HSBC Visa Signature Credit Card

Refined Points Metric (RPM): 4.0

Recommendation: Consider

Annual Fee

RM600

Airport Lounge Access

6X access per year
International Lounges

Annual Income

RM72,000 per annum

Airline Miles Earn Rate

Local: 1 Airline Mile = RM4.20

Overseas: 1 Airline Mile = RM2.60

Payment Network

Review | HSBC Visa Signature Credit Card

The HSBC Visa Signature credit card is a mid-tier offering by HSBC Malaysia catered towards middle-income earners with an annual income of at least RM72,000 per annum.

Despite not having the best airline miles conversion rate in Malaysia, you'll see that it stacks decently well against other offerings in its annual income category and is even slightly better than the likes of the HSBC TravelOne Mastercard, which has an annual income requirement of RM60,000 per annum.

HSBC Malaysia is known for having decent credit card promotions across shopping malls in Malaysia, partnering up with retail merchants to offer discounts. In fact, I don't think I've seen more discounts by any other major bank in Malaysia, with UOB coming in behind closely. You can view the latest promotions by HSBC here.

This essentially makes the HSBC Visa Signature credit card a mildly decent offering for those who aren't particularly indulged in aggressively chasing airline miles but want a decent credit card that offers the best of both worlds.

Essentially, if you're someone that does plenty of shopping online and in retail stores across the wonderful array of shopping malls in Malaysia, and want to redeem those HSBC points for some regional flight tickets then the HSBC Visa Signature is definitely for you.

Air Miles Conversion

Let's get started with earning airline miles with HSBC. Before we go any further, it's important for you to note that the HSBC Visa Signature is not meant to be an aggressive airline miles accrual credit card. It definitely does not have the best airline miles conversion rate.

In fact, the key strength of the HSBC Visa Signature credit card is that you'll be able to enjoy various promotions as I've mentioned above, while also earning a decent amount of airline miles along the way.

Now, what this essentially means is that by the end of the year, you won't be able to earn enough miles to say, redeem a flight ticket to London, but you should have enough airline miles to redeem a regional flight to some of your favourite destinations in ASEAN, such as Bangkok, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and perhaps even Hong Kong if you're able to spend as much.

Now, the shopping spending category is pretty straightforward, but I want to go into detail regarding the "Online Spending" category that HSBC Visa Signature states will earn you 5X Points.

At first glance, when you think about online spending, Shopee and Lazada immediately comes to mind. Making online transactions on Shopee and Lazada definitely earns you 5X Points when using your HSBC Visa Signature credit card. This is confirmed by the HSBC Visa Signature T&C document here.

Now, what this also means is that if you use your HSBC Visa Signature to top up your Shopee and Lazada wallets, you also earn 5X points, regardless of whether you use the balance in your wallet to purchase items on Shopee/Lazada or you simply utilize the balance as an E-Wallet when doing retail purchases.

What this essentially means is that you can earn 5X points on your HSBC Visa Signature on transactions that basically don't earn you bonus points. For example, if you use contactless transaction on your HSBC Visa Signature to purchase a Grande Iced Americano at Starbucks that costs RM8.00, you only earn 1X points. However, if you top up your Shopee/Lazada Wallet and pay for your Starbucks using that wallet, you basically earn 5X points.

This is quite significant in maximizing your points earning when utilizing your HSBC Visa Signature credit card, since this credit card does not award 5X points for Dining, unlike the HSBC TravelOne Mastercard.

Now, why do I say that the HSBC Visa Signature is slightly better than the HSBC TravelOne Mastercard, the reason is simple.

If you observe the table above, the HSBC TravelOne Mastercard earns you 5X Reward Points but this is capped at 10,000 points per statement (or RM2000/month). Online shopping only earns you 1X Reward Points.

Meanwhile, the HSBC Visa Signature only grants you 1X Reward Points for dining, however, you earn 5X Reward Points for Online Shopping, which includes topping up your E-Wallets, and is limited to 15,000 points per statement (or RM3000/month).

I'm sure you can already understand what I'm trying to say. Strategically, you can still earn 5X Reward Points on your HSBC Visa Signature for dining, if you top up your Lazada/Shopee/Bigpay/Boost Wallet and pay for your dining spend.

However, it is impossible to earn 5X points on Online Shopping or E-Wallets when using your HSBC TravelOne Mastercard.

In my opinion, the coverage of merchants is the most important when considering a credit card, and since the HSBC Visa Signature has better coverage than the HSBC TravelOne Mastercard, you can essentially take advantage of this and earn even more points.

Now, before I move onto Overseas spending, there is one important point to note about the HSBC Visa Signature credit card. Let's say HSBC releases a promotion, whereby you obtain a certain discount if you spend with your HSBC credit card. In this case, in order to qualify for the discount, you must make the transaction using your HSBC Visa Signature directly, and not via the E-Wallets mentioned above.

For example, HSBC currently has a running promotion whereby you get 15% discount at Starbucks when paying with your HSBC credit card. In this case, obviously it would be more prudent to simply use your credit card, because the 15% discount is worth more than the value of the points you would obtain if you used the strategy of topping up your E-Wallets and spending without the 15% discount.

Moving on to Overseas spending, the HSBC Visa Signature credit card offers a moderate airline miles earning rate when swiping your credit card overseas.

With an airline miles earning rate of 1 Enrich Mile = RM2.60, the HSBC Visa Signature is better than that of several other popular credit cards, such as the Alliance Bank Visa Infinite (which earns you 1 Enrich Mile for every RM3.00 spent overseas).

However, there is a significant catch: The points earned overseas are also capped at a maximum of 15,000 points per statement. Given that the HSBC Visa Signature nets you 8X Reward Points for overseas transactions, this simply means that you have a capping of RM1875 per month.

Obviously, you can still continue to spend your HSBC Visa Signature credit card overseas after surpassing this cap, but once you do, you no longer earn 8X Reward Points and you're downgraded to a measly 1X Rewards Points.

If we bring all the information together, you'll find that you're essentially capped at roughly 25,000 Enrich Miles per year, which as mentioned above, is only enough for redeeming Enrich miles for regional destinations in ASEAN.

Take note that the HSBC Visa Signature only allows you to redeem for Enrich miles, and no other frequent flyer programme. If you're someone that's keen on flying Singapore Airlines and Krisflyer, visit my KrisFlyer Ultimate Guide to learn more.

As of March 2024, you require the following Enrich miles in Economy class for the destinations below:

One-Way to Singapore: 5,400 Enrich Miles
One-Way to Bangkok: 7,200 Enrich Miles
One-Way to Hanoi: 6,900 Enrich Miles
One-Way to Hong Kong: 13,800 Enrich Miles
One-Way to Tokyo: 19,600 Enrich Miles
One-Way to Perth: 19,600 Enrich Miles

Now, remember that the yearly airline miles cap above is based on a "best case scenario" basis. It's very unlikely that you'll be reaching the cap for each of these spending categories every month (unless you're a really heavy spender and you travel overseas every month).

As such, it's very important to be realistic and strategize your credit card points earnings.

With that being said, I'll repeat what I said at the beginning of this review: The HSBC Visa Signature is NOT your credit card of choice if you are aggressively pursuing airline miles. This credit card is meant for the average spender looking for substantial discounts and promotions when shopping online and in-store, while also reaping some minor benefits along the way.

If you're looking for a credit card that seriously accelerates your airline miles accrual, then check out my Ultimate Guide page for more information.

Airport Lounge Access

I know how important it is to obtain information about lounge access at a glance, so if you're queuing up to enter a lounge in ASEAN, here's the important details about the HSBC Visa Signature credit card:

Number of Lounge Access Passes: 6X per year
Supplementary Access: No
Spend Conditions: No spend conditions

Lounge Access List by HSBC Visa Signature credit card:

Plaza Premium Lounge KLIA Terminal 1 Main Terminal Building
Plaza Premium Lounge Singapore Changi Terminal 1
TGM & Root98 Singapore Changi Terminal 1
BLOSSOM - SATS & Plaza Premium Lounge Singapore Changi Terminal 4
Plaza Premium Lounge Hong Kong International Airport Terminal 1 (Gate 1)
Plaza Premium Lounge Hong Kong International Airport Terminal 1 (Gate 35)
Plaza Premium Lounge Hong Kong International Airport Terminal 1 (Gate 60)

HSBC may update it's list from time to time, so be sure to check out their list here if you don't see your lounge on the list above and in the table below.

Lounge access by the HSBC Visa Signature is actually decent, given that the credit card isn't actually targeted towards airline miles hoarders.

While the accompanying table above underscores that the HSBC Visa Signature only provides lounge access to merely three airports: Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Singapore Changi Airport, and Hong Kong International Airport, this isn't really a big issue, given that the HSBC Visa Signature is targeted towards infrequent travellers.

Interestingly, the provisions at Singapore Changi Airport are confined to the Plaza Premium Lounge in Terminal 1 and the Blossom Lounge in Terminal 4. Given that Terminal 4 isn't seamlessly connected via the skytrain, cardholders departing from Terminals 2 and 3 are left with the sole option of the Terminal 1 lounge.

Note that access is capped at six visits per annum. This isn't really a big issue, as generally you'll find it difficult to enter 6 lounges in an entire year, unless you travel frequently for work.

Final Thoughts

The HSBC Visa Signature is a decent credit card offering that is mainly targeted towards the average Malaysian consumer that spends most of his/her time at shopping malls.

With 5X Reward Points on shopping transactions, you'll definitely stand to benefit from the HSBC Visa Signature credit card if you see yourself making regular purchases at retail stores such as Zara, Parkson, Sephora and many more retail stores.

Likewise, the greatest benefit of the HSBC Visa Signature credit card is that it grants you access to some of the best promotions a credit card has to offer in Malaysia. HSBC has one of the widest ranges of credit card promotions in Malaysia, and these days, it's not difficult to find a merchant that offers promotions on these credit cards.

This brings us to the final question: Why did I even bother reviewing this credit card despite it not being targeted to airline miles pursuers?

The reason is simple. I felt that the HSBC Visa Signature's benefits such as the airport lounges access, rewards points accrual and credit card promotions outweigh the downsides of the credit card. The HSBC Visa Signature credit card is a great credit card for lovers of online shopping connoisseurs and a stay-at-home wife.

Lastly, if you've read the entire review and realized that the HSBC Visa Signature isn't for you, then you should head over to my Ultimate Guide to compare the credit cards in Malaysia for earning airline miles based on your annual income.

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