HSBC World Elite: Spring 2023 Offer Worth $400+!

HSBC has just announced its new Spring 2023 welcome offer for the flagship HSBC World Elite Mastercard, which will last until May 31, 2023.

As per usual, the HSBC World Elite Mastercard’s welcome bonus is divided into two separate offers: one for non-Quebec residents and one for Quebec residents, both of which carry a net value of at least $400.

Let’s take a closer look at the details for both offers, which are an improvement over the last round. 

Non-Quebec Offer: Up to 80,000 Points + First Year Free

The offer for non-Quebec residents is as follows. The primary cardholder’s annual fee of $149 will be rebated for the first year*, and you will earn the following as a signup bonus:

• 20,000 HSBC Rewards points* welcome bonus, upon completing your first purchase
• 10,000 HSBC Rewards points* upon spending $1,000 each month for the first six months of account opening, for a total of up to 60,000 HSBC Rewards points*
• Total of up to 80,000 HSBC Rewards points*

Let’s first take a look at what you would earn in the first year. 

At a minimum, HSBC Rewards points are worth 0.5 cents per point each when redeemed against eligible travel purchases (i.e., purchases made from merchants that are classified in the Mastercard network as airlines, car rental agencies, hotels, cruise lines, passenger railways, tour operators, timeshares and travel agencies) made using your HSBC credit card at a ratio of 200 HSBC Rewards points = $1.

Therefore, the 80,000 HSBC Rewards points you’d earn in the first year would already be worth at least $400 when redeemed for an eligible travel purchase.

But that isn’t the end of the story. In terms of the returns on daily spending, the HSBC World Elite Mastercard allows you to earn:

• 6 HSBC Rewards points per dollar spent on eligible travel purchases
• 4 HSBC Rewards points per dollar spent on groceries, gas, and drugstores
• 2 HSBC Rewards points per dollar spent on all other purchases

Therefore, if we were to add the points that you earn from meeting the $1,000 monthly spending threshold to the above calculations, then we can conclude that you’d earn at least 12,000 HSBC Rewards points from that spending (and possibly more if you were making eligible purchases at the 6x or 4x earning rates), which is equivalent to $60.

In total, you’d end up with at least 92,000 HSBC Rewards points after completing the minimum spending, which would be worth at least $460…