larrylim

Probably the lowest requirement is in Malaysia - RM200k, i.e. around US$60,000. So you could open a Premier account here if possible, and then use it to open Premier accounts in other countries.

cakella

It takes INR 2500K to open premier account in India. This roughly USD 55K @ 45INR exchange rate.

KeepDiscovering

There are lower asset min. requirements in some 'emergining' countries where they seem keen to expand customer bases, like India, Egypt and Turkey. The min. requirements are around USD$50000 (they list in local currency).

The highest I've seen is SAAB Saudi Arabia (HSBC in KSA), almost US$300000 (SAR 1m)

KeepDiscovering

Nil forex transaction fees are much more preferrable personally, as it's a direct saving in my pocket.

Those reward schemes are not really as tempting as they seem - banks earn you transaction fees and return a proportion of fees as 'reward'. And worse is that ones need to keep spending more until they could accumulate enough bonus points for the rewards.

asandrs

My home base is in Tampa, FL, but I'm HSBC Premier in the UK. I'm now in France for about 6 months and I've just signed up for Premier here (in Paris). Suprisingly they are going to give me a HSBC credit card in France immediately (albeit with a monthly fee) whereas I could not get one in the UK as I had limited recent credit history (but in France I have none !). I'll report back on my experiences with the Premier service here - one thing I have found is that they don't offer internet services in their lounges - that was a real PITA as I could not get WIFI to work at my hotel and I was forced to use one of those cafes - you know the ones where no food or drink is allowed. BTW - I'm also Citigold, but a fat lot of good that will do me in France.

yyzvoyageur

I took part in an online research panel this morning for HSBC Premier about upcoming changes to the rewards programme associated with the HSBC Premier MasterCard. Since there may be others here who are interested in these upcoming changes, I thought I'd share what I learned. I should note that I'm in Canada, so I don't know if these changes apply only to the Canadian card.

The Travel and Merchandise Rewards Programme will be renamed HSBC Premier Rewards. The following is a summary of the proposed changes I recall being mentioned.

1. They will no longer charge a service fee for rewards redemptions.
2. "Flight Rewards" will be changing to "Travel Rewards". You will be able to book any travel (flights, hotels, car hire, packages) through any method (company website, Expedia, etc.) and can redeem your points within 60 days. They will no longer book travel through their own call centre. Full or partial rewards redemptions will be possible.
3. They will increase the redemption rate by 25%. For example, 10 000 points will be needed to cover $125 worth of travel spending.
4. A bonus of 2500 points will be credited to your account after spending $12 000 in a year. Another bonus of 5000 points will be credited at $24 000.
5. Points can be transferred to airline frequent flyer programmes. To start they will be partnering with Cathay Pacific, British Airways and Singapore Airlines.

I suggested improving the insurance package that comes with the card (adding flight delay coverage). Also, I suggested that instead of a 25% increase, if they increased it by 50%, I'd be sold on the new programme. They specifically stated that other airline frequent flyer programmes would be added in future, so I suggested Aeroplan as one to add. I also suggested allowing pooling of points from different cards (i.e., Premier MasterCards issued in different countries to the same person).

Overall, I think these are some solid changes. When they're implemented I'll be taking a very close look at the details and may well revert to using my Premier MasterCard for everything.

Any other comments on these proposed changes?

pWei

That will indeed be nice if it happens. Now my card is pretty much sock drawered, unless I feel the need for a backup card while traveling.

Baggage delay, Travel delay (both with reasonable terms), primary rental coverage would be nice too.

yyzvoyageur

The insurance packages must differ significantly by country. I reviewed the insurance coverage that comes with my Canadian card the other day and found that it's not nearly as bad as I had been led to believe. It has 17-day travel medical, 31-day CDW for vehicles up to $65 000, baggage delay and loss (including theft), trip cancellation, trip delay, unexpected return home, etc. The only thing I would like to see added is flight delay insurance.

neuro0

My US based card has no award redemption fee.

yyzvoyageur

I should have mentioned earlier, if anyone else is a Premier customer with HSBC and is interested in taking part in similar online research panels, this is the place to sign up.

cuto

one off promotions with American Airlines or something else? that'd be amazing if they had a special promotion where you could redeem less points for AA airfare. right now, the ratio is pretty ridiculous.

mia

The promotion to which VoxPop seems to refer "concierge from curb to lounge" had nothing to do with redeeming points for airfare, but rather complimentary use of the Five Star service:

http://www.aa.com/i18n/urls/fivestarservice.jsp

cuto

oh d'oh! too bad, there isn't a deal for Star Alliance members.

also i noticed that the card now charges a 2.5% fee for currency conversion purchases. gosh, this card's benefits are beginning to look very lacking.

Gekko

In the US, the website still states: "No foreign transaction fees on purchases made in a
foreign currency"

yyzvoyageur

Are you referring to the Canadian card? As Gekko said, the US card still doesn't seem to charge a forex fee.