From 17 April to 31 July 2020, UOB PRVI Miles Mastercard and Visa customers can earn 3 mpd on selected online transactions, including groceries, food delivery, utility payments, e-commerce, and transport.
Although this offer sounds similar to the one for UOB PRVI Miles AMEX customers which launched at the start of April, there are some key differences.
How it works
From 17 April to 31 July 2020, UOB PRVI Miles Mastercard and Visa cardholders who spend at least S$2,000 on eligible transactions (see below) will earn 3 mpd.
This is broken down into:
- Base Rate: UNI$3.5 per S$5 (1.4 mpd)
- Bonus Rate: UNI$4 per S$5 (1.6 mpd)
The bonus UNI$ will be credited to your account by 31 October 2020, and is capped at S$3,500 worth of eligible transactions. Supplementary cardholder spending will be combined with that of the principal cardholder, with the cap shared.
| Based on previous UOB PRVI Miles promotions, you will not receive a separate cap for holding both the Mastercard and Visa versions. However, if you hold the AMEX, you’ll have a separate cap. |
Unlike the PRVI Miles AMEX promotion, registration is required, and can be done by sending the following SMS to 77862:
BONUS<space>Last 4 alphanumeric digits of NRIC/Passport
There is no cap on the maximum number of customers who can register for this promotion, and you can find the full T&C here.
What transactions are eligible?
The following transactions will be eligible to earn 3 mpd under this promotion, provided they’re charged online in Singapore dollars through a payment gateway located in Singapore (i.e no shopping at overseas sites, even if you get them to bill you in SGD)
Bill Payments
- Diamond Energy Merchants
- Geneco by Seraya Energy
- I Switch
- Keppel Electric
- PacificLight Energy
- Senoko Energy
- Sembcorp Power
- Sunseap Energy
- SP Services
- SP Digital
- Netflix/Spotify subscriptions (need not be in SGD)
Unlike the AMEX promotion, telco payments to Singtel, M1 and Starhub are sadly not included.
Grocery & Drugstores
| Eligible MCCs | 5411, 5912 |
This covers pretty much every major supermarket in Singapore- Cold Storage, Giant, Market Place by Jasons, FairPrice, Sheng Siong, as well as Watsons and Guardian.
Online retail stores
| Eligible MCCs | 4816, 5306, 5309, 5310, 5311, 5331, 5399, 5611, 5621, 5631,5641, 5651, 5661, 5691, 5699, 5732, 5733, 5734, 5735, 5942, 5944, 5945, 5946, 5947, 5948, 5949, 5964, 5965, 5966, 5967, 5968, 5969, 5970, 5992, 5999, 5655, 5044, 5045, 5815, 5816, 5817, 5818, 5941, 5943, 5712, 5722, 5719 5262 |
This covers apparel, computers, electronics, home furnishing, bookstores, sports, and e-commerce sites like Qoo10, Lazada, and Amazon.
Dining and food delivery
| Eligible MCCs | 5811, 5812, 5814, 5333, 5441, 5462, 5499, 8012, 9751 |
This covers foodpanda, Deliveroo, GrabFood and other restaurants that offer online delivery, like McDonald’s.
Entertainment and ticketing
| Eligible MCCs | 7278, 7832, 7841, 7922, 7991, 7996, 7998, 7999 |
It’s hard to see anyone spending money on these categories right now, given that entertainment venues are like cinemas and amusement parks have been shut down, but well…
Transport
| Eligible MCCs | 4111, 4121, 4789 |
This covers Comfort, Grab, gojek, and other ridehailing services.
MCC 4111 should include SimplyGo transactions, but I’m less certain about whether this will earn a bonus given it’s technically not online. I’m checking with UOB, and will update this post when I receive a reply.
| Update: UOB has confirmed that SimplyGo transactions will not qualify for the bonus |
What’s the difference between this promotion and the one for the PRVI Miles AMEX?
As I mentioned at the start, this promotion sounds similar to the ongoing one for UOB PRVI Miles AMEX customers.
However, there are some key differences in terms of the duration, registration requirement, caps and eligible merchants:
| 3 mpd on online spend promotion | ||
 UOB PRVI Miles Mastercard & Visa |
 UOB PRVI Miles AMEX |
|
| Duration | 17 Apr- 31 Jul 2020 | 1 Apr- 30 Jun 2020 |
| Registration | Required | Not required |
| Min Spend | S$2K | S$2.5K |
| Max Spend | S$3.5K | S$5K |
| Bonus Credited | 31 Oct 20 | 31 Aug 20 |
| Eligible Transactions | Must all be online | Can be offline, in the case of supermarkets |
Is it worth it?
If you have a DBS Woman’s World Card, OCBC Titanium Rewards, or Citi Rewards Card, you’ll already be able to earn 4 mpd on most of these categories. Moreover, there’ll be no minimum spend requirement, nor restrictions on the currency you can be charged in.
| The OCBC Titanium Rewards card is currently offering 8 mpd on Deliveroo, Lazada, NTUC, Netflix, and numerous other circuit breaker relevant merchants. Registration is required; check out this post for more details. |
For groceries specifically, you could transact in-store and earn 4 mpd with the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa (except at SMART$ merchants, must use contactless), or with the GrabPay Mastercard (topped up with the Citi Rewards Visa).
So unless you’ve maxed out your caps, there’s no real need to switch cards. I see this promotion being more useful for utilities payments, where you normally can’t earn bonus points.
Conclusion
This will be an excellent promotion for those who insist on using one card and one card only. Otherwise, there are better cards available. Do remember that the S$2,000 minimum spend and S$3,500 maximum spend apply to the entire promotion period, not per month.
It’s good to see more and more banks rolling out promotions for stay-home spending though.
(HT: Lennie)
For Groceries, won’t the SMART$ caveat hold? Ie Giant and Cold Storage won’t be included.
smart$ only for in store merchants
Does it include cardup?