Guide: HSBC Live+ Spend Requirements

With a generous 8% cashback, HSBC Live+ is one of the reigning cards for cashback, and it of course comes with some requirements for its excellent earn rate. As a card that gives its cashback on a quarterly basis and only on certain categories of spend, the requirements are a little more complex than your wimpy 1.5% cashback card, but it’s not that difficult to use.

New cardholders even get a special concession for the spend requirements in their first quarter which I’ll elaborate on later in this article. Speaking of new cardholders, its excellent sign-up promo has just been extended:

Quarterly Spend Requirement

HSBC Live+ gives its cashback on a quarterly basis and cardholders need to spend at least S$600 per month for all 3 months within a calendar quarter. Calendar quarters refer to January to March, April to June, July to September, and October to December each year.

The quarterly mechanic makes it a little harder to use than most cards since you can lose your entire quarter’s cashback just by failing to meet one month’s spend requirement:

	Month 1*	Month 2	Month 3	Cashback
Cardholder A	S$1,200	S$800	S$600	S$208 (8% on S$2,600 of eligible spend)
Cardholder B	$1,200	S$800	S$599	S$7.79 (0.3% on S$2,599 of spend; did not hit S$600 per month requirement)

First Quarter’s Spend Requirement for New Cardholders

Fortunately, the monthly spend requirement is waived for new cardholders for the first quarter. Instead, they just need to make a minimum spend of S$1,000 within the calendar quarter their card is approved.

For instance, if your card is approved in August which is part of the 3rd calendar quarter of the year (July, August, and September), you just need to make sure you hit S$1,000 of spend before the end of 30th September 2024:

	July	August	September	Cashback
Cardholder A	N/A	S$500	S$500	S$80 (8% on S$1,000 of eligible spend)
Cardholder B	N/A	S$3,000	S$5	S$240.40 (8% on S$3,005 of eligible spend)
Cardholder C	N/A	S$200	S$600	S$2.40 (0.3% on S$800 of spend; did not hit S$1,000 within first quarter)

Maximum Cashback Per Quarter: S$250

The maximum amount of cashback one can get per quarter is S$250. At the highest 8% cashback, this is S$3,125 of spend. This gives cardholders some flexibility when it comes to their monthly spend. If you have spent S$600 per month for 2 months and have a larger purchase in the 3rd month for example, you can spend as much as S$1,925 within a month for the full 8% cashback.

For new cardholders, you can simply make S$3,125 of spend during your first quarter and get full 8% cashback on your spend. That could be in a single month, or spread out across 3 months in any fashion because there is no monthly spend requirement in your first quarter, just the S$1,000 minimum spend to worry about.

Eligible Spend vs 8% Categories

The above examples assumes that all the spend are on one of the categories that get 8% cashback with HSBC Live+. These include things like dining, certain shopping and other MCCs (refer to the review for more details).

For the avoidance of doubt, spend that are not in one of the 8% cashback categories can still count towards your spend requirement. This is provided they are not excluded spend.

	Month 1	Month 2	Month 3	Cashback
Cardholder A	S$600 dining	S$600 dining	S$400 dining S$200 electronics (not an 8% category)	S$128.60 (8% on S$1,600 of dining and 0.3% on S$200 electronics)
Cardholder B	S$600 dining	S$600 dining	S$400 dining S$200 Grab top-up (excluded spend)	S$4.80 (0.3% on S$1,600 dining and 0% on Grab top-up)

Personally, I think it is quite okay to use HSBC Live+ for things even beyond the 8% cashback categories. In Cardholder A’s example, the cashback yield is 7.14% which isn’t that bad. Of course, your cashback rate is watered down more as the amount of non-8% spend increases.

As long as you can make sure that at least 75% of your spend is on the 8% categories, you should still get 6% cashback or more overall which is quite respectable.

Again, to avoid any doubt, excluded spend will not count towards the minimum spend. Cardholder B would fail to get 8% on anything because he did not hit the S$600 spend requirement in Month 3 (Grab top-ups are an excluded transaction).

heymax Vouchers Are a Great Option

As mentioned in my full review, heymax vouchers are an excellent way to clock the spend requirements of HSBC Live+ because the MCC is 5311 which gets 8% cashback with HSBC Live+. You get a good variety of different retailers plus extra miles from heymax.

A great thing about vouchers is that you are able to better “organise” your spend. You may not be able to meet S$600 of spend within a month, but vouchers allow you to clock the spend requirement first and you can store the vouchers for later use.

In fact, 8% cashback is attractive enough to sign up for the card just to be a “heymax voucher card”. I know more than a few people who are getting HSBC Live+ just to load up on vouchers while the 8% cashback is still active for use after the 8% earn rate is gone.

Promo Spend Requirement

Finally, let’s not froget the sign-up promo which comes with its own spend requirement. As long as you make S$500 of eligible spend before the end of the month following card approval, you can get the welcome gifts. If your card is approved in August 2024, you have until 30th September 2024 to mke that S$500 of spend.

More Questions?

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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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