UOB Lady’s Cards offering 4.8 mpd at Lazada, Qoo10 and Taobao

In March last year, UOB relaunched their Lady’s Card portfolio, giving the formerly unimpressive cards a very impressive makeover.

	Old	New
UOB Lady’s Card	2 mpd on shopping and taxi rides, minimum S$3K, maximum S$5K per month	4 mpd on 1 of 7 categories, maximum S$1K per month
UOB Lady’s Solitaire	4 mpd on shopping and taxi rides, minimum S$3K, maximum S$5K per month	4 mpd on 2 of 7 categories, maximum S$3K per month

Gone were the minimum spend requirement and measly bonuses; in came the freedom to choose your bonus category and switch it every quarter.

It was a fantastic upgrade, and I’ve been advising everyone I know to include this card in their line up. Although applications are only open to women, there’s nothing stopping a guy from asking his wife/girlfriend/wife & girlfriend to apply, and spending on the card via his digital wallet.

UOB has upsized the “fashion” category for Q1 2020

UOB Lady’s Card cardholders can choose 1 (or 2, for the Solitaire) of 7 categories each quarter to earn 10X points (4 mpd):

1. Beauty & Wellness
2. Dining
3. Entertainment
4. Family
5. Fashion
6. Transport
7. Travel

If you had chosen “fashion” as your bonus category for Q1 2020, then good news- in addition to the usual 10X at department and clothing stores, you’ll also earn 12X (4.8 mpd) at Lazada, Qoo10, and Taobao from 15 Jan -31 Mar 2020. UOB has confirmed that RedMart spending will be included as well

Unfortunately, by now it’s too late to switch your bonus category for Q1 2020, so if you didn’t choose fashion, well, better luck next time.

If it’s any consolation, this appears to be a frontloading of a subsequent month’s bonus, rather than a true additional bonus. What do I mean?

My reading of the above T&C is that the additional bonus 2X UNI$ (0.8 mpd) is credited 2 months after the relevant spending has been made, and contributes to that particular month’s bonus cap.

For example, if I spend S$500 on my UOB Lady’s Card at Qoo10 in January 2020, I’ll receive 1,000 UNI$ (2,000 miles) in January 2020. The remaining 200 UNI$ (400 miles) will be received by March 2020, and that means my 1,800 UNI$ bonus cap for that month will be reduced to 1,600 UNI$, or S$888 of spending.

In other words, I’m basically borrowing against the bonus cap of future months. If I regularly max out my 10X bonus each month, then this really isn’t anything special. However, if my spending is more lumpy, then this allows me to tap a future month’s bonus cap that I may not otherwise have used.

To put it another way- someone who regularly spends the full S$1,000 each month on the UOB Lady’s Card won’t find this promotion useful. But someone who spends S$1,000 in one month and then very little for the next couple of months will benefit from this.

So whether you see this as a genuine bonus or more UOB sophistry depends on your spending pattern.

What does this mean for the Citi Lazada card?

You may remember my previous post about the newly-launched Citi Lazada card, the self-professed card for avocado toast loving millennials. I’m on the record as being roundly unimpressed, and the UOB Lady’s Card promotion only deepens that feeling.

The only thing the Citi Lazada card had going for it was its 4.8 mpd on Lazada purchases (excluding RedMart). Everything else it did, another card could do better. And now with the UOB Lady’s Card 4.8 mpd promotion, there’s even less reason for women (or men who can indirectly get a Lady’s card via wife/girlfriend) to consider the Citi Lazada.

 It doesn’t matter if you get a UOB Lady’s Card and only use it occasionally, because your UNI$ pool with other UOB cards. It does matter if you get a Citi Lazada card, because Citibank does not pool points. You’re therefore committing to spend a fair bit on the Citi Lazada card and its inferior earning rates, in order to avoid orphan points. 

Conclusion

Although this isn’t a “true” bonus, I can see it being useful to a certain group of people. Even if online shopping isn’t your thing, it’s still worth considering the UOB Lady’s card as it’s the only option for 4 mpd on dining at restaurants where contactless payments aren’t an option.

It’s also a great way to earn 4 mpd on your hotel wedding banquet- simply declare “travel” as your 10X category and break your payments into S$1K/S$3K chunks each month.