EXPIRED This article relates to an offer or promotion which has now expired.
UOB hasn’t had a sign-up bonus for its PRVI Miles cards since mid-July 2019, but today it launched a promotion for new-to-bank principal cardholders applying for its three PRVI Miles cards – a 10,000 miles bonus.
It is valid for card approvals from today until 31st December 2019, with a big catch if you want the Mastercard or Visa versions.
The best deal here is for the PRVI Miles American Express, since unlike the other two it is not limited to the first few applicants in the usual UOB ‘promotion’ style.
American Express promotion
Simply successfully charge a total of at least S$6,000 in eligible transactions to your card within the first 90 calendar days from the your card approval date, and you’ll receive the bonus miles on top of the regular miles awarded for this card.
Spending on any supplementary cards is counted towards the minimum spend.
Mastercard and Visa ‘promotion’ (gamble)
The Mastercard and Visa PRVI miles cards require the same S$6,000 minimum spend on eligible transactions within the first 90 calendar days from the your card approval date (including on supplementary cards), but is subject to being among the first 300 cardmembers to do so.
That’s right – at the end of the three-month period having pushed over S$6,000 of spending through the card you may well be told that you simply didn’t qualify and therefore receive no bonus at all. It’s effectively gambling and something other banks in Singapore do not expect you to do in our experience.
When you’ll receive the bonus
Not any time soon is the easy answer. If you meet the spend criteria, and in the case of the Mastercard and Visa products also managed to be among the first 300 to achieve it, the 10,000 bonus miles will be awarded based on your card approval date:
- Approved 1 Nov 2019 – 30 Nov 2019: By 31 May 2020
- Approved 1 Dec 2019 – 31 Dec 2019: By 30 Jun 2020
That means you’ll have to wait up to seven months from approval to actually receive the bonus miles (or not, as the case may be for the Mastercard and Visa).
Eligible transactions
Of course UOB don’t allow certain categories of spending to qualify towards the S$6,000 minimum under this promotion.
PRVI Pay transactions are excluded, as are CardUp, ipaymy, YouTrip, Grab mobile wallet top-ups and a range of merchant category codes (MCCs) like schools and charities.
There is a full breakdown of those, along with enrolment instructions and full terms and conditions of this offer, available here.
What about existing cardholders?
Existing UOB credit card holders (i.e. those currently holding any UOB credit card), or those who have held one in the last six months are not eligible for the promotion.
The bank previously offered a lower bonus to those holding a different UOB credit card (i.e. not PRVI Miles), but not this time round.
Is it just for KrisFlyer miles?
No – the bonus is credited as 5,000 ‘UNI$’, which transfers into either 10,000 KrisFlyer miles or 10,000 Asia Miles.
Remember there is a two-year expiry for UNI$ so be sure to transfer them to your chosen frequent flyer account before that (in KrisFlyer they’ll have a further 3-year validity window).
| UOB PRVI Miles | ||
|
Sign-up Bonus: | 10,000 miles |
| Annual Fee: | Free in Year 1 | |
| Cost per mile: | Zero | |
| Min Spend: | S$6,000 in 90 days | |
| Min Income: | S$30,000/yr | |
You can see how this compares to other sign-up bonuses on the market in Singapore at our dedicated Top Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses page.
Summary
The UOB PRVI Miles card isn’t a bad one to have in your wallet, earning 1.4 mpd on local spend and 2.4 mpd overseas. There are even some bonus rates like 6 mpd on Agoda and Expedia and currently 4.4 mpd on transactions like bus and train rides or up to S$3,000 of overseas spend.
The ‘PRVI Pay’ facility also allows you to generate ‘unlimited’ miles at 2 cents each (see our full card review for details on that).
This sign-up bonus only really works well for the American Express version of the card, since there is no concern over being in the (very restrictive) first 300 to meet the minimum spend requirement, like there is for the Mastercard and Visa versions.
The PRVI Miles Amex card also boasts 20,000 bonus miles for a S$50k annual spend.
If the Amex doesn’t interest you however, this promotion is probably worth giving a miss since your chances of actually receiving the bonus (towards mid-2020 at that) are slim.
(Cover Photo: UOB Group)