The 4 mpd base tier earns across a wide number of categories (dining, travel, shopping, transport) and can be boosted to 8 mpd
| Min income | Base earn | Bonus earn | Monthly cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| S$65,000S$30k tier exists, rarely granted | 0.4 mpdeverything else | 4 mpd / 8 mpdon selected categories | S$1,000of bonus spend |
| Annual fee | Transfer blocks | Points expiry | Lounge access |
| S$0forever, not first year | 10,000 miles25,000 points minimum | 37 monthsfrom earning | None |
The fall and subsequent revival of HSBC Revolution has to be one of the craziest arcs in credit card lore. After cutting bonuses in 2024 only to restore them permanently in 2026, HSBC finally earned a place back in most people’s card rotation.
Now armed with one of the most versatile bonus categories (travel, dining, transport) in Singapore, it pretty much covers most people’s usual spending habits. Not to mention no more pesky annual fee for you to waive.
Their new boosted 8 mpd earn rate with a $50,000 EGA Account was also a groundbreaking move that makes it one of the highest earn rate card in the market.
Annual Fee
None. A rarity in the world of credit cards.
| Card | First year | Second year on |
|---|---|---|
| Principal card | S$0 | S$0 |
| Supplementary card | S$0 | S$0 |
I’m guessing HSBC probably got tired of people always applying for waivers and decided that keeping their annual fee-free probably is saves them the hassle of all the backend work. But regardles it is a win for us, one less credit card keep track of annual fees.
Welcome Bonus
HSBC Revolution
Welcome bonus
- 16,800 miles Bonus milesawarded as 42,000 HSBC Reward pointsTransferable to airlines
No welcome bonus
The last offer we recorded here ran until 2026-08-24. The link still works, but check what is on now before you apply.
Sign-up rewards change often, so confirm the current offer before you apply. New customers only, meaning no card from HSBC in about the last 12 months.
Sign-up offers move monthly and almost always carry a "new to bank" condition, meaning no card with that issuer in the past 12 months.
Earn Rates (4 mpd/8 mpd)
Base Tier - 4 mpd, up to $1,000/mth
Boosted Tier - 8 mpd, up to $1,200/mth
For the base tier (which most people will be on) HSBC writes this as 10X reward points. 2.5 HSBC points buy 1 mile with most partners, so 10X is 4 mpd. The 10X is what goes on the marketing. 4 mpd is what lands in your account.
| Spend type | HSBC points | Miles per dollar | Cap | Bonus Miles / Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online and contactless, eligible categories | 10X | 4 mpd | S$1,000 / month | 48,000 miles |
| Same, with S$50,000 parked at HSBC | 20X | 8 mpd | S$1,200 / month | 115,200 miles |
| Everything else | 1X | 0.4 mpd | Uncapped | NA |
For the boosted 8 mpd, you need S$50,000 Average Daily Balance in a sole-name Everyday Global Account for the entire calendar month. The rate is excellent ngl. If that money genuinely had nowhere better to be, the miles are a decent consolation. If your priority is more flight redemptions, this arguably is a pretty good place to park emergency cash.
If you’re maxing out on the bonus cap each month, the difference will be 67,200 miles every year. This is enough for a saver business class flight to Japan.
What spend actually counts for the bonus?
Dining, transport, shopping and travel, for both online or contactless spend.
Payment method is key here. Insert your card at a restaurant that would have paid 4 mpd and you get 0.4 mpd, so a S$100 dinner turns 400 miles into 40 purely because of how you pay. For simplicity, I never bring out the physical card and only use Apple Pay for in-person payments.
| What you’re buying | Bonus? | key points |
|---|---|---|
| 🍜 Restaurants, food delivery | ✓ Yes | Tap or order online. Inserting the card drops you to 0.4 |
| 🚕 Grab, TADA, Ryde | ✓ Yes | Paid in app, so always qualifies |
| 🛍 Shopee, Lazada, Amazon | ✓ Yes | Straightforwardly online |
| 🏪 In-store retail | ✓ Yes | Only if you tap. This is the one people lose |
| ✈ Airlines and hotels booked direct | ✓ Yes | Booking on the airline’s own site is fine |
| 🧳 The same trip booked via an OTA (Airbnb, Trip, Agoda etc) | ✕ No | MCC 4722, dropped January 2024 |
| 🏪 Supermarkets | ✕ No | Not on the eligible list at all |
The only massive gaps for this card will be for Supermarkets and Online Travel Agents. So you really need to ingrain that this card should not be used with travel agents. To combat that, there is a solution which I regularly use if I do need to book through travel agents
Trip.com Loophole (w/ Atome)
A Trip.com booking normally codes MCC 4722 and pays 0.4 mpd here. But a workaround will be using Atome’s three-instalment option, the charge hits your card as Atome rather than as the travel agent, which codes MCC 5999 and makes it eligible for 4 mpd.
The instalments also land across three different months, so one big booking (like flights or hotels) stops eating a single month’s cap. On S$3,000 that is the gap between 1,200 miles and roughly 12,000.
| Route | How it codes | Miles on S$3,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Trip.com paid directly | MCC 4722, outside the bonus | 1,200 |
| Trip.com via Atome, 3 instalments | MCC 5999, across three months | ~12,000 |
New to Atome? Signing up through my link gets you S$10 off your first purchase, claimable from their voucher centre. Bills split into three, 0 percent interest.
Banks also close these doors without notice: the same move already stopped working on UOB cards, and HSBC could add Atome to its exclusion list tomorrow.
Transfer Partners
Points expires in 37 months and transfers move in blocks of 10,000 miles, so the practical minimum before you can do anything at all is 25,000 HSBC points. Transfers are free for HSBC which is a huge plus as well.
| Programme | Points for 10,000 miles |
|---|---|
 Cathay Asia Miles | 25,000 |
 British Airways Avios | 25,000 |
 EVA Infinity MileageLands | 25,000 |
 Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles | 25,000 |
 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 30,000 |
 Thai Royal Orchid Plus | 30,000 |
 Qatar Privilege Club | 35,000 |
 Turkish Miles&Smiles | 35,000 |
 Air Canada Aeroplan | 35,000 |
 JAL Mileage Bank | 50,000 |
| Programme | HSBC points for 10,000 |
|---|---|
 Marriott Bonvoy | 25,000 |
 IHG One Rewards | 25,000 |
Note the gap. KrisFlyer costs 20 percent more points than Asia Miles or Avios for the same 10,000 miles. If the plan is always KrisFlyer, this card’s real rate is 3.3 mpd, not 4.
How I actually use it. I mostly do not transfer to KrisFlyer at all for this card. Two routes I use instead, both at 25,000 rather than 30,000:
- Avios, then Qatar. Points go to British Airways Avios, and Avios move 1:1 into Qatar Privilege Club, so the same 25,000 HSBC points end up buying Qsuite seats. Not as juicy as the Citibank transfer bonus but I’ll take Qatar’s cheaper connections to Africa and Europe anyday
- EVA for SIA. EVA Infinity MileageLands is Star Alliance, so it books Singapore Airlines award seats. Sometimes, it even shows phantom seats that are not available on SIA site itself. On top of that, some routes are simply cheaper booked through EVA than through KrisFlyer directly: several Europe and Japan flights on SIA metal price lower on EVA's own award chart, so the same seat costs you fewer miles for going the long way round to book it.
Before any redemption, always check if the route you want is available. The worst thing you can do is diversifying into another mileage program with no redemption in mind.
What should I pair it with?
Here is what happens when you blow through S$1,500 of qualifying spend in one month, past the $1,000 bonus cap.
| Spend | Rate | Miles |
|---|---|---|
| First S$1,000 | 4.0 mpd | 4,000 |
| Next S$500 | 0.4 mpd | 200 |
| Total | 2.8 mpd effective | 4,200 |
Move that S$500 to a second 4 mpd card and it pays 2,000 instead of 200. That one move beats every other optimisation in this article combined and takes about zero effort.
Pick the card that covers this one’s gaps: the spend it refuses to pay on.
Groceries are the one people forget. Supermarkets are not on the eligible list at all, so a S$600 monthly shop earns 240 miles here instead of 2,400. For most households it is the single biggest hole in the month.
| The gap | What it costs you | What closes it |
|---|---|---|
| Spend past the S$1,000 cap | 0.4 mpd instead of 4 | Another 4 mpd card or general spend card |
| Groceries | 0.4 mpd on a bill almost everyone has | UOB Preferred Visa, UOB Ladies (Family) |
| OTA travel bookings | 0.4 mpd on your largest purchases | Atome, DBS WWMC, UOB Ladies |
Build your miles card stack
One card never covers everything. Put in what you actually spend and see which cards to hold together, and what to put on each.
Build my stack→The verdict, restated
Free card, 4 mpd on popular categories, no annual fee to defend at renewal. There is nothing here that needs justifying, which is exactly why it survives every rethink of a wallet. Three things worth knowing on day one: the cap is S$1,000, the overflow needs somewhere to go, and the 8 mpd tier costs S$50,000 of idle cash to unlock.
Changelog
Sources
HSBC Revolution Reward Points Programme T&Cs (effective 1 April 2026), the HSBC Revolution product page, and HSBC’s published transfer partners and ratios. Rates, fees and caps correct as of 5 August 2026. This guide shares my own experience for education, it is not financial advice, and card terms change: always verify with the bank before applying.