Posted by: John S Kiernan

EDITOR’S RATING 4.6 / 5 PROS

• 0% Purchases & Transfers for 18 Months
• $0 Annual Fee
• Available to people with good credit or better

CONS

• 4% balance transfer fee (min. $10)
• No rewards

The Verdict: The HSBC Gold Mastercard® Credit Card (HSBC is a WalletHub partner) is a great option for people with good or excellent credit who want to pay for big-ticket purchases over time, offering an 18-month interest-free introductory period that puts it firmly within the top tier of 0% credit cards on the market right now. It doesn’t have an annual fee, either. In contrast, the average card charges $18.15 per year. And the average 0% purchase period lasts for slightly more than 10.5 months.

The HSBC Gold card gives you 0% on balance transfers for the first 18 months, too. But that’s not quite as good of a deal, largely because HSBC Gold charges a fee equal to 4% of the amount transferred, or $10 if you transfer $250 or less. But it’s still very good compared to most of the competition. The average 0% balance transfer card gives you an 12-month break from interest and charges a transfer fee of less than 3%.

Much like you won’t see interest for a while when using the HSBC Gold Mastercard, you won’t ever find yourself earning rewards. The card doesn’t offer any – neither cash back, nor points or miles. That’s worth noting, for sure. But it shouldn’t matter one bit. Using the same card for everyday spending and carrying a balance from month to month is a bad idea because you wind up paying a lot more in interest, which cancels out the rewards. And no credit card truly excels in both categories. You can get far better terms overall by getting the best rewards card for everyday purchases and the best 0% credit card for expenses that will take longer than a month to pay off.

The HSBC Gold credit card is definitely in best-0%-card conversation. So it’s certainly worthy of your consideration. You can learn everything else you’ll need to know about the offer below.

The Highlights

• 0% Purchases & Transfers for 18 Months: Very few credit cards offer 0% intro rates for 18 months or longer. In fact, the average 0% cards give you 12 months for balance transfers and 10.5 months for new purchases. An extra 6-7 months before high regular rates take effect could save you a lot of money on interest.

  For example, let’s say you’re planning to spend $10,000 and then repay your balance with $500 monthly payments. With HSBC Gold, even if you got the highest advertised regular rate, you’d still end up paying just $26 in interest. But a card offering 0% for only the first 10 months would cost you roughly $332 when all is said and done. You can crunch the numbers for your exact situation using WalletHub’s handy credit card calculator.

• No Annual Fee: You don’t want to pay an annual fee for a 0% credit card because that’s just interest in another form. So it’s good that HSBC Gold doesn’t charge one. This also saves you $18.15 per year compared to the average credit card.

• Available to People with Good Credit: Top-notch 0% credit cards are often reserved for people with excellent credit. But not the HSBC Gold Mastercard. You can get it with just good credit, though we do recommend a score in the upper half of the good credit range for reasonable approval odds. If you don’t know your current credit score, you can check it for free on WalletHub.

The Lowlights

• 4% Balance Transfer Fee: The average American household has roughly $8,000 in credit card debt. So the HSBC Gold Card’s 4% transfer fee would cost them around $320. That’s about $104 more than the average balance transfer credit card would charge. As a result, if you don’t need the full length of HSBC Gold’s 0% intro period, you may want to consider one of the 0% transfer cards with no balance transfer fee, if any are still available when you apply.

• No Rewards: This shouldn’t be a surprise, considering that very few 0% credit cards offer rewards. And it shouldn’t be a big deal, seeing as you should use a separate rewards card for everyday purchases that you’ll repay in full by the end of the month. But it’s still worth noting so you have the chance to look elsewhere for a card to suit your everyday spending needs.

Other Things To Consider

• Fairly Average Regular APR: The HSBC Gold Card’s regular APR, 14.24% - 25.24% (V), depends on your overall creditworthiness. Simply put, people with perfect credit are most likely to get a rate at the low end of the advertised range, while folks with good credit tend to get a rate at the high end. To understand how high or low these rates really are, a bit of context is necessary. The average credit card for excellent credit charges 14.49%, according to WalletHub’s latest Credit Card Landscape Report, while the average credit card for good credit charges 20.79%.

  So if you have stellar credit, you may receive a relatively low regular rate. But if you barely meet HSBC Gold’s good-credit approval requirement, you’ll probably end up overpaying on interest if you carry a balance from month to month when regular rates are in effect.

• No Foreign Transaction Fee: This probably isn’t relevant to how you intend to use the HSBC Gold Mastercard. But if you do happen to use it when traveling abroad or to make purchases through international companies while in the U.S., it’s nice to know that it won’t cost you extra.

Compared To The Competition

The HSBC Gold Mastercard isn’t the only great 0% credit card available right now. See how it stacks up against the top competition below.

	HSBC Gold Mastercard® Credit Card	SponsoredCiti Simplicity® Card - No Late Fees Ever	Chase Slate®
Annual Fee	$0	$0	$0
Rewards Bonus	N/A	N/A	N/A
Rewards Rate	N/A	N/A	N/A
Purchase Intro APR	0% for 15 months	0% for 12 months*	0% for 15 months
Transfer Intro APR	0% for 15 monthsTransfer Fee: 4% (min $10)	0% for 21 months*Transfer Fee: 5% (min $5)	0% for 15 monthsTransfer Fee: $0
Regular APR	14.24% - 25.24% (V)	16.24% - 26.24%* (V)	17.24% - 25.99% (V)
Editors’ Rating	4.6 / 5	3.7 / 5	5.0 / 5
Details, Rates & Fees	Learn MoreRates & Fees	Learn More	Learn More
Winners	Citi Simplicity® Card - No Late Fees Ever	Chase Slate®

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