RM literally told me off when I asked more about workarounds, told me feel free to complaint to the manager and cut the call.