HSBC Premier Credit Card

Yes, if you spend about ₹1,66,700 or more a month on groceries and use airport lounges. Below that, the Scapia Federal Bank Credit Card (Visa + complimentary RuPay) pays 2% for free. The catch: can't be used on UPI (not a RuPay card).

No. It costs ₹12,000 to join and ₹20,000 a year, plus GST. The ₹20,000 annual fee is waived every year while you remain a qualified HSBC Premier customer in India; if you stop meeting the Premier criteria, the ₹20,000 fee applies. The ₹12,000 joining fee is charged once you activate the card and is not waived. Add-on cards are free.

No. Only RuPay credit cards can be linked to UPI, and this isn't one.

Unlimited airport lounge visits in India (Mastercard's lounge programme, at listed lounges) and abroad (LoungeKey, over 1,400 lounges) for the primary and add-on cardholders, plus 8 free guest visits a year at overseas lounges for the primary cardholder only. HSBC publishes no spend condition.

No points on fuel, cash advances, card fees, disputed transactions, or purchases converted to EMI at checkout. Utility bills, insurance, rent and property payments, wallet loads, jewellery, school and college fees, government and tax payments, money transfers and payments to financial institutions earn points only on the first ₹1 lakh a month across all of them. Rent payments also carry a 1% fee. Points are counted on each full ₹100, with the remainder carried to your next purchase. HSBC goes by the merchant's category code.

Utility bills, insurance, rent and property payments, wallet loads, jewellery, school and college fees, government and tax payments, money transfers and payments to financial institutions earn points only on the first ₹1 lakh a calendar month across all of them combined (up to 3,000 points, about ₹3,000). Spend above that in these categories earns nothing. The extra points on flights, hotels and car rentals booked through HSBC's Travel with Points portal are capped at 18,000 a calendar month. The normal 3 points per ₹100 have no cap.

Only for HSBC Premier banking customers in India: you need an HSBC Premier relationship to get the card, and the card stays valid only while you keep it. Premier needs one of these: a quarterly total relationship balance of ₹50 lakh (₹40 lakh if your Premier account was opened before 1 Jan 2026), a net salary of ₹3 lakh a month paid into an HSBC salary account, or an HSBC home loan of ₹1.15 crore plus the ₹50 lakh balance within 12 months of disbursement; Premier status with HSBC in another country also counts. The card has no separate income requirement. Age 18 to 65, Indian resident living in one of 21 cities: Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Baroda, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi NCR, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Noida, Pune, Surat or Trivandrum. There's no online application: Premier customers apply at an HSBC branch or through Premier PhoneBanking, and others can ask HSBC for a callback about opening a Premier account. If you lose Premier status, HSBC can move you to a different card. Approval is at HSBC's discretion. Approval is at the bank's discretion.