HSBC Live+ Credit Card Review: 10% Cashback on Food, 1.5% on Everything Else
HSBC Live+ offers 10% cashback on dining, food delivery, and groceries (capped at INR 1,000/month) and 1.5% unlimited cashback on everything else. Here's the full breakdown of fees, exclusions, lounge access, and who this card actually makes sense for.
The HSBC Live+ is a cashback credit card from HSBC India that earns 10% cashback on dining, food delivery, and groceries, and 1.5% unlimited cashback on most other spending. It's a Visa Signature card with a low annual fee of INR 999, which is easy to waive.
If you're looking at HSBC's card lineup, this is the everyday cashback option. It's not competing with HSBC's travel cards like the TravelOne or Premier, which earn reward points you can convert to airline miles. The Live+ is simpler: spend money, get cashback as a statement credit. No points to track, no transfers to figure out.
But "10% cashback" and "1.5% unlimited" sound better than they actually are once you look at the fine print. There's a shared cap on the accelerated categories, and the exclusion list is one of the longest you'll see on any Indian credit card. Let's break it all down.
Fees, Welcome Benefit & Renewal
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Joining Fee | INR 999 + GST |
| Annual Fee | INR 999 + GST (from year 2) |
| Fee Waiver | Waived if annual spends exceed INR 2,00,000 |
| Add-on Card | Free |
| Welcome Benefit | INR 1,000 cashback (spend INR 20,000 in first 30 days + download HSBC app) |
| Renewal Benefit | Fee waiver on meeting spend threshold |
The math on joining works in your favour. You pay INR 999 as the joining fee, but you get INR 1,000 cashback if you spend INR 20,000 within the first 30 days and log into the HSBC India app. So you're essentially net positive on day one, assuming you were going to spend that amount anyway.
For the annual fee, INR 2,00,000 per year translates to roughly INR 16,700 per month. If you're using this as your primary card for food and daily expenses, that's a fairly achievable number.
There's no separate renewal benefit like bonus cashback or vouchers. The fee waiver itself is the renewal benefit.
Earning Structure
| Category | Cashback Rate | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Dining | 10% | INR 1,000/billing cycle (shared) |
| Food Delivery | 10% | INR 1,000/billing cycle (shared) |
| Groceries | 10% | INR 1,000/billing cycle (shared) |
| All Other Eligible Spends | 1.5% | Unlimited |
The important thing to understand here is that the INR 1,000 cap is shared across all three accelerated categories collectively. It's not INR 1,000 each for dining, food delivery, and groceries. So if you spend INR 10,000 on Zomato in a billing cycle, you've already hit the cap, and your grocery run that month earns nothing extra.
At 10% cashback with a shared INR 1,000 cap, you max out the accelerated benefit at INR 10,000 in combined spending on these three categories per month. That gives you INR 12,000 per year from the accelerated categories alone. Everything else earns 1.5% with no cap.
Cashback is credited to your card account within 45 days of the statement date. It's automatic, so you don't need to manually redeem anything.
What Doesn't Earn Cashback
This is where the card gets tricky. The exclusion list is extensive:
| Category | Earns Cashback? |
|---|---|
| Fuel | ✗ |
| Utilities (electricity, gas, water) | ✗ |
| Rent & Property Payments | ✗ |
| Education | ✗ |
| Insurance | ✗ |
| Government Payments | ✗ |
| E-Wallet Loading | ✗ |
| Jewellery & Antiques | ✗ |
| Tolls & Bridge Fees | ✗ |
| Charity | ✗ |
| Wholesale Clubs | ✗ |
| B2B Transactions | ✗ |
| Cash Advances | ✗ |
| Gambling | ✗ |
That's a significant chunk of spending for most people. Fuel, utilities, insurance, and rent are among the largest monthly expenses for Indian households, and none of them earn cashback on this card. If these categories make up a big part of your credit card spending, the effective cashback rate on your total spend will be much lower than the headline numbers suggest.
How Cashback Works
The Live+ is a pure cashback card. There are no reward points, no loyalty currencies, and no transfer partners.
Cashback is credited as a statement credit directly to your credit card account within 45 days of your statement date. You don't need to log into a portal, browse a catalogue, or convert anything. It just shows up as a credit on your card.
If you prefer the simplicity of cashback over managing points and transfers, this is straightforward. But if you're someone who likes converting credit card rewards into airline miles or hotel points, this card doesn't offer that option at all. For HSBC cards with transfer capabilities, look at the TravelOne or Premier.
You can compare how different credit cards earn and convert rewards using the Magnify app, which shows transfer partners and ratios across all major Indian credit cards.
Lounge Access
| Type | Visits | Provider |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic | 4/year (1 per quarter) | HSBC Live+ Lounge Program |
| International | ✗ |
You get 4 complimentary domestic airport lounge visits per year, limited to one per quarter. This is for the primary cardholder only. There's no mention of complimentary guest visits.
There's no international lounge access on this card. If you fly internationally and lounge access matters to you, the HSBC Premier offers unlimited domestic and international lounge visits, though it requires an HSBC Premier banking relationship.
Fuel Surcharge Waiver
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Waiver | 1% fuel surcharge waiver |
| Transaction Range | INR 400 to INR 4,000 |
| Where | All fuel stations across India |
The standard 1% fuel surcharge waiver applies on fuel transactions between INR 400 and INR 4,000. Keep in mind that while you save on the surcharge, fuel transactions don't earn any cashback on this card.
There's also a 1% processing fee (plus GST) on rental payments made through the card.
International Spending
The Live+ has a 3.5% foreign currency markup on all international transactions. This is the standard HSBC rate for non-Premier cards.
You do earn the base 1.5% cashback on international spends, which brings the effective cost of forex transactions down to about 2%. That's still not great compared to cards designed for international spending. The HSBC TravelOne charges 2% forex markup, and the Premier charges just 0.99%.
If international spending is a significant part of your card usage, this isn't the right card for that.
Eligibility & Support
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Age | 18 to 65 years |
| Salaried Income | Minimum INR 6,00,000/year |
| Self-Employed Income | Minimum INR 12,00,000/year |
| Cities | Select cities only |
| HSBC Relationship | Not required |
| Phone | 1800 120 4722 (toll-free) |
| App | HSBC India Mobile Banking |
The card is available only in select cities: Chennai, Gurgaon, Delhi NCR, Pune, Noida, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kochi, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Amritsar, Baroda, Indore, and Lucknow.
You don't need an existing HSBC bank account to apply. The income requirement of INR 6 lakh per year for salaried individuals is on the lower side, making this accessible for a wide range of applicants.
Verdict
The HSBC Live+ works best as a food-focused everyday card. 10% cashback on dining, food delivery, and groceries is among the highest in India, and 1.5% unlimited on everything else is competitive for a card with a waivable INR 999 fee.
The catch is the ceiling. The shared INR 1,000 monthly cap limits your accelerated earnings to INR 12,000/year, the exclusion list cuts out most big-ticket categories (fuel, rent, utilities, insurance), and there's no international lounge access or transfer partners.
Get this card if you spend heavily on food and want simple, automatic cashback. Skip it if you travel frequently or want to earn airline miles.
For transferable rewards in the HSBC lineup, look at the TravelOne or Premier.
