UOB is updating its list of qualifying and eligible transactions for UNI$ earning from 1st August 2022, adding new spend exclusions including utilities, ipaymy and Singpost – SAM, meaning you’ll have to switch to alternative cards to continue earning miles for spend in these categories from next month.
This follows UOB’s hospital and parking exclusions in early 2021, while the bank’s cards already excluded categories like education and insurance payments from miles earning, so these additional categories are unfortunate to see.
With effect from 1 August 2022, UNI$ will no longer be awarded for payments to IPAYMY, RWS-LEVY, SMOOVE PAY, SINGPOST – SAM, and Razer Pay and payments for utilities.
UOB
Thankfully the UOB Reserve card will still earn UNI$ for utilities and ipaymy categories even after 1st August, though other miles-earning options will sadly be affected by the change.
The new exclusion list
The following transactions by MCC code are not eligible for UNI$ (and therefore miles) earning, with new categories added from 1st August 2022 highlighted:
| MCC Code | Description |
| 4829 | Wire Transfer/Remittance |
| 4900 | Utilities |
| 5199 | Nondurable Goods |
| 5960 | Direct Marketing – Insurance Services |
| 6012 | Member Financial Institution – Merchandise and Services |
| 6050 |
Quasi Cash (Various) |
| 6051 | |
| 6529 | |
| 6530 | |
| 6534 | |
| 7511 | |
| 6211 | Securities – Brokers and Dealers |
| 6300 | Insurance Sales / Underwrite |
| 6513 | Real Estate Agents & Managers – Rentals |
| 6540 | Stored Value Card Purchase / Load |
| 7349 | Clean / Maint / Janitorial / Property Management |
| 7523 | Automobile Parking Lots and Garages |
| 7995 | Gambling |
| 8062 | Hospitals |
| 8211 | Schools, Elementary and Secondary |
| 8220 | Colleges, Universities, Professional Schools and Junior Colleges |
| 8241 | Schools, Correspondence |
| 8244 | Schools, Business and Secretarial |
| 8249 | Schools, Trade and Vocational |
| 8299 | Schools and Educational Services – Other |
| 8398 | Organizations, Charitable and Social Service |
| 8661 | Organizations, Religious |
| 8651 | Organisations, Political |
| 9211 | Court Costs including Alimony and Child Support |
| 9222 | Fines |
| 9223 | Bail and Bond Payments |
| 9311 | Tax Payment |
| 9402 | Postal Services – Government Only |
| 9405 | Intra-Government Purchases |
| 9399 | Government Services – Other |
Additionally, UNI$ are not awarded for:
- AXS payments
- EZ-Link and Transit Link transactions
- Transactions at SMART$ merchants where SMART$ are issued
- Transactions at SPC Service Stations
- TRANSIT or AMAZE TRANSIT transactions
- PAYPAL transactions
- IPAYMY transactions
- RWS-LEVY transactions
- SMOOVE PAY transactions
- SINGPOST – SAM transactions
- RazerPay transactions
For a full list of exclusions, see the updated KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card T&Cs document. The UOB Rewards Terms and Conditions has yet to be updated with this latest change.
These changes apply to all miles-earning UOB credit cards, except the UOB Reserve card, which will continue to earn UNI$ for utilities and ipaymy transactions.
Utilities
Payments to utility companies in Singapore code under MCC 4900, which is newly excluded for UNI$ earning from 1st August 2022 (except with the UOB Reserve card).
This ‘catch-all’ MCC includes SP Services and the likes of Geneco, Union Power and other Open Electricity Market providers.
It unfortunately kills off the ability to earn 1.4 mpd on utility bill payments with the UOB PRVI Miles cards and the UOB Visa Infinite Metal card. You also will no longer be able to net 1.2 mpd on these payments with the KrisFlyer UOB credit card.
All is not lost though!
You can still earn miles for utilities payments using the UOB Reserve card and there’s one bank in Singapore that still doesn’t exclude utilities from miles earning:
- Standard Chartered
That means you can also use cards like the Standard Chartered X Card (1.2 mpd) and the Standard Chartered Visa Infinite (up to 1.4 mpd) and still earn points or miles on utilities payments.
ipaymy
UOB is making an unfortunate blanket restriction on miles earned through all ipaymy transactions, but not payments made via CardUp.
Do be aware of this, especially if you are using ipaymy to make recurring payments with a UOB credit card, be sure to switch across to a miles-earning card before any payments scheduled from 1st August 2022 onwards.
The UOB Reserve card will continue to earn UNI$ for ipaymy transactions, but other UOB credit cards will not.
You can also still earn points or miles for ipaymy transactions using the following credit cards:
- Bank of China Elite Miles World Mastercard
- Citi PremierMiles Mastercard
- Citi PremierMiles Visa
- Citi Prestige
- Citi ULTIMA
- DBS Altitude Visa Signature
- DBS Insignia Visa Infinite
- DBS Vantage
- Standard Chartered Priority Banking Visa Infinite
- Standard Chartered Visa Infinite
- Standard Chartered Visa Infinite X Card
- OCBC 90ºN
- OCBC Voyage
- UOB Reserve
Let’s hope CardUp remains an option for miles earning with most UOB cards going forward.
Summary
UOB customers already have to navigate around quite a number of exclusion categories like insurance, education spend / tuition fees and hospitals, not to mention avoiding those pesky UOB$ merchants like Giant, Guardian and Cold Storage, where cashback awaits instead of miles.
It’s disappointing to see another popular category – Utilities – excluded from UNI$ earning from next month. You’ll definitely want to be diverting your spend to an eligible Standard Chartered option from 1st August 2022 if you can.
ipaymy is another surprise disappointing exclusion, which will force many UOB customers to consider switching payments like rental and insurance across to CardUp, which hasn’t been excluded by UOB.
Thankfully the UOB Reserve card will not be excluded from earning in both of these categories.
We’ve updated our comprehensive review of the UOB PRVI Miles cards, probably the most popular UOB miles-earning option among our readers, to reflect these latest exclusions, though other products like the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card are similarly affected.
| UOB PRVI Miles | |||
 |
1.4 mpd local |
2.4 mpd FCY |
6 mpd travel |
| READ OUR REVIEW | |||
| UOB PRVI Miles | ||
|
||
|
1.4 mpd local |
2.4 mpd FCY |
6 mpd travel |
| READ OUR REVIEW | ||
(Cover Photo: Anthony Indraus)
Damn..this is bad..I exclusively use UOB Prvi Miles for IPM..
What other card would you suggest for use with IPM after this exclusion?
You can consider the other miles-earning options that still earn via ipaymy as listed above, but they won’t all get you 1.4 mpd unfortunately.
Guess this will push more to apply for the DBS Vantage card.
Seems like the mileage game is doubly squeezed by harder earning and redeeming opportunities. Premium cabins on SQ often only have one seat per flight for saver (non-waitlist).
Yes that’s definitely true right now due to the supply vs. demand issues, which are also pushing up airfares.
Hopefully this is a temporary situation as SQ ramps up capacity and we can get back to normal… eventually!
Amex cards have those Amex Rewards things, and oftentimes rebates for utilities payment appear.