At some point last year, UOB rolled its PRVI Pay and Reserve/Visa Infinite payment facilities into the generically-named “UOB Payment Facility”. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, insofar as it reduces confusion, and the rates are anyways the same as before.Â
| Card Type | One-time | 3 months | 12 months |
| UOB Reserve | 1.9% | 2.1% | 2.6% |
| UOB Privilege Banking Card | 2.0% | 2.15% | 2.65% |
| UOB Visa Infinite | 2.0% | 2.15% | 2.65% |
| UOB Visa Infinite Metal | 2.0% | 2.15% | 2.65% |
| UOB PRVI Miles | 2.0% | 2.2% | 2.7% |
UOB is now running a special offer on its payment facility that may be of interest to those with upcoming income tax payments (or any kind of payment, really), and don’t mind trading miles for luggage.Â
| đź’° The Milelion’s 2021 Income Tax Payment Guide |
| Income tax season is coming soon, and I’m working on an update to the 2020 guide for paying income tax bills with a credit card. Expect it early next month. |
1.5% admin fee plus Samsonite luggage
From 1 March to 30 April 2021, cardholders who charge a minimum of S$25,000 to their UOB Reserve, UOB Visa Infinite Metal, UOB Visa Infinite or UOB Privilege Banking Card (note the exclusion of the PRVI Miles) will enjoy a 1.5% admin fee and receive a Samsonite SBL Fanthom Spinner 55/20.Â
The list price of the Samsonite luggage is S$950, but I found it on iShopChangi for S$799 (with possible further discounts from promo codes). Under this promotion, you’re basically paying S$375 (1.5% of S$25,000) for it.Â
The luggage is awarded in lieu of miles, and mercifully, there’s no “first X” criteria here that UOB loves to spring on its customers. A redemption SMS will be sent by 1 June 2021, and the full T&C can be found here.Â
| ⚠️ For reasons I don’t quite understand, loading the T&Cs link in Chrome shows me the old T&Cs reflecting a promotion end date of 28 February 2021. Opening it in Edge shows the latest T&Cs with the new end date of 30 April 2021. |
Needless to say, S$25,000 is a sizeable tax bill (you’d need chargeable income of about S$220,000 to hit that), but remember, the UOB Payment Facility can be used for anything. UOB doesn’t even ask you to submit documentation; it’s basically a miles (or in this case luggage) purchase facility.Â
Also remember that UOB does not make payment on your behalf; instead, the requested funds are deposited into your designated bank account, and the full amount plus the admin fee billed to your card. What you do with those funds is up to you; you can still pay IRAS using the interest-free installment payment plan.Â
Conclusion
For those who want an alternative to the usual miles offered by payment facilities, this might be worth a look. We should be expecting some special tax payment offers from services like CardUp coming soon, however, so keep an eye out for that too.Â
Edge FTW
I am seeing the end date of 28th Feb on Edge as well..
why do banks love giving out suitcases? can’t the buy a better product to give out?
Hahha actually they’ve toned down already and I think airpods are the new suitcases. 5+ years ago almost all sign up gifts were luggage
it’s just amazing all 6 banks marketing departments deem the best strategy to capture new clients are to copy the others gift idea.
because the the retail markup on suitcases is unbelievably massive, and they often bulk purchase discontinuing or older models that they can get for at significant discount. so you end up being able to advertise that you are giving say $900 of “value” (at original RRP) whereas they only paid maybe $100-200 for it (figures are illustrative, you get the point)
theres also the link between getting a travel credit card and getting a suitcase (oh thats nice theyre giving me enough points for a flight to bali, plus a suitcase i can pack my mother in law in), and i know some friends who are preconditioned that if they need a new suitcase they start trawling bank websites for signup offers
Looking forward to your tie up with cardup this year again! Go for 1.5% fee!