Review: UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card

The UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card is the spiritual successor to the original UOB Visa Infinite Card, which became the first-ever Visa Infinite card in Singapore when it launched in September 2003. 

For many years, this was an underwhelming product. But in June 2023, UOB revamped the card by improving the earn rates and adding unlimited lounge visits for the cardholder and a guest, making it a viable alternative to other S$120K cards like the Citi Prestige. 

Unfortunately, it looks like the pendulum has swung back in the other direction. Recent months have seen scaled-down welcome offers and the removal of key benefits— most notably unlimited lounge access. Unless you have very specific use cases — like needing to earn miles on education spending — I believe there are better alternatives out there. 

UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card
🦁 MileLion Verdict
☐ Take It ☐ Take It Or Leave It ☑ Leave It
What do these ratings mean?
With cuts to lounge access and other benefits, the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card feels far less compelling these days — unless perhaps you need to pay school fees.
👍 The good	👎 The bad
Good earn rates for a S$120K card (though a PRVI Miles would do even better) Still earns miles for education expenses Free conversions of UNI$ to miles	S$5 earning blocks mean more points lost to rounding No airport limo benefit Lounge visits now cut to 12X per year Few perks beyond generic Visa Infinite privileges
💳 Full List of Credit Card Reviews

Overview: UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card

Let’s start this review by looking at the key features of the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card

Apply
Income Req.	S$120,000 p.a.	Points Validity	2 years
Annual Fee	S$654	Min. Transfer	5,000 UNI$ (10,000 miles)
Miles with AF	25,000	Transfer Partners	3
FCY Fee	3.25%	Transfer Fee	Waived
Local Earn	1.4 mpd	Points Pool?	Yes
FCY Earn	2.4 mpd	Lounge Access?	Yes
Special Earn	N/A	Airport Limo?	No
Cardholder Terms and Conditions

The UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card, as the name proudly reminds you, is made out of metal. However, it’s one of the lighter metal cards on the market, and only marginally heavier than a standard plastic card.

Despite this, you should be aware that UOB is the only bank (other than OCBC) to charge for replacement metal cards. Should you lose your UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card, you’ll pay a S$150 replacement fee.

UOB issues a total of five Visa Infinite cards, which are easy to confuse with each other. Refer to this article for a detailed rundown of the differences among the cards.

Card	Description
UOB Reserve Diamond Card T&Cs	The most extinguished  distinguished card in the UOB line-up, with an actual diamond embedded in it (replacement cards cost S$1,090 each!). Offers additional hotel and dining benefits over the UOB Reserve
UOB Reserve Card T&Cs	UOB’s high-end offering for private banking and UHNWIs
UOB Privilege Banking Card T&Cs	Created as an option for Privilege Banking clients who did not meet the S$350K income requirement for the original UOB Visa Infinite, carries largely the same benefits
UOB Visa Infinite Card T&Cs	The granddaddy of all Visa Infinite cards in Singapore, no longer open for applications and gradually being phased out in favor of the Visa Infinite Metal Card
UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card T&Cs	Launched in 2018 as the replacement for the UOB Visa Infinite, with a lower annual fee and income requirement

How much must I earn to qualify for a UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card?

The original UOB Visa Infinite was labelled “an exceedingly-exclusive card for the mega-rich”, and required a minimum income of S$350,000 (equivalent to S$546,000 today after adjusting for inflation).

Thankfully, the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card has a decidedly broader appeal, available to anyone who earns S$120,000 per year. This was previous set at S$150,000, but was lowered in 2023. 

As far as I know, it’s not possible to apply for a secured version of this card. If you’re asset rich but income poor, you might be directed to the UOB Privilege Banking Visa Infinite instead (minimum AUM S$350,000).

How much is the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card’s annual fee?

The UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card has an annual fee of S$654, which is strictly non-waivable. The first supplementary card is free for life; the second card onwards costs S$293.38 per year.

Cardholders receive 25,000 miles each year the annual fee is paid. That’s a fairly unattractive 2.61 cents per mile, but remember, we need to factor in the value of the other card benefits as well.

What sign-up bonus or gifts are available?

Customers who apply and receive approval for a UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card between 1 January and 30 June 2026 will be eligible to receive up to 60,000 bonus miles, as shown in the table below.

Cardholders must pay the S$654 annual fee and spend at least S$4,000 within 30 days of approval. Unlike most UOB sign-up offers, there is no cap on the number of eligible applicants. 

Given the S$654 annual fee, you’re basically paying 1.09 cents (new) or 1.64 cents (existing) per mile. It’s a decent price for new customers, though it’s worth remembering that once upon a time, the offer used to be 80,000 miles + S$200 Grab vouchers!

Bonus miles are awarded on top of the regular base miles, so if you spent the entire S$4,000 on local spend at 1.4 mpd, you’ll receive a total of 65,600 miles (new) or 45,600 miles (existing).

How many miles do I earn?

SGD/FCY Spending

The UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card earns:

• UNI$3.5 for every S$5 spent in Singapore Dollars (1.4 mpd)
• UNI$6 for every S$5 spent in foreign currency (FCY) (2.4 mpd)

Compared to the rest of the $120K pack, these are very solid earn rates. However, UOB has S$5 earning blocks, which means your actual earn rate could be lower, especially on small transactions (more on that later).

💳 Earn Rates for S$120K Cards (Sorted by sum of Local and FCY Earn Rates)
Card	Local	FCY
StanChart Visa Infinite Apply	1.4 mpd#	3 mpd#
Maybank Visa Infinite Apply	1.2 mpd	3.2 mpd@
UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card Apply	1.4 mpd	2.4 mpd
DBS Vantage Card Apply	1.5 mpd	2.2 mpd
OCBC VOYAGE Apply	1.3 mpd	2.2 mpd
Citi Prestige Card Apply	1.3 mpd^	2 mpd^
HSBC Visa Infinite	1 mpd	2 mpd
AMEX Platinum Reserve Apply	0.57 mpd	0.57 mpd
#With minimum S$2K spend per statement month. Otherwise 1 mpd for both @With minimum S$4K spend per calendar month. Otherwise 2 mpd ^Additional 0.02 to 0.12 mpd awarded based on tenure with bank

What is the FCY transaction fee?

All overseas transactions are subject to a 3.25% fee, so using your UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card overseas is equivalent to buying miles at 1.35 cents each. 

Unfortunately, there’s a quirk here. While other banks define overseas transactions simply as those charged in currencies other than Singapore Dollars, UOB further requires that the payment gateway be overseas. As per the T&Cs:

For the avoidance of doubt, card transactions made overseas but effected/charged in Singapore dollars and online transactions effected in Singapore dollars or in foreign currencies at merchants with payment gateway in Singapore will not be treated as overseas transactions and will earn UNI$3.5 per S$5 spend

In other words, if you’re shopping on an online website which bills you US$100 (~S$140), but processes the payment within Singapore, you’ll earn miles at the local spending rate of 1.4 mpd. 

For what it’s worth, this will only be an issue with online transactions; if you’re spending at brick-and-mortar stores overseas, you can rest assured you’ll receive the FCY earn rate so long as you’re not charged in SGD (watch out for DCC!).

To find out where a merchant’s payment gateway is located, follow the steps in the guide below.

How to check where a merchant’s payment gateway is located

Transaction date or posting date?

The UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card tracks spending based on the posting date, not transaction date.

If you’re accumulating spend towards your welcome bonus, be careful about making transactions towards the end of the qualifying period — anything that posts beyond the deadline will not be included, even if the transaction was made during the qualifying period!

Which cards track spending by transaction date vs posting date?

When are UNI$ credited?

UNI$ are credited when your transaction posts, which generally takes 1-3 working days.

How are UNI$ calculated?

Here’s how you can work out the UNI$ earned on your UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card

Unfortunately, UOB has one of the most punitive rounding policies in the game, which can adversely affect your earn rates especially on smaller transactions.

UOB first rounds your transaction down to the nearest S$5, divides it by 5, then multiplies the amount by 3.5 UNI$ (assuming it’s a Singapore Dollar transaction). This UNI$ figure is then rounded down again to the nearest whole number. 

So imagine you spent S$9.99 on your UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card. You might figure that’s 14 miles (S$9.99 @ 1.4 mpd), but…

• The S$9.99 is rounded down to S$5
• S$5 is awarded 3.5 UNI$
• 3.5 UNI$ is rounded down to 3 UNI$

You actually earn 3 UNI$ (6 miles), an effective rate of just 0.6 mpd!

This is an extreme example, of course, and the effect of rounding gets smaller as your transaction size increases. But it’s exactly why you should think twice about using your UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card for small transactions that aren’t in S$5 blocks. In fact, the minimum spend required to earn miles is S$5. 

This means that despite having a higher headline rate, you may earn fewer miles on the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card than the Citi Prestige Card depending on transaction size. Consider the following: 

	UOB VI Metal  1.4 mpd	Citi Prestige 1.3 mpd
S$5	6 miles	6.4 miles
S$9.99	6 miles	11.6 miles
S$15	20 miles	19.6 miles
S$19.99	20 miles	24.8 miles
S$25	34 miles	32.4 miles
S$29.99	34 miles	37.6 miles

If you’re an excel geek, here’s the formulas you need to calculate points: 

Don’t forget that UOB makes it easy to check your points breakdown thanks to the TMRW app, which will show transaction-level points for the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card.

UOB TMRW: Get transaction-level credit card rewards points breakdowns

For the full list of formulas that banks use to calculate credit card points, do refer to these articles:

• General Spending Cards
• Specialised Spending Cards

What transactions aren’t eligible for UNI$?

A full list of transactions that do not earn UNI$ can be found at point 1.5 of the T&Cs. 

I’ve highlighted a few noteworthy categories below:

• Amaze (not that it matters in this case, as it was never possible to pair Visa cards with Amaze in the first place)
• Charitable Donations
• Government Services 
• Hospitals
• ipaymy
• Prepaid account top-ups (e.g. GrabPay, YouTrip)
• Real Estate Agents & Managers
• Utilities

However, the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card is somewhat unique among UOB cards in that it does not exclude education-related expenses from earning points. This alone could be a big selling point, since it’s almost impossible to find a decent miles-earning card for schools and tuition fees.

For the avoidance of doubt, CardUp transactions will earn miles with the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card, at the usual rate of 1.4 mpd.

What do I need to know about UNI$?

Expiry

UNI$ expire 2 years from the last day of each periodic quarter in which the UNI$ was earned.

For example, if any UNI$ earned in January 2024 will expire on 31 March 2026. This means that the validity could technically be up to 2 years 3 months in some cases.

Pooling

UNI$ pool across cards. If you have 10,000 UNI$ on the UOB Lady’s Card, and 5,000 UNI$ on the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card, you can redeem 15,000 UNI$ in a single transaction.

It also means that you don’t need to transfer your UNI$ out before cancelling the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card, assuming it’s not your last UNI$-earning card. 

Transfer Partners & Fees

UNI$ transfer to frequent flyer programmes at a 1:2 ratio, with a minimum transfer block of 5,000 UNI$.

There are effectively only two partners available however (converting points to Air Asia is like throwing them away), which is somewhat limited compared to competitors like Citi, HSBC and OCBC.

Frequent Flyer Programme	Conversion Ratio (UNI$: Partner)
	5,000 : 10,000
	5,000 : 10,000
	2,500 : 4,500

UOB Visa Infinite Metal Cardholders enjoy a waiver of the usual S$27 conversion fee. Moreover, since UNI$ pool, you can use the Visa Infinite Metal Card as a conduit to convert UNI$ earned on other UOB cards for free too.

Transfer Times

UOB transfers to KrisFlyer are typically completed within 48 hours. Do note that transfers to Asia Miles can take significantly longer; it’s good to budget up to 3 weeks. 

If you need your points credited instantly, you can move them via Kris+ at a rate of 1,000 UNI$ = 1,700 KrisPay miles. KrisPay miles can then be instantly converted to KrisFlyer miles at a 1:1 ratio.

S$5 for new Kris+ Users

Get S$5 (in the form of 500  KrisPay miles) when you sign-up with code W644363 and make your first transaction

However, those 1,000 UNI$ would normally have earned you 2,000 KrisFlyer miles, so you effectively take a 15% haircut. Therefore I wouldn’t recommend taking this option, unless you need a small top-up to redeem a flight, or have an orphan UNI$ balance (<5,000 points). 

If you choose to do so nonetheless, do remember that it’s a two-step process:

1. Transfer UNI$ to KrisPay miles
2. Transfer KrisPay miles to KrisFlyer miles

Do not forget the second step! If you wait more than 21 days, or spend any of the converted KrisPay miles via Kris+, the entire balance will be stuck in the Kris+ app. KrisPay miles expire after six months, and can only be spent at a poor ratio of 100 miles = S$1. 

Other card perks

12 complimentary lounge visits

When the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card first launched, it offered just four free lounge visits per membership year. That was woefully inadequate for its segment, so thankfully that was rectified in 2023, with cardholders upgraded to unlimited visits together with one guest.

Unfortunately, that benefit has now been cut to 12 visits per calendar year, effective 1 June 2026. These can be shared with one or more guests (e.g. you could bring 11 guests and use up your entire allowance in a single visit).

💳 Airport Lounge Benefits (Income Req.: S$120K)
Card	Free Visits (Per Year)
	Main	Supp.
HSBC Visa Infinite	∞	∞ (up to 5x cards)
OCBC VOYAGE Apply	∞	2 CY No Share
Citi Prestige Card Apply	12 CY Share	N/A
DBS Vantage Card Apply	10 MY Share	N/A
UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card Apply	12 MY Share	N/A
StanChart Visa Infinite Apply	6 MY Share	N/A
Maybank Visa Infinite Apply	4 MY No Share	N/A
AMEX Platinum Reserve Apply	N/A	N/A
Legend
Whether visits are tracked by calendar year CY or membership year MY Whether lounge visits can or can’t be shared with guests Share No Share

That said, it’s still a respectable allowance for its segment, given that the Citi Prestige has also removed unlimited lounge visits, and the HSBC Visa Infinite has been closed to new applications since September 2024.

Dining discounts

UOB Visa Infinite Metal Cardholders enjoy up to 30% off a la carte food orders at the following restaurants.

UOB Visa Infinite Metal Cardholders also enjoy the Infinite Dining programme, which offers specially-curated menus from celebrity chefs.

15,000 miles loyalty bonus

UOB Visa Infinite Metal Cardholders who spend at least S$100,000 in a membership year will receive 15,000 bonus miles when they renew their card for the following membership year. This is on top of the usual 25,000 miles awarded each year the annual fee is paid. 

The bonus miles will be awarded two months after the annual fee is posted. 

While extra miles are always good, 15,000 bonus miles for S$100,000 spend is not much of an incremental return. There’s really no reason why you should be putting so much spend on a general spending card in the first place (unless perhaps you’re charging school fees).

10,000 miles retention bonus (?)

This isn’t an official benefit, but cardholders have reported receiving 10,000 miles as an additional incentive for renewal — though they will have to call up to request for it.

You can browse community-provided data points in the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card Telegram Chat by searching for “10k”.

Bonus miles with KrisFlyer UOB Account

UOB Visa Infinite Metal Cardholders can earn bonus miles on their spending with a KrisFlyer UOB Account.

For example, if I spend on my UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card AMEX in SGD, I will earn:

1. A base reward of 1.4 mpd from my UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card
2. A bonus reward of 5-6 mpd from my KrisFlyer UOB Account

However, I’d strongly advise against this, because the opportunity cost of the funds you need to deposit in the account would almost certainly outweigh the value of any miles earned. That’s mainly because the maximum miles you can earn each month are capped at 5% of your Monthly Average Balance (MAB).

For example, if your MAB is S$1,000 (the minimum required to earn miles), you can earn at most 50 miles (5% of S$1,000) from the KrisFlyer UOB Account each month. Assuming you don’t credit a salary (5 mpd), the account would stop rewarding you after spending just S$10 (50/5 mpd) on your cards!

This means that unless you have a ridiculously high valuation for a mile, the opportunity cost is simply too high.

To learn more about the KrisFlyer UOB Account, and why it’s such a raw deal, refer to the post below.

KrisFlyer UOB Account Review: Do not resuscitate

Complimentary travel insurance

The UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card offers complimentary travel insurance, which covers up to US$1,000,000 for accidental death or dismemberment while traveling on a scheduled public conveyance, with further coverage also for travel inconvenience like lost luggage or flight delays. However, there is no coverage for medical expenses or evacuation, so you’ll definitely want to get separate protection there. 

It is unclear from the policy wording whether coverage applies in the case where an airline ticket is redeemed with miles and the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card is used to pay for taxes and surcharges.

Buy miles with UOB Payment Facility

UOB Payment Facility

The UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card has a “no questions asked” Payment Facility that allows cardholders to buy as many miles as they wish.

The regular fee is 2.2 cents per mile, though there are frequent promotions which reduce this further. The current offer, which is set to lapse on 31 August 2026 (but likely to be further extended) lowers the cost to 1.8 cents per mile.

How it works is that cardholders fill out an online form and specify how much they’d like to charge to the facility, e.g. S$5,000. UOB will then:

• Deposit S$5,000 into their designated bank account
• Charge S$5,090 to their card (S$5,000 + 1.8% fee)
• Award UNI$ at a rate of UNI$2.5 per S$5, or 2,500 UNI$ in total (5,000 miles; the payment facility fee doesn’t earn miles)

Cardholders are then out of pocket S$90 , for which they purchased 5,000 miles. This works out to 1.8 cents per mile.

1.8 cents per mile is slightly above what I would be willing to pay, given that cheaper alternatives exist with services like CardUp and Citi PayAll. However, those require a legitimate bill to pay, while the UOB Payment Facility does not.

The UOB Payment Facility would also come in useful if you need to top off your UNI$ balance to the next 5,000 UNI$ block required for a transfer.

Generic Visa Infinite benefits

UOB Visa Infinite Metal Cardholders enjoy the following additional perks, which are available to all Visa Infinite cards.

For more information on how these perks work, refer to the post below.

What are the benefits of a Visa Infinite card?

Summary Review: UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card

Apply

🦁 MileLion Verdict

☐ Take It ☐ Take It Or Leave It ☑ Leave It

The UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card offers competitive earn rates for a $120K card, and remains one of the few options for earning miles on education-related expenses. Also, if you’re a heavy user of other UOB cards such as the UOB Lady’s Card, UOB Preferred Platinum Visa and UOB Visa Signature, then the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card can anchor this strategy by providing a general spending option and free UNI$ conversions. 

However, it’s extremely painful to see the lounge benefit go from unlimited visits with one guest to just 12 per year, though to be fair, it does mirror the cuts to lounge privileges we’ve seen from the AMEX Platinum Charge and Citi Prestige.

Besides that, the slate of benefits feels very lightweight relative to its annual fee, with no airport limo rides or anything noteworthy beyond generic Visa Infinite perks. For my money, you might be better off getting a Citi Prestige instead.

So that’s my review of the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card. What do you think?