HSBC credit card £25 cashback

[Sarah]

£25 cashback. Applicable to customers who apply for an HSBC 32 Month Balance Transfer Credit Card between 14 May and 16 July 2018 and use it for either purchases or a balance transfer (fee applies) with a minimum value of £300 within 60 days of account opening. Terms and conditions apply

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/credit-cards/

First Direct regularly run similar promotions too, although their current offer is only £20 cashback for £1500 spending.

[planteria]

it's a good deal Sarah. 32m for 1.4% is good, and the cb is a nice sweetener. i have a BT coming up too. only problem is that i tend to find HSBC being tight with CLS: £4/5/10k when i would need £20k.

[Sarah]

I've had a few HSBC cards previously, credit limits pretty average c. £6K-£7K IIRC. The only occasion I can remember ever having £20K+ on a new card without a credit limit match was First Direct. I expect you already have a Barclaycard. How about Nationwide? They give decent limits in my experience and their new cards offer 1 year at 0% with no BT fee during first 3 months.

[Sarah]

I wasn't originally planning to go for this HSBC card as I don't always spend £300 in 60 days, but just realised I have car insurance and TV Licence coming up soon, so it's good timing for an easy £25 (especially with TSB 1% cashback ending this month).

[planteria]

why not just use it for a BT?

i've had relatively tight CLs with HSBC and very tight CLs with Nationwide - along with hopeless cs. good idea though: will try to get one or two zero fee BTs on board when i move my MBNA limit over.

yes, have a Barclaycard: Amex, Barclaycard and MBNA are my only cards nowadays.

[Sarah]

I have no real use for BTs these days; no debt and savings interest rates are too low to be worth the effort.

Just accepted for the HSBC Advance Credit Card with £6K limit. If you have an Advance account, this card has lower BT fees than the others (0.6% min £5). That's actually the only way I could know that I'd applied for the correct card, since they have several different cards with varying terms but once you start the application process all the information just says 'HSBC Credit Card' which seems to be an umbrella term rather than a specific card!

[planteria]

yes, understood re. the application process.

i was looking at the Balance Transfer card. you are right, i can see that the advance is 32m too, but the fee drops from 1.4% to 0.6%. my HSBC account is Premier, and the Premier Credit Card only has 9m on Purchases.

[planteria]

I have no real use for BTs these days; no debt and savings interest rates are too low to be worth the effort.

no doubt re. Savings rates unless someone wants to play with Current Accounts and RegSavers rather than repaying card debt, but it's hardly going to be worth it even then. fwiw i would rather retain debt and use my ISA allowance for investments, and i'm still bullish re. Amazon. but i can't advocate others investing now as I have all i intend to buy.

[planteria]

it seems the £25 deal has come to an end.. i'm looking at BT deals this month, with c£20,000 to move from MBNA. HSBC/Nationwide/existing Barclaycard cashback are on the radar.

[Sarah]

Yeah, looks like it has; there's still £25 gift with the Amazon credit card, but it's probably not one to choose for BTs.