First Look: New Cashback Card HSBC Live+ Offering up to 8% Cashback on Dining, Shopping, Entertainment and Fuel
New card alert: HSBC Live+ has hit our shores and it’s a cashback card! This new credit card is offering up to 8% cashback on things like dining, shopping, entertainment, and fuel. It’s certainly a promising looking card, so here are some first looks and impressions.
Boosted 8% cashback until 31st December 2024
The HSBC Live+ card offers 5% cashback on dining, shopping and fuel transactions. Until 31st December 2024 however, there is an additional 3% cashback on dining, shopping, and entertaiment expenses. This makes the 8% figure which is what the marketing is harping on.
While it’s not a permanent feature, the card does offer achievable 8% cashback as long as you meet the conditions. It’s a low bar, but credit is due to HSBC for not artificially inflating the cashback rate to something that is not actually attainable in practice.
HSBC Live+
Cards approved between 1st April 2025 to 31st March 2026: get upsized 8% cashback on dining and shopping and 5% cashback on fuel. Read the review here.
🎁 New Cardholders
Apply by 2nd August 2026 and choose 1:
Don’t like the gifts? You can choose to top up. Tap on Apply and view options on landing page. Refer to Important Steps below
💳 Existing Cardholders
Apply and receive:
Existing cardholders are those who have not cancelled any HSBC card in the past 12 months, and their existing HSBC cards were issued more than 12 months ago
⚠️ Important Steps
- Provide HSBC consent to receive marketing/promotional materials during application
- Fill up SingSaver Rewards Redemption Form to select your gift
- If no application reference number is provided, use the last 4 digits of your mobile number
- Existing cardholders can fill up the form pick any gift; S$50 cashback will be given upon completion of requirements
- Make a min. spend of S$500 by the end of the following month from card approval date to be eligible for rewards (i.e. cards approved in August will have until 30th September to complete spend requirement)
For reference only; refer to exact details in terms and conditions
S$600 minimum spend, selected categories
To get the 8% rate (or 5% for fuel), you need to make at least S$600 of spend per month. The higher cashback rate is also only on selected Merchant Category Codes (MCC):
Dining
| Merchant Category Code (MCC) | Description |
| 5811 | Caterers |
| 5812 | Eating Places and Restaurants |
| 5462 | Bakeries |
| 5814 | Fast Food Restaurants |
Shopping
| Merchant Category Code (MCC) | Description |
| 5262 | Marketplaces |
| 5309 | Duty Free Stores |
| 5310 | Discount Stores |
| 5311 | Departmental Stores |
| 5331 | Variety Stores |
| 5611 | Men’s and Boys’ Clothing and Accessories Stores |
| 5621 | Women’s Ready to Wear Stores |
| 5631 | Women’s Accessory and Specialty Stores |
| 5641 | Children’s and Infants’ Wear Stores |
| 5651 | Family Clothing Stores |
| 5655 | Sports and Riding Apparel Stores |
| 5661 | Shoe Stores |
| 5691 | Men’s and Women’s Clothing Stores |
| 5699 | Miscellaneous Apparel and Accessory Shops |
| 5941 | Sporting Goods Stores |
| 5948 | Luggage or Leather Goods Stores |
Entertainment
| Merchant Category Code (MCC) | Description |
| 4899 | Cable, Satellite and Other Pay Television/Radio/Streaming Services |
| 5735 | Record Stores |
| 5815 | Digital Goods Media – Books, Movies, Digital artwork/images, Music |
| 7832 | Motion Picture Theaters |
Fuel (Caltex or Shell in Singapore only)
| Merchant Category Code (MCC) | Description |
| MCC 5541 | Service Stations |
| MCC 5542 | Automated Fuel Dispensers |
Full terms and conditions can be found here.
Quarterly Cashback Mechanic
Like UOB One and Maybank Platinum Visa, HSBC Live+ works on a quarterly cashback mechanic. Users would have to spend at least S$600 per month for a calendar quarter (e.g. July, August, and September) to qualify for cashback.
Unlike those two cards which require fairly consistent amounts to get the most optimal cashback rate, you can have more irregularity in your spends here. For example, there is no issue having S$600 spend in July, S$1,000 in August, and S$800 spend in September. You can still get your 5% or 8% cashback rate as long as you hit the minimum spend and do not exceed the quarterly cashback cap.
Cashback Cap: S$250 per quarter
The maximum cashback a cardholder can get each quarter is S$250. For an 8% cashback rate, that’s S$3,125 spend within the quarter which should be sufficient for many people who aren’t big spenders. Moreover, having a quarterly cap instead of a monthly one means that the card can handle larger expenditure within a single month.
Most cashback cards have relatively low monthly caps, so this card could prove more suitable for those with more spend.
On top of that, there are no category limits like Maybank Family and Friends, so if you are a heavy spender on dining, you can make all S$600 of spend per month on that and get your 8% with HSBC Live+.
Other perks and sign-up bonus
The card also comes with a few other perks and benefits, and I will review the card in greater detail so stay subscribed for that. Currently, there is a sign-up promo from the bank, but I would suggest you to wait for an upcoming offer from SingSaver which should be coming Soon™.
Definitely subscribe and leave notifications on so you can get updated in a timely manner.
A promising card with decent use cases
At first look, this is definitely a promising card with good use cases. While having a list of selected MCCs can be restrictive, the categories found here are relatively decent and easy to use. For one, 5814 and 5812 are found together in dining which is something that is becoming rarer of late.
I’m not really a fan of quarterly cashback mechanics, but at least HSBC Live+ has pretty flexible spending requirements. Aside from a S$600 minimum spend each month, you are free to spend beyond that up till the S$250 cashback cap which is relatively roomy. There is also no category sub-limit to be concerned about, which is another plus.
More, including ways to maximise this, will be in a full review, so stay subscribed for that.
Seth Wee was a licensed financial adviser representative from 2009 to 2025, with over 16 years of experience in Singapore’s financial advisory industry.
He started Sethisfy.com in 2019 to share practical insights on credit cards, banking products, and miles strategies, helping readers identify financial products that deliver the best value. Seth has been featured in CNA, Channel 8, Today, and a host of other publications. In 2025, he was also part of a panel at CPF’s Ready For Life festival.
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