If you hold one of the UOB PRVI Miles cards in Singapore you’ll probably be aware that one of the features is ‘PRVI Pay’, a way to generate unlimited points (subject to your credit limit), convertible into KrisFlyer miles or Asia Miles, even when you don’t have a specific bill to pay.
UOB increased the fee for the service from 2% to 2.1% in February 2019, making it a less attractive option particularly with the devaluation of First and Business Class redemptions using the KrisFlyer programme coming into effect the previous month.
That increased the rate at which you could ‘buy’ miles using PRVI Pay from 2 cents per mile to 2.1 cents per mile.
2% is back until September
Today UOB restored the previous 2% rate for the payment facility, effective for PRVI Pay application submissions from 1st August 2019 to 30th September 2019.
Revised terms and conditions for the deal are available here. You can download the application form from the PRVI Pay landing page on the UOB website.
Here’s how it works for a typical payment:
- S$5,000 income tax bill arrives
- Apply for S$5,000 from your PRVI Miles Payment Facility
- UOB transfers S$5,000 to your bank account
- UOB charges S$5,100 to your credit card (S$5,000 + 2% fee)
- UOB credits 2,500 UNI$ to your reward account (5,000 KrisFlyer miles)
Remember, you don’t even need to have an income tax bill to pay, or produce to UOB. Provided you have a sufficient credit limit, UOB will complete the request “no questions asked”.
As you can see the cost per mile is S$100 / 5,000 = 2 cents.