UOB PRVI Pay cuts fee to 2% until 30 September 2019

UOB PRVI Pay is a “no questions asked” miles buying facility that lets UOB PRVI Miles customers purchase as many miles as they want (up to their credit limit) for 2.1 cents each.

Here’s a brief reminder of how PRVI Pay works:

Back in June, UOB cut the cost of the PRVI Pay facility to 1.8 cents, a promotion that ran until 31 July 2019. It’s now August, and although the 1.8 cents offer no longer exists, UOB hasn’t reverted to the regular 2.1 cents price either.

UOB PRVI Pay offering 2% admin fee until 30 September 2019

It’s certainly not as good as the previous offer, but from now till 30 September 2019, UOB PRVI Miles cardholders can buy as many miles as they want for a 2% admin fee.

Cardholders will earn UNI$2.5 for every S$5 they charge to PRVI Pay, equivalent to 1 mile per S$1 charged. A fee of 2% applies, and hence your cost per mile is 2 cents each. Remember that the UNI$ you earn can be converted into either KrisFlyer or Asia Miles, so you have options to choose from.

How does this compare to other ways of buying miles?

The cost of buying miles in Singapore has fallen significantly over the past 12 months, so much so that I’ve revised my valuation of a KrisFlyer mile down from 2 cents to 1.8 cents each.

The table below summarizes your options for buying miles. Do keep in mind that not every method will be available to you, as some have income restrictions (e.g the SCB Visa Infinite’s tax payment facility requires a $150K p.a. SCB Visa Infinite card), and others require having particular types of payments (e.g. you can’t use RentHero unless you have a rental bill to pay).

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UOB PRVI Pay’s main advantage is that it’s a “no questions asked” facility- you don’t need an IRAS NOA, a tenancy agreement or anything of the sort to use it. So long as you have the credit limit, you can buy as many miles as you want.

However, there are cheaper “no questions asked” facilities out there, albeit with higher income requirements. OCBC VOYAGE cardholders (min income: $120K) can buy as many miles as they want for 1.9 or 1.95 cents each. UOB Reserve Visa Infinite cardholders (invitation only) can buy as many miles as they want for 1.9 cents each.

In that sense, UOB PRVI Pay (min income: $30K) provides the most accessible “no questions asked” facility on the market, but if you do indeed have a rental or tax bill to pay, you’re going to want to consider the following cheaper options instead:

Conclusion

At 2 cents per mile, PRVI Pay isn’t the deal of a century. However, if you’re just short of UOB’s transfer block of UNI$5,000 (10,000 miles), this could be a way of “topping up”.

I’d certainly explore the other options available before resorting to this, but if you need miles and need them quickly, PRVI Pay is still way cheaper than buying miles from Singapore Airlines at about 5 cents each.