Clash of the Credit Cards!
American Express Cobalt® Card
vs.
HSBC World Elite® Mastercard®

Welcome to another Rewards Canada Clash! This time in our Clash of the Credit Cards we have two of Canada's top travel rewards cards go head to head! Those cards are the American Express Cobalt® Card and the HSBC World Elite® Mastercard®

Click here to see all the other Rewards Canada clashes

In this match up we look at over half a dozen criteria to compare the cards against one another along with a head to head detailed table comparison.

Annual Fees

The American Express Cobalt Card and HSBC World Elite Mastercard have very similar annual fees. The Cobalt Card runs $12.99 per month ($155.88 per year) while the HSBC card is $150 per year. Both cards offer additional (supplementary) cards for no charge.

At the time of first posting this clash the HSBC card comes with a first year annual waiver which is something we have not seen on the Cobalt card. As the annual fee waiver on the HSBC card is something we don't consider as part of the standard fees but rather the welcome bonus, we don't give it weight in this round.

Still with that said the HSBC card takes this round for coming in $5.88 cheaper than the Cobalt card on an annual basis.

Welcome Bonus

For the standard sign up bonus there are some slight differences between the cards.

The standard welcome bonus on the Cobalt Card is 1,250 points per month in each month you make $750 in purchases on the card in the first 12 months. This works out to up to 15,000 Membership Rewards points.

The standard bonus on the HSBC World Elite Mastercard is 20,000 points when you spend $1,000 on the card in the first three months of having it.

Currently the HSBC card has an increased welcome bonus offer that provides up to 80,000 points and the first year annual fee waived. The bonus points are broken down it two parts. The first part awards 20,000 HSBC Rewards points upon approval and the second part awards 10,000 points each month when you spend at least $1,000 each month for the first 6 months of account opening.

There is also a big difference in the minimum income required to apply for these cards. The HSBC World Elite Mastercard requires $80,000 personal or $150,000 household versus no set requirement on the Cobalt Card.

With an increased welcome bonus and no annual fee in the first year this category goes to the HSBC World Elite Mastercard

Rates

The cards are almost equal in the interest rate department with both cards charging 20.99% on purchases with the Cobalt card coming out slightly ahead by 1 percentage point for cash advance interest rates.

The HSBC World Elite Mastercard also features no foreign transaction fees. That's the pesky 2.5% rate that most cards in Canada charge you for conducting transactions in currencies outside of the Canadian dollar. If you have a lot of purchases outside of Canada (whether travelling, online shopping, importing goods for your business) being able to save 2.5% can be a big deal.

This category easily goes to HSBC for having no foreign transaction fees.

Features & Benefits

The features and benefits category sees some significant differences between the two cards. Basically, the American Express Cobalt Card does not provide any additional features or benefits like annual credits, lounge access like the HSBC does.

The HSBC World Elite Mastercard provides an annual $100 travel enhancement credit that can be used towards travel related charges like seat selection fees, baggage fees, lounge access passes and more.

The HSBC card also comes with a lounge access benefit known as Mastercard Travel Pass provided by DragonPass. This is an annual membership program that saves you the US$99 it would cost if you were to buy the membership on your own. The membership then provides discounted access to lounges which is currently set at US$32 fee per person to enter a lounge.

Finally, The HSBC card also provides global Wi-Fi access via Boingo which includes free Wi-Fi access on select airlines including WestJet.

As mentioned above the Cobalt Card does not have any features like those seen on the HSBC card but it does have Amex Offers, Amex Invites and a referral bonus.

Amex Offers from American Express are statement credits, discount or bonus points that are offered throughout the year for using your card at select merchants. We've seen bonuses and credits for Amazon.ca, Chapters Indigo and many more. Rewards Canada has an entire guide to Amex Offers which you can check out here

American Express also has Amex Invites which the Cobalt Card is part of and that's Amex's exclusive access to concerts (Amex Front of the Line), shopping events and more

The Cobalt Card has one additional benefit and that is Amex's refer a friend bonus. This is where cardmembers can refer other people to get the card and once they do you'll receive bonus points for the referral.

This category actually works out quite close if you can extract value from Amex Offers. I can only talk to my personal experience with Amex Offers can and they do a provide a lot of value. For some it can easily work out to being more than the HSBC's annual travel credit. However, with the lounge access membership giving it a slight edge, the HSBC card takes this category

Points Earning & Redemption

This is the category that holds the most weight in our Clashes and while both cards excel in earn and burn, there is one clear cut winner. Both cards have multiple accelerated earn rates and provide multiple redemption options but it is the earn to burn value ratio that sees similarities end.

The American Express Cobalt Card earns 5 points per dollar on eats and drinks (dining, groceries, food delivery, coffee shops, convenience stores etc.) 3 points per dollar on select streaming services, 2 points per dollar on travel, gas and transit purchases and then 1 point per dollar on all other spending. The 5x points on eats and drinks is capped at $2,500 per month (as of Aug 15, 23)

The HSBC World Elite Mastercard earns 6 points per dollar spent on travel, 4 points per dollar on Gas, Grocery and Drugstore and then 2 points per dollar on all other spending. The 6x points on travel is capped at $50,000 spending annually.

As you can see the two cards have quite similar points earning opportunities however you also have to look at the value of those points to make a proper comparison of them. When looking at the most popular redemption of booking travel on your own, the points earned on the American Express Cobalt Card have a value of 1 cent each while the points earned on the HSBC card have a value of 0.5 cents. That puts the value of Cobalt Card's 1 to 5x points at 1 to 5 cents per dollar spent on the card while the HSBC's 2 to 6x points come in at 1 to 3 cents per dollar spent. So even though the HSBC card offers up to 6 points per dollar the top end actual value is lower than the 5 points per dollar on the Cobalt Card.

When redeeming for a travel booking you make on your own the Cobalt Card allows you to redeem as little as 1,000 points for a $10 credit while HSBC requires you to redeem a minimum 25,000 points for a $100 credit and then multiples of 10,000 points after that. So the Cobalt Card is much more flexible here, not to mention with the Cobalt Card you have up to 12 months after the charge posts to redeem towards it while the HSBC card only gives you 60 days.

The difference comes when redeeming points as the two programs have a different value points. That is each point is worth 1 cent towards travel (typically noted as 100 points to $1 or 1,000 points to $10) Thus for travel redemptions the MBNA card provides a 1% to 5.5% return on spending while the Scotia card provides a 1% to 6% return. The big difference between the two cards comes with the flexibility of the redemption.

American Express also has a travel option called Fixed points for Travel. This is their reward chart option that you can use to book travel via American Express Travel. Think of it as your traditional frequent flyer program style chart where you redeem a fixed amount of points for travel to a certain area. For example you can redeem 60,000 points for a flight to Europe from Canada with a maximum value of $900 before fees and taxes. That means you could spend as little as $12,000 on the Cobalt Card for a $900 flight. The Fixed Points for Travel chart provides potential returns of 1.5% or more on the 1 point per dollar spent category to a high of 10% for the 5x points category if you redeem for the five popular route options on the chart (15,000 points for routes like Calgary-Vancouver, Toronto-Montreal etc.)

The final travel redemption option you see on both cards is one that is a favourite of points and miles enthusiasts and that is the ability to convert points to other programs.

You can convert the points from the American Express Cobalt Card to six airline and two hotel programs including Air Canada Aeroplan, British Airways Executive Club and Marriott Bonvoy. With the HSBC World Elite Mastercard you can convert points to three airline programs including British Airways Executive Club, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles and Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer.

For conversion to travel partners the American Express Cobalt Card does much better here once again. If we compare one of the programs that both cards feature as a transfer partner, British Airways Executive Club, the Cobalt Card earns the equivalent of 1 to 5 Avios per dollar spent versus the HSBC card's 0.8 to 2.4 Avios per dollar spent.

On top of that the Cobalt Card has Canada's most popular frequent flyer program, Air Canada's Aeroplan as a partner. With the points converting 1:1 the Cobalt Card is actually the best card in Canada for earning Aeroplan points. The HSBC Card is the only card in Canada to have direct conversion to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer but that is very niche program for Canadians which doesn't come close in comparing in popularity to Aeroplan.

Airline or Hotel Program	Miles/Points earned per dollar spent American Express Cobalt Card	Miles/Points earned per dollar spent HSBC World Elite Mastercard
Air Canada Aeroplan	1 to 5 Points	N/A
Air France KLM Flying Blue	0.75 to 3.5 Miles	N/A
British Airways Executive Club	1 to 5 Avios	0.8 to 2.4 Avios
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles	0.75 to 3.5 Miles	0.64 to 1.92 miles
Delta SkyMiles	0.75 to 3.5 Miles	N/A
Etihad Guest	0.75 to 3.5 Miles	N/A
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer	N/A*	0.72 to 2.16 miles
Hilton Honors	1 to 5 points	N/A
Marriott Bonvoy	1.2 to 6 points	N/A

* Technically, you can earn Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles by converting the Cobalt's points to Marriott and then onto Singapore Airlines.

Both cards also offer cash back redemption options. The American Express Cobalt Card allows cardmembers to redeem 1,000 points for a $10 credit towards any non-travel purchase made on the card. That works out to a 1 to 5% return on your card spending. The HSBC Card also has a cash back redemption option where you redeem 25,000 for a $75 statement credit - that works out to approximately a 0.6% to 1.8% return on your spending.

After the travel and cash back you have numerous other redemption options with these cards including financial products, gift cards and merchandise.

In this the most important round of all, the earn and burn round, the clear winner is the American Express Cobalt Card thanks to its higher earn rates, earn to burn value ratio and supremacy in rewards flexibility including better conversion options.

Insurance

Both cards offer a variety of travel insurance and other insurance coverage but one card has the edge in this category. The HSBC World Mastercard offers a more comprehensive suite of travel insurance that includes trip cancellation and trip interruption, both of which the Cobalt Card does not have.

The HSBC Card also has far superior out of province emergency medical coverage that provides 31 days of coverage for those up to age 64 compared to Cobalt's 15 days. For 65 and over the HSBC card provides 21 days of coverage while the Cobalt Card does not provide any coverage.

The Cobalt Card does provide better car rental CDW coverage of 48 days with a max MSRP of $85,000 versus HSBC's 31 days and $65,000

It is pretty clear thought that this category goes to the HSBC World Elite Mastercard thanks to the excellent emergency medical coverage and for having more insurance coverage overall.

Conclusion

This was actually a tightly contested Clash and it paints a great picture of just how closely matched the top five credit cards in Canada are. Here you have the Cobalt Card which is ranked number one and the HSBC World Elite Mastercard which is ranked number four. Both cards have their strengths and weaknesses which can make either one the better card based on an individual's requirements and preferences.

However, when taking into account all of the factors and picking a card that is better across the entire population of Canadians, the win goes to the American Express Cobalt Card thanks to better earn rates, redemption rates and having more appealing airline & hotel transfer partners. In all honesty though - having both cards in your wallet is highly recommended and is the reason why these two show up in a lot of our Ultimate Credit Card portfolios!

The winner of this clash is: American Express Cobalt Card

Key factors in the American Express Cobalt Card's win:

• Stronger earn rates
• More value and flexibility in points redemptions
• Transfer partners that Canadians will find more relevant
• Lower income requirements

Here is a direct side by side comparison of the two cards in this clash!