HSBC Live+ Credit Card vs Emirates Islamic Switch Cashback Credit Card

Our verdict

Emirates Islamic pays the higher headline rates in every shared category and applies a lower minimum monthly spend to qualify, which makes it the better card for most spending profiles at this fee.

HSBC's counter is its waiver, which clears at a much lower annual spend. Both cap their bonus categories tightly in dirhams per month, so the headline rates are reached on a smaller slice of spend than they appear to cover — the caps are in the table.