If you hold UOB’s Visa Infinite card in Singapore, you may have received an invitation for a discounted 1.9% fee until 31st July 2020 when you use the card’s payment facility, allowing you to generate ‘unlimited’ miles for 1.9 cents each, paid as UNI$ and transferable into the KrisFlyer or Asia Miles programmes.
This isn’t a huge discount – the usual fee is 2% as with the UOB PRVI Miles card’s PRVI Pay facility – but it may come in handy for a miles top-up if you fall short of a redemption or need to reach the next miles transfer block.
The offer
If you’ve been targeted you should have received the invitation by mail.
The offer is for a one-time payment between now and 31st July 2020. UOB is also offering a 3-month or 12-month instalment plan option, but at 2.2% or 2.7% fee respectively these are not attractive options for buying miles.
You are only limited by your available credit limit under this offer. If you have a sufficient limit, for example, requesting a S$47,000 payment would generate enough miles for a Singapore Airlines Business Class saver award flight to Japan – effectively for S$893 (the 1.9% fee).
How it works
The beauty of UOB’s credit card payment facilities is that you can pay any bill you like (even if you don’t actually have a bill to pay) by simply requesting an amount to be transferred from your credit card to your bank account for the appropriate one-time fee.
In essence, although the ‘price’ is relatively high, the flexibility is excellent.
Here’s an example of how the Visa Infinite Payment Facility works, at the promotional 1.9% fee:
- $5,000 income tax bill arrives
- Apply for $5,000 from your UOB VI Payment Facility
- UOB transfers $5,000 to your bank account
- UOB charges $5,095 to your credit card ($5,000 + 1.9% fee)
- UOB credits 2,500 UNI$ to your reward account (5,000 KrisFlyer miles)
- Effective purchase rate $95/5,000 = 1.9 cents per mile