UOB Priv Miles Credit Card review: Generous miles conversion for both local and overseas spending

UOB Priv Miles Credit Card review: Generous miles conversion for both local and overseas spending

The UOB Priv Miles Card is one of the best air miles credit cards in Singapore with high earn rates of $1 = 1.4 miles (local) and $1 = 2.4 miles (overseas). This is all the more impressive considering its entry level income requirement of $30,000. 

But is there a catch? Let’s find out by taking a closer look at the UOB Priv Miles Card.

UOB Priv Miles Credit Card terms & conditions

UOB Priv Miles Credit Card
Annual fee & waiver $256.80 (waived for one year)
Supplementary annual fee First two supp cards free, subsequently $128.40
Interest free period 21 days
Annual interest rate 26.90 per cent
Late payment fee $100
Minimum monthly repayment 3 per cent or $50, whichever is higher
Foreign currency transaction fee 3.25 per cent
Cash advance transaction fee 6 per cent
Overlimit fee $40
Minimum income $30,000 (Singaporean) / $40,000 (non-Singaporean)
Card association MasterCard, Visa, American Express
Wireless payment MasterCard PayPass, Visa payWave, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay, Mighty Pay

How the UOB Priv Miles Card works

The UOV Priv Miles Card’s greatest strength is its generous miles conversion rate for both local and overseas spending.

$1 = 1.4 miles on local spending is significantly higher than the “market rate” of $1 = 1.2 miles offered by most entry-level miles cards, while $1 = 2.4 miles overseas is impressive compared to the usual $1 = 2 miles.

The generous bonus earn rate of $1 = 6 miles on Expedia, Agoda, and UOB Travel rewards you even more for making flight and hotel bookings online. Note that the offer is limited to certain airlines, and doesn’t include budget airlines.

One important thing to note is that UOB miles expire within two years. If you are confident that you can earn enough miles to fly somewhere decent within that time frame, then that won’t be an issue.

The card comes in Visa, Mastercard and American Express variants:

Other perks of the UOB Priv Miles Card

Most air miles credit cards offer some sort of travel-related benefits. Like many others on the market, the UOB Priv Miles Card offers free travel insurance when you charge your entire travel fare to the card.

If you’re looking for travel perks, consider getting the American Express version of this card as it offers 20,000 loyalty miles every year with minimum spend of $50,000 in a year and up to eight complimentary airport transfers to Changi Airport in a year, plus $100 worth of Grab rides if you’re new to UOB.

The UOB Priv Miles American Express Card also gives you a generous loyalty bonus of 20,000 miles annually when you spend $50,000 or more that year.

Who should use the UOB Priv Miles Card?

Don’t be fooled by the entry level income requirement – the UOB Priv Miles Card actually works best for high spenders such as business travellers.

Families are also in a great position to take advantage of the high miles conversion rate on on local spending, since they’re likely to consistently spend a significant amount of money each month on the kids, groceries, dining and so on.

And if you thought travelling was expensive, try travelling as a family when you’re the one who has to pay for everything. With multiple air tickets to purchase and multiple mouths to feed, the miles you earn overseas can quickly add up.

However, if you’re not at this expensive life stage yet, you might find yourself better off with a miles card whose miles don’t expire, so you have a longer time to accumulate miles. The annual fee is also relatively high, although it is waived for the first year.

Alternatives to UOB Priv Miles Card

As a credit card for accumulating frequent flyer miles, the UOB Priv Miles Card is pretty attractive overall. Here’s how UOB Priv Miles Card stacks up against a few similar credit cards:

DBS Altitude Card – Similar entry level miles card but with poorer earn rates. There’s a similar structure for earning miles, with a bonus category for online travel bookings. However, DBS miles don’t expire, and there’s a lower annual fee of $192.60 (waived for the first year).

Amex KrisFlyer Credit Card Miles conversion rates are generally poorer, but there’s a generous sign-up bonus if you’re planning to spend $6,000 within 6 months. The miles go straight into your KrisFlyer account so it’s super easy to use.

Maybank Horizon Visa SignaturePoor base earn rates, but very good bonus rate of $1 = 3.2 miles for certain specific local spending categories: dining, petrol, taxis, as well as bookings on Agoda. There’s a minimum spend of $300 per month though, and the $50,000 income requirement is higher.

Notice that the UOB Priv Miles card beats the competition when it comes to basic spending. This makes it better than the competition for families with high day-to-day costs.

This article was first published in MoneySmart.

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