I have been using HSBC Gold card for about 4 years now. It had been offered as a life time free credit card to me under the corporate employee plan by one of their agents in our company premises. I was very skeptical in the beginning since I had head that none of the bank actually gives you a lifetime free card. They usually start levying charges after a year or so. And that is what exactly happened after 1 year of my using this card when I was presented with the monthly statement containing an annual fee of Rs. 2400. I instantly rang them up and threatened to cancel the card if those charges were not reversed. I did not expect them to do so but to my surprise the charges were immediately reversed and they have never levied those charges again.
The best thing about this card is the zero petrol surcharge. I never used any credit card a few years ago on petrol pumps since they all used to charge about20-40 Rs. on the petrol amount. So I always had to be conscious of carrying enough money in my pocket whenever I went for a fill. But since HSBC stopped charging fuel surcharge, it has been so convenient for me. Mind you they do initially levy the surcharge and then reverse it at the end of the calendar month after identifying the vendor code.
There was one incident when I really started to value this card when I had bid for an air ticket on an online auction about 2 years ago on Indiatimes. I did not win the auction and hence no mail was sent by Indiatimes for the same. But I was shocked to receive the monthly statement showing that the bid amount had been charged to my credit card. I immediately wrote to Indiatimes and HSBC both narrating the incident. Though Indiatimes was not very forthcoming and they demanded the statement of the credit card which I was very hesitant to send by post (due to security reasons), HSBC was prompt in replying and they immediately gave me the reversal of the amount after I send them a fax. I know how tough it is to get these charges reversed based on my experiences with other credit cards (CITIBANK still gives me nightmares) and that is why I appreciate this card even more.
HSBC online is a very responsive and quick website and all the details of one’s transactions are easily available there. It has a very comprehensive set of features if you are also holding a savings/DeMAT account with HSBC.
They have offered add on cards to me for whole of my family (sadly free only for one year) which has also been very convenient since my wife’s add on card is MasterCard while mine is Visa and there has been an incident where I could only transact with her card and not mine.
Another good feature is the bonus points reward program of HSBC which gives you one bonus point for every 100 Rs. spent on the card. These bonus points can be accumulated and later one can redeem gifts for certain number of bonus points for example you can choose to redeem 625 bonus points for a Rs. 500 Shopper’s Stop gift voucher (which happens to be my favorite redemption). They recently had this cash back scheme which I benefited from thoroughly. They do keep sending very good offers from time to time.
Only negative incident I had recently when I converted one of my transactions to a loan (under their Loan on Phone scheme). The EMI told to me was lower than they actually charged though the difference was not much. I demanded calculation from them which the call center executive very rudely agreed to and I haven’t received it even till now. The customer care can only be as good as one’s executive so I have shrugged that as an aberration.
But I am still thoroughly satisfied with their service and customer care and value this card the most out of all my credit cards. I would say this card is the best of all the ones being offered in India.