Standard Chartered Unlimited VS HSBC Advance VS American Express True Cashback: How Do You Select a Charge card If All 3 Cards Are Similar?
Given the choice, it makes financial sense to be spending money on the things that you buy using your charge card. Paying through your credit cards doesn't set you back anything extra but at the same time, enables you to earn reward points, air miles or cash return.
To compete for that only a little space within our wallets, most credit card issuers do their best to differentiate what their charge cards offer, from what their competitors are giving. Read more about how the various air miles cards are different from one another in the following paragraphs.
Nonetheless, there are times where we may find ourselves evaluating credit cards which appears almost identical. How then will we choose which charge cards you should be applying for?
Standard Chartered Unlimited VS HSBC Advance VS American Express True Cashback
There are three popular (and other alike) cashback credit cards currently in the market – Standard Chartered Unlimited Card, HSBC Advance Credit Card and the American Express True Cashback Card.
All of these cards provide you with a headline cashback rate of just one.5%, with no minimum spend required. Minimum income requirement for all three cards is $30,000 per year.
Naturally, most consumers will think that all three cards are the same and they are right to a certain extent – the 3 cards are indeed very similar. But what if you are searching out for if you're planning on one of these three cards?
Key Features Of Standard Chartered Unlimited, HSBC Advance & American Express True Cashback
|
Standard Chartered Unlimited |
HSBC Advance |
American Express True Cashback |
|
|
Cashback Rate |
1.5% No cashback cap, no minimum spend |
1.5% (for $2,000 and below) 2.5% (above $2,000) Cap of $70 monthly ($125 for HSBC Advance customers) *HSBC Advance banking customers enjoy one more 1% |
1.5% No cashback cap, no minimum spend
|
|
Notable Benefits |
+ Able to use card as an ez-link card + Get access to Standard Chartered's The great Life |
+ Obtain access to ENTERTAINER with HSBC |
+ Fraud Protection |
|
Annual Fee |
$192.60 (waived for first two years) |
$193 (waived for first year) + Perpetual annual fee waiver in your HSBC Advance primary and supplemenary credit card(s) |
$171.20 (waived for first year) |
|
Welcome Benefits |
+ Wake up to $120 cashback from bank + Receive $20 cashback when you apply using MyInfo |
Choice of $150 cash back or Samsonite T5 Spinner worth S$560 (T&Cs apply) + Receive $20 Grab vouchers whenever you apply using MyInfo |
+ Welcome bonus of 3% Cashback on up to a total of S$5,000 spend in your first Six months. + Receive as much as $60 CapitaVouchers upon a minimum spend of $500 within the first month + Apply via MyInfo and obtain an additional $20 Capitavouchers |
Notable Differences Between These 3 Cashback Cards?
Even though all three cashback cards provide a cashback rate at 1.5% per annum, with no minimum spend required, there are several notable differences between all three cards.
Cashback Rate + Maximum Cap
HSBC Advance Charge card gives the highest cashback rate one of the three cards.
That's because if spent a lot more than $2,000 per month, you'll get a cashback rate of 2.5%. If you are a HSBC Advance customer, you receive an additional 1% cashback, that can bring your overall cashback up to and including maximum 3.5%.
However, the HSBC Advance Charge card is also the only card among the three which has a cashback cap of $70 monthly, or $125 for HSBC Advance customers.
Both the conventional Chartered Unlimited and American Express True Cashback gives you 1.5% with no minimum spend or cashback cap.
Additional Perks
As an easy guideline, it seems sensible to choose one card over another if you don't already have any charge card from the issuing bank. Having a charge card in the bank, it allows you to definitely enjoy any discounts or perks the bank is providing to the cardholders.
Standard Chartered Unlimited Card: Gives you use of Standard Chartered's lifestyle programme – The Good Life. Without having a current Standard Chartered card, this may be one reason to apply for the conventional Chartered Unlimited Card.
HSBC Advance Charge card: If you are a foodie who give in to a good deal, you will be happy to understand that the HSBC Advance Charge card will give you use of ENTERTAINER with HSBC. Without having a current HSBC card, this would be one reason to find the HSBC Advance Credit Card.
American Express True Cashback: Fraud protection is among the value-added services that American Express provides for its customers. This comes in particularly handy if you're travelling overseas and could be using your charge cards for payment. In general, with all of things being equal, we tend to prefer using our American Express card for overseas payment whenever it is possible. So if you're looking for the best American Express Cashback card, the American Express True Cashback card will be a sensible choice.
Annual Fee
Annual fees for that three cards are relatively similar. However, HSBC offers to waive your credit card fee perpetually if you are a HSBC Advance banking customer.
For both Standard Chartered Unlimited Card and also the American Express True Cashback cards, there are no notable perks for paying the annual fee so you be more effective off requesting for an annual fee waiver.
