UOB PRVI Miles cardholders can take advantage of theย PRVI Pay facility, which allows them to buy as many miles as they want for 2 cents each. Although the landing page seems to have disappeared from the UOB website, I confirmed a while back with UOB that the facility is still available.ย
A reader named Zul wrote in to inform me that UOB had slightly updated the T&C for PRVI Pay. Here’s what’s changed:
Admin fee increased to 2.2% when installment option chosen; 12-month installments reduced to 3-months
PRVI Pay used to charge a flat admin fee of 2% and award the equivalent of 1 mile per $1 charged to the facility- hence the 2 cpm figure.
However, you had two options for paying the amount due: you could either pay in one lump sum and get all your miles upfront, or pay in 12-month installments and get the miles in installments too.
If, for example, I charged $12,000 to the PRVI Pay facility, I could:
- Pay off that $12,000 + $240 admin fee immediately to earn 12,000 miles OR
- Pay off $1,000 + $20 admin fee each month for 12 months to earn 1,000 miles each month
The new T&Cs, which take effect 15 May 2018, reduce the installment period fromย 12-months to 3-months and increase the admin fee from 2% to 2.2%.ย This makes the installment option somewhat less attractive, as 2 cpm is the absolute upper threshold for me to buy miles.
Remember that any amounts charged to PRVI Pay do not count for the purpose of hitting the $50,000 annual spend on the PRVI Miles AMEX card (which yields 20,000 bonus miles). Also, any early repayment of the PRVI Pay facility incurs a $100 penalty fee. The requested amount plus admin fee must be within the credit limit of your PRVI Miles card. The full FAQ can be found here.
Conclusion
Back when 12-month installment options were available, PRVI Pay could work like a personal loan facility with 2% annual interest. That 2% would have been offset by the miles you acquired, so in that sense it might have been attractive to certain individuals.
A 3-month restriction and a 2.2% admin fee obviously makes the installment option less enticing, although the good news is the base admin fee of 2% remains unchanged. I’d certainly consider using the PRVI Pay facility to top up a KrisFlyer account that was just short of some key redemption threshold- it’s certainly better than buying miles from Singapore Airlines at US$40 per 1,000.
How many times can we use this option? Can I buy miles on a monthly basis? Say, 30K Miles x 6 months
You can use the option as many times as you like but need to repay the full amount before your next application due to the credit limit imposed. I have done it on a weekly basis earning a few 100K UNI$ last year. However, once you converted these UNI$ to miles, they will reject your subsequent applications.
That’s interesting that they would reject applications after redeeming miles.
How long does it take for the application to be approved, and the UNI$ credited? Will we be in time for the Asia Miles bonus promo?
here’s the new form
https://www.uob.com.sg/assets/pdfs/uob-prvi-miles-payment-facility-app-form.pdf
[…] from UOB comes at a cost of 2% of the requested sum if you were to repay it immediately, or at a 2.2% interest rate if you were to repay the sum over 3 months.ย This effectively allows you to purchase unlimited miles from UOB (capped at your monthly credit […]