UOB PRVI Miles extends 4.4 mpd promo on bus and MRT rides

Back in October last year, UOB launched two promotions for its PRVI Miles cards, where cardholders could earn a total of 4.4 mpd on:

1. Overseas dining, shopping (including online shopping) and accommodation transactions, capped at S$3,000 for the entire period
2. Bus or train rides paid via SimplyGo, capped at S$80 per month (only for Visa and Mastercard)

The first promotion lapsed on 31 Dec 2019, but the second has been extended until 29 Feb 2020 (we enjoy an extra day, thanks to 2020 being a leap year). Keep in mind this is only for the Visa and Mastercard versions; SimplyGo does not support American Express cards.

Registration is required for this promotion; if you registered during the previous edition (which ran from 18 Oct-31 Dec 19), there’s no need to register again. The T&C make this very clear at point 1.5.

If you haven’t already registered, then you’ll need to send the following to 77862:

How does the promotion work?

Once registered, you’ll need to use your UOB PRVI Miles Visa or Mastercard to pay for public transport rides via mobile contactless (i.e Apple Pay, Fitbit Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay). You will not earn any bonus miles if you tap your physical card at the reader.

The 4.4 mpd is broken down as follows:

• UNI$3.5 per S$5 spent on locally (1.4 mpd- the base UNI$)
• UNI$7.5 per S$5 spent on eligible transit transactions (3 mpd- the bonus UNI$)

Bonus UNI$ will be credited by 31 May 2020.

What’s the cap?

The maximum bonus UNI$ you may earn each month is capped at UNI$120 (240 miles), or S$80 worth of spending. Any spending above S$80 will earn the usual 1.4 mpd.

If you hold a supplementary PRVI Miles Visa/Mastercard, your spending will also be eligible to earn 4.4 mpd, but you’ll share the S$80 cap with the principal cardholder.

One point I’m unclear about is whether the S$80 cap applies on a per card or per account basis- in other words, if you have both a UOB PRVI Miles Visa and a UOB PRVI Miles Mastercard, can you register both cards and enjoy a S$160 monthly cap? The T&C don’t directly address this, so I’ll drop UOB a message on Facebook and update this post if/when they reply.

Do remember that you also won’t earn any bonus miles (or any miles for that matter) if you use your PRVI Miles card to top up your EZ-Link at ticketing terminals, even if you use mobile contactless to pay.

Wait…don’t you need to spend at least S$5 to earn miles with the PRVI Miles cards?

Here’s where a lot of people get tripped up, no thanks to UOB’s strange points rounding policies. By right, you need to spend a minimum of S$5 to earn any miles on the UOB PRVI Miles cards- spend S$4.99 and you walk away empty handed.

Given that most people won’t be spending that amount on public transport rides per transaction (or even per day), the question then becomes how you could possibly earn anything out of this.

The answer lies in the fine print

• For Visa cards, UNI$ are earned based on the accumulated spend on SimplyGo Transactions per calendar month, and awarded to Cardmembers on the 7th calendar day of the following month
• For Mastercard, your accumulated fares are posted to your credit card account every 5 days or 21 transactions or S$15, whichever comes first.

So except in extreme circumstances (e.g. where you take two rides a month), you’ll definitely earn some miles on your rides.

Conclusion

DBS Altitude was running a 4 mpd promotion on public transport that expired on 31 Dec 2019, so it’s good to see another bank has stepped in to give bonus miles on this everyday category.

Although no one’s going to earn a First Class flight from public transport rides alone, every little bit helps, and there’s no reason not to register if you have a PRVI Miles Visa/Mastercard anyway.

You can get S$20 cash when you sign up for a UOB PRVI Miles Mastercard or UOB PRVI Miles Visa through SingSaver, regardless of whether you’re new-to-bank or existing. We have seen this go up to S$100 in the past (albeit for new-to-bank customers only), however, so it may make sense to wait until that happens again.

I’ve updated the What Card to Use guide to reflect this latest promotion.