Which country is that from?
Hong Kong, I’m guessing?
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That’s right - they just replaced their old UnionPay Debit cards with these new MasterCard ones. It’s somehow like how Revolut’s card works - it can hold balances in multiple currencies and will select the correct account when paying, or use MasterCards exchange when you don’t have enough balance in a given currency. Plus entirely fee free with no limits.
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Oh, is it the HSBC Global Money account?
That’s supposed to be coming to the U.K. as well later this year.
Interesting that they’ve ditched UnionPay given Hong Kong’s proximity to China. Are you able to request a UnionPay card if you need to regularly visit China (on business, for example) or do they no longer offer them at all?
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Nope, it’s just the standard account. I think it’s always been that way (in terms of holding currencies) but now it makes more sense with the card.
The UnionPay card is still active, they say, but this card supports CNY and MasterCard should work in China for the most part anyway. Given that essentially no one uses a card to pay for things in China I think acceptance for any card would be limited there.
I think one issue they would have run into is that all online services basically require Visa, MC or Amex and so people would’ve required a credit card or another banks card to do things as UnionPay isn’t widely accepted. In Hong Kong itself there’s the EPS system on the card which allows it to be used locally - same as the old card.
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Interesting, so it was previously UnionPay only (not co-branded with Visa or Mastercard)?
I can see how that could have been a problem online, especially internationally.
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Yup, supported EPS locally but branded with UnionPay.
Much better now it’s MasterCard.
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It’s just made me wonder again why no UK banks offer extra long validity on the cards. It’s far more economical for the environment and the bank to issue 10 year cards of a good quality.
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Probably because people tend to lose them fairly often, and need a new one anyway.
It also acts as a rudimentary protection against fraud, and until very recently the vast majority of cards were embossed (which meant they weren’t as rigid and did wear out over time).
They do seem to be cautiously extending expiry dates, but it is more like 4 or 5 years (when they used to be 3).
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 10 year expiry date on a card!
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That is a very good design (although I do prefer HSBC’s horizontal lion design) and that colour is really nice
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I still find the new HSBC UK card design very boring and I still don’t quite understand the point of the arrow.
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And I still really like the Nationwide card design.
Looking back at the photos I posted, I don’t think I did it justice. The white boxes I put on to hide the information and the general image quality does make the card look more cluttered that it really is. The recycling symbol and the Visa dove are quite small and the RNIB logo doesn’t stand out very much. I would say it is a card that looks a lot better in real life, especially the “Building Society, Nationwide” in the middle of it.
You can read more about the HSBC card here - HSBC joining the bank card accessibility push with new ‘vertical’ designs - AltFi and the Nationwide one here - Nationwide debuts brilliant ‘dot and notch’ recycled cards to help customers with sight loss - AltFi
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I do quite like what they have done with the HSBC logo in the middle rather than it just being a plain red colour, but dislike that the logo is on the card twice. The lion design is a lot better than this.
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Absolutely love this. I’d be opening an accounting to get one.
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I have a question!
Would you open a bank/financial services account on the strength of the card?
- Yes, definitely
- It’s an important consideration
- Perhaps
- Never
0 voters
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No because a) I probably use a physical card once a month or less and b) still nothing looks cooler to me than a classic Amex which I already have 
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All other things being equal, then possibly, yes.
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Halifax, TSB and Plutus has blue 
s
CapitalOne and Starling Business has navy blue s
Revolut special edition blue card 
Are they in your list too (just being nosey)? 
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For some reason I’m not really a fan of the Barclays card. Blue is normally a good colour for me, but I just don’t like how Barclays use it. I really like the blue on Nationwide’s new FlexAccount card. It’s a really nice shade.
Do you have a picture of the RBS card? I don’t think I’ve seen it before.
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The Halifax debit card needs updating. It is so outdated and doesn’t match the rest of the brand anymore. I have actually avoided opening a Halifax account because of their card.
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