• Figures are HK$ for the amount shown in the first column.
• Mastercard rates are from hkrates.com, an independent site that republishes card network rates (dated 4 Oct 2026). Mastercard's own converter blocked automated requests. hkrates.com does not name its source, but its Visa yen rate matched Visa's own figure exactly, so we treat it as reliable but unconfirmed. Check against Mastercard's currency converter before relying on it.
• Your bank usually adds about 1.95% on top of the network rate. Cards in this directory that state no fee: Standard Chartered Smart, BOC Taobao (overseas online and travel), BOC GBA Youth (Mainland and overseas), CCB (Asia) UnionPay Dual Currency, and Mox when you choose its Asia Miles scheme. AEON JCB refunds it on the first HK$6,000 a month of yen spending if you register (to 28 February 2027). Check each card's terms.
• Always choose to pay in the local currency. If a shop or ATM offers to charge you in HK$ (dynamic currency conversion), its rate is usually worse than any of these.
• Visa's latest rate is from Friday 2 October and UnionPay's file is dated 4 October, so part of the gap between them can be market movement rather than pricing. A network rate below the ECB reference, such as UnionPay on won, comes from that timing difference.
• Rates are a snapshot taken when this page was last updated and do not refresh on their own. Networks set a new rate each business day; the rate applied is the one on the day your bank processes the purchase.

Rates come from each issuer's own pages and terms, read on 4 October 2026. No card has been verified by a person yet. Annual fees are left out of the maths because Hong Kong banks usually waive them on request. Rankings use no commission data.

How your cards are worked out

• Each card pays in rate bands: a bonus rate up to a cap, then a lower rate, usually the 0.4% basic. A cap on the extra rebate turns into a spending limit that depends on the rate. Hang Seng Travel+ caps the extra at HK$500, so its 7% (6.6% extra) stops at HK$500 ÷ 6.6% = HK$7,576 of spending, and the rest earns 0.4%.
• For a given set of cards, each dollar goes to the card that pays the most for it until that card's cap is used up, then to the next best card. The split is solved exactly (a small linear programme), so a cap shared between categories is used where it gains most over your other cards.
• Monthly minimums and pick-a-category bonuses are on/off choices. Each card's choices are tried one at a time, and two at a time when two cards' minimums compete for the same spending.
• To choose the cards, the strongest sets of each size, one to five cards, are extended by every card that earns something, and then each card in the best set is swapped for each other card while a swap pays more. When no single swap helps, each pair of cards is tried against the best two replacements, because a strong capped card can crowd out two cards that do better together. For the example profiles this matched a full check of every possible two- and three-card set.
• Your list is the largest of these sets in which every card adds at least HK$5 a month: take the card away, re-split the spending over the others, and the total must drop by HK$5 or more. The cards are then shown highest effective rate first.
• Spending that earns the same on several of your cards, usually the 0.4% basic once every cap is used, is put on the card with the lowest top rate. That keeps the other cards' effective rates from being watered down and does not change the total.
• Next best cards shows up to ten more cards that earn at least 2% on the spending they would take: what each would add to your list, or cost in place of one of your cards, and its effective rate on that spending.
• Limited-time offers, which need registration and often have a quota, stay out of the ranking. Under your results, each is worked out against your list: the split is solved again with the offer's extra on top of the cards' own rates, its minimums and caps counted across all your cards from that bank and spread over the months left. Moving spending between your cards, and adding or swapping in one card the offer covers, are suggested only when they pay at least HK$5 a month more after what your other cards lose. Offers at named shops are listed when you spend in a matching category.
• How you pay is a way of paying, not a kind of spending: Apple Pay at a restaurant is still restaurant spending. A rate that needs a wallet (BOC SOGO's 5% by phone, AEON Purple's 6% instead of 2%, DBS COMPASS's 3% through Alipay) is used only while that wallet is ticked; otherwise the card earns its physical-card rate. The search is then run again with the physical cards only, to show what your wallets add.

Where sources disagreed

General rules that apply to most cards

• Visa, Mastercard and JCB cards usually add a 1.95% fee on foreign currency spending. A few waive it, such as Standard Chartered Smart and Mox.
• Cancel a card within about 12 to 14 months and the bank can charge you the value of the welcome offer. Citi, Hang Seng and Fubon say so in their terms.
• Welcome offers need new-customer status, usually no principal card from that bank in the last 6 to 12 months, and a spend target inside 2 or 3 months.
• Octopus top-ups, e-wallet payments, bill payments, insurance and tax are excluded from most bonus rates. Check the exclusions in each card's terms.
• The HKMA says you may be liable for the cost of a welcome offer if you do not meet its conditions. See the HKMA credit card guide.
• Borrow only if you can repay in full. Retail purchase APRs run about 35% a year (Standard Chartered Simply Cash shows 35.70%).