You learn something new every day, and today I’m sharing a quirky but potentially practical tip for earning Avios.
HSBC is an international bank, and if you’re one of their “Premier” customers, you can take advantage of a special feature called Global Transfer. This allows you to instantly open an HSBC Premier account in another country.. You may be familiar with a similar offer from American Express.
I recently became a Premier customer in the UK. While I haven’t tried this myself yet, I know several people who’ve successfully used it to open accounts in mainland China, Hong Kong, and the United States.
Once you have a local HSBC Premier account, you can join that country’s rewards program. In Hong Kong, for example, you’d get a RewardCash account, earning points from card spending that can be redeemed for cashback or air miles.
I’m not sure how easy it is to earn those points while based overseas, but you can also receive point transfers from other people’s accounts. On Alibaba’s Xianyu app (think Taobao but C2C), some sellers offer points at around 11p each.
I’m not suggesting you go out and buy points — after all not every bank is Ping An and there are potential risks.
RewardCash points can be transferred to BA Avios at a ratio of 1:15. Right now, there’s a promotion offering a 25% bonus in August, meaning you could effectively buy Avios at around 0.6p each, which is dirt cheap.
Given how easy it is to transfer HSBC Premier accounts internationally, I might give this a try the next time I’m in Hong Kong and dig deeper into the program.
Do you have to be in Hong Kong to open an account? I’m HSBC Premier in the UK, and always wondering if I should take advantage and try to match myself to as many other HSBC Premier locations as possible (without actually having to travel there).
Do you know which ones are the easiest/cheapest/most useful? I’ve heard Australian HSBC Premier is quite useful