HSBC Live+ Credit Card: With 8% Cashback on Dining, Shopping, and Entertainment, is this the Ultimate Lifestyle Credit Card?

The HSBC Live+ Credit Card was recently crowned the Winner of the Best Credit Card Product for Cash Back in Asia Pacific 2025—and it’s easy to see why. This lifestyle card has been turning heads since its launch in Jun 2024 with an impressive 8% cashback on dining, shopping, and entertainment.

Originally, this high cashback rate was set to end on 31 Dec 2024. But—surprise surprise!—HSBC has since extended a new offer. If you sign up between 1 Apr and 30 Sep 2025, you can still enjoy the 8% cashback rate for the first 2 calendar quarters from your card issue date, provided you meet the minimum spend requirements. That means foodies, shopaholics, and streaming enthusiasts can continue to earn big on their everyday spending.

But does this award-winning card truly live up to the hype in 2025? Let’s take a closer look at what makes it stand out.

HSBC Live+ Credit Card—Is it MoneySmart?
Overall: ★★★★☆ (4.3/5) Best for: Anyone big on dining, shopping, and or entertainment like movies and streaming services. The catch: The 8% (only for first 2 calendar quarters if you sign up by 30 Sep 2025) or 5% cashback rates on dining, shopping, entertainment and petrol are subject to a minimum spend of $600/month for all months in a quarter and a cashback cap of $250 per quarter.
Pros—What we like			Cons—What we don’t like
– Generous 8% cashback rate (first 2 calendar quarters) on dining, shopping and entertainment – After 30 Sep 2025, the usual 5% cashback rate applies to dining, shopping, entertainment, and petrol spending – Other deals and discounts include 15% at over 200 restaurants across Asia and $2 off Golden Village movie tickets – You get standard access to the ENTERTAINER with HSBC app. – You can still earn 8% cashback on the remaining payment amount after applying the 15% dining discount at selected merchants			– 15% off dining under the Live+ Dining Programme: Restaurants in Singapore are limited to 40 (when we counted) and tend to be more expensive establishments you’d only visit on special occasions. Plus, some are subject to minimum spends of up to $200 or $250 for the 15% discount to be applicable. – While you can enjoy 15% off dining at selected merchants overseas, foreign transaction fees still apply. – You’ll only receive your cashback within 2 months after each quarter, and not at the end of every month.
HSBC Live+ Credit Card at a glance
Category		Our rating		The deets
Earn rates: Cashback		★★★★★		– 8% cashback (includes 3% limited-time additional cashback) on dining, shopping, and entertainment for first 2 calendar quarters if you sign up by 30 Sep 2025 – 5% cashback applies to dining, shopping, and entertainment spending if you sign up after 30 Sep 2025 – 5% cashback on petrol spending at Shell and Caltex – Minimum of $600/month spend for all months in a quarter – Cashback capped at $250 per quarter
Earn categories		★★★★☆
Annual fees and charges		★★★★☆		$196.20 (first year waived, waived for subsequent years if you spend more than $12,500 with the card per year)
Accessibility		★★★★☆		Minimum income requirement: – $30,000 (Singaporeans and PRs) – $40,000 (self-employed or commission-based Singaporeans and PRs) – $40,000 (foreigners) Otherwise, you need a minimum fixed deposit collateral of $10,000.
Extras/periphery rewards		★★★★★		– Up to 17% upfront fuel savings and additional 5% cashback at Caltex and Shell – Standard access to ENTERTAINER with HSBC for 1-for-1 dining deals and more – 15% discount at over 200 restaurants across Asia through our curated Live+ Dining Programme. – Online and offline shopping deals, e.g. DKNY, Ecco, lululemon via ShopBack, Uniqlo via ShopBack – Complimentary coverage for any online purchase losses or damages – Enjoy hundreds of deals and privileges with Visa Signature, in categories such as dining, travel, shopping and more – Complimentary travel insurance coverage of up to S$1 million for travel inconvenience, personal accidents and emergency evacuation or repatriation
Sign-up bonus		★★★★☆		MoneySmart welcome gift: $350 cash via PayNow or 5,000 SmartPoints Criteria: Apply and spend a minimum of $500 from your Card Account Opening Date to the end of the following calendar month. Plus, get $70 Trip.com vouchers when you’re among the first 500 eligible customers to apply, get approved and submit the claim form—no minimum spend required. Valid till 16 May 2025.

See our credit card ranking rubric to find out how we rank credit cards.

 

HSBC Live+ Credit Card MoneySmart Review (2025)

1. HSBC Live+ Credit Card: Cashback rate and categories
2. HSBC Live+ Credit Card: How does the cashback work?
3. HSBC Live+ Credit Card: Deals and offers
4. Should I get the HSBC Live+ Credit Card?
5. HSBC Live+ Credit Card: Sign-up promotion
6. Alternatives to the HSBC Live+ Credit Card

 

1. HSBC Live+ Credit Card: Cashback rate and categories

The HSBC Live+ Credit Card is a lifestyle credit card. Its chief benefit is its 5% cashback on a number of lifestyle categories:

• Dining: Restaurants, fast food outlets, bakeries and more (but supermarkets are not included)
• Shopping: Includes departmental stores, clothing shops, shoe stores and more
• Entertainment: Includes movie tickets and subscriptions such as Disney+, Netflix, and Spotify
• Petrol: Shell and Caltex

If you sign up for the card from now till 30 Sep 2025, HSBC is sweetening the deal with a bonus 3% additional cashback on the first 3 categories above for the first 2 calendar quarters. That means you’ll earn a generous 8% cashback on dining, shopping, and entertainment for 6 months.

On other spending, you’ll earn the base cashback rate of 0.3%.

Here’s a full list of the merchant category codes eligible for the 5%/8% cashback:

 

2. HSBC Live+ Credit Card: How does the cashback work?

The HSBC Live+ Credit Card’s cashback programme works on a quarterly basis. So firstly, you’ll need to spend a minimum of $600 per month on the card for all 3 months in a calendar quarter. 

If you fulfil this requirement, you’ll receive your 5% or 8% cashback within 2 months after the end of the quarter. Yeah, that means you may only see the cashback you earned in July in as late as November—that’s 5 months of waiting time!

Cashback will be credited into your card account. It doesn’t come in the form of rewards points or miles.

You can earn a maximum of $250 cashback per quarter, which works out to a spend amount of $3,125 (assuming 8% cashback) or $5,000 (assuming 5% cashback).

Earning cashback with the HSBC Live+ Credit Card in your first quarter

Since the HSBC Live+ Credit Card’s cashback programme works on a quarterly basis, does that mean I have to wait for the start of a quarter to apply for the card? Otherwise, I can’t hit the minimum monthly spend for all 3 months in a quarter, right?

Wrong. HSBC will ignore the $600/month minimum spend only for your first quarter. All you have to do is hit a $1,000 minimum spend during the first quarter to be eligible for the 8% (till 31 Dec 2024) or 5% (after 31 Dec 2024) cashback. You’ll still only receive your cashback within 2 months after the quarter ends, but the spend requirement is much easier to fulfil.

 

3. HSBC Live+ Credit Card: Deals and offers

On top of the cashback you’ll earn, the HSBC Live+ Credit Card will also give you discounts and deals in each of the 3 bonus lifestyle categories it targets. I’m listing some examples of what you can expect below, but you can also click on the respective links to see the full lists.

• Dining: 15% at over 200 restaurants across Asia under their Live+ Dining Programme. For example in Singapore, you can get 15% off à la carte food at Alma by Juan Amador, Dancing Crab, Lao Beijing, Sarnies Cafe, TungLok restaurants, and more
• Shopping: Deals are available both online and in-store. Examples include 15% off your purchases at Love, Bonito plus a complimentary book-a-stylist session, and 2% bonus cashback everyday at lululemon via ShopBack
• Entertainment: Get discounts at Golden Village—enjoy $2 off movie tickets every day, and sip on cocktails by No Sleep Club at Golden Village Gold Class® lounges for just $16 nett (U.P. $20 nett)

 

4. Should I get the HSBC Live+ Credit Card?

While the HSBC Live+ Credit Card comes with a nice set of deals and privileges, its biggest draw is still its generous 8% cashback rate is only applicable for the first 2 calendar quarters. And that’s assuming you sign up for it by 30 Sep 2025. If you don’t, you’ll just get 5% cashback (unless HSBC extends the offer).

Still, if you’re big on dining out, shopping (mainly clothes and shoes) and/or watching movies, the HSBC Live+ Credit Card is a great card to add to your wallet. It’s both comprehensive and, thanks to the 8% limited-time cashback, generous. I can’t think of any other card on the market right now that offers the same cashback rate on 3 lifestyle categories. I mean, there’s a reason the HSBC Live+ Card was crowned the Winner of the Best Credit Card Product for Cash Back in Asia Pacific 2025, right?

But don’t forget that to unlock the 8% cashback rate, you should be spending at least $600 a month on this card. To maximise your cashback, charge an average of $1,042 a month to the card—this will yield the maximum cashback of $250 per quarter.

On the other hand, if you know you’ll bust the $1,042 spend cap, consider other credit cards instead that will earn you cashback on the full amount you spend. The Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card is an alternative to consider, earning you 10% cashback with a $1,500 minimum monthly spend.

TL;DR: Get the HSBC Live+ Credit Card if you’re a big spender on dining, shopping, and entertainment—especially if you sign up by 30 Sep 2025 to enjoy the 8% cashback for the first 2 calendar quarters; otherwise, it drops to 5%.

 

5. HSBC Live+ Credit Card: Sign-up promotion

For new HSBC cardholders, you’ll earn $350 cash via PayNow or 5,000 SmartPoints when you sign up for the HSBC Live+ Card via MoneySmart.

To qualify, apply and spend a minimum of $500 from your Card Account Opening Date to the end of the following calendar month.

On top of the baseline gifts above, you’ll also get $70 Trip.com vouchers when you’re among the first 500 eligible customers to apply, get approved and submit the claim form—no minimum spend required.

Valid till 16 May 2025.

 

6. Alternatives to the HSBC Live+ Credit Card

Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card: Earn up to 10% cashback on fast food dining, coffee and toast, digital subscriptions and your daily commute (Bus/MRT). However, just be aware that this cashback rate hinges on you spending $1,500 or more a month.

UOB One Card: If you spend $2,000 a month, you can get 10% cashback on McDonald’s (including McDelivery®), Shopee, DFI Retail Group (Cold Storage, CS Fresh, Giant, Guardian, 7-Eleven and more), Grab (including GrabFood) and SimplyGo (bus and train rides).

Citi Cash Back Card: With a $800 minimum monthly spend, enjoy 8% cashback on petrol and private commute spend, and 6% cashback on dining and groceries spend.

 

P.S. Here’s our MoneySmart credit card ranking rubric

In case you’re wondering, here’s how we decide on our credit card rankings.

Is that credit card MoneySmart? Our MoneySmart credit card ranking rubric
Category	Our rating
Overall	The average rating for the credit card on the whole, calculated from the ratings for the individual categories below. Plus, we’ll give you a one-liner on who we think the credit card is best suited for.
Earn rates: Air miles / Cashback / Rewards points	Air miles / Cashback / Rewards points. This category looks at the depth rather than breadth of earn rates. 5 stars means this card’s got the highest earn rates within that credit card type. 3-4 stars mean it’s average 1-2 stars reflect earn rates that are below average.
Earn categories	This category looks at the breadth rather than depth of your earnings. 5 stars: Earn with ANY spend. 3-4 stars: Earn on a large number of categories (e.g. all dining, transport and retail, but not telco bills) OR earn on 1 very broad category (e.g. all contactless/mobile payments). 1-2 stars: Earn a decent rate only on selected categories, such as fast food only.
Annual fees and charges	5 stars: $0  4 stars: $1-200 3 stars: $201-500 2 stars: $501-$999 1 star: $1,000 and up We dock a star if fee waiver is NOT allowed.
Accessibility	Minimum income requirements: 5 stars: Less than $30,000 a year 4 stars: Around $30,000 a year for Singaporeans and $40,000-$45,000 for non-Singaporeans 3 stars: $30,000-$60,000 a year for Singaporeans, $40,000-$70,000 for non-Singaporeans 2 stars: $60,000-$120,000 a year for Singaporeans, $70,000-$120,000 for non-Singaporeans 1 star: $120,000 and up for either, or both Exclusivity: We dock 1-2 stars if there is/are another category/categories that make the card exclusive and very specific to a certain clientele.
Extras/periphery rewards	These include: Travel benefits, such as airport lounge access Lifestyle benefits, such as spa privileges Dining benefits, such as complimentary AMEX Love Dining or Entertainer with HSBC subscriptions We count the number of benefits and award between 0.5 to 2 stars for each, depending on how good the perk is.
Sign-up bonus	5 stars: The gift(s), cash, or miles are the highest we see out there compared to other credit cards of the same type (miles, cashback, etc). Also easy to attain these welcome bonuses. 3-4 stars: Average but not disappointing sign-up bonus compared to other credit cards. You aren’t losing out. 1-2 stars: You are probably losing out in terms of the welcome bonus you’re getting; there are other similar credit cards with sign-up bonuses that are better or easier to attain.

Check out our ultimate list of credit card reviews for the low-down on credit cards in Singapore.

 

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