Review: UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card

Here’s the MileLion’s review of the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card, which is proving to be quite the turnaround story.

When I first reviewed this card in 2020, the conclusion was “don’t bother”. It was overpriced and underwhelming, one of the most expensive cards in the $120K segment, yet only offering a fraction of the benefits. “All style, all substance”, went the tagline. “Har har har”, went the market.

But UOB revamped the card in June 2023, dramatically improving the value position by adding unlimited lounge visits for the cardholder plus a guest, boosting the overseas earn rate, and throwing in a rather generous sign-up offer. It’s enough to tip it into the “recommended” column for me, something I never thought I’d say a few years ago!

UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card
🦁 MileLion Verdict
☑ Take It ☐ Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It
What do these ratings mean?
The new-and-improved UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card is a worthy contender for the premium card slot in your wallet, especially if you already use other UOB cards
👍 The good	👎 The bad
Unlimited lounge visits for cardholder and one guest Still earns miles for hospitals and education expenses S$120 of annual Grab vouchers Generous first-year welcome offer Free UNI$ conversions to miles	S$5 earning blocks and UOB$ merchants to watch out for No airport limo benefit
💳 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$648	Min. Transfer	5,000 UNI$ (10,000 miles)
Miles with Annual Fee	25,000	Transfer Partners	SIA Cathay Pacific Air Asia
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 suggests, 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.

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

When the original UOB Visa Infinite Card first launched back in 2003, it carried an income requirement of S$350,000, making it one of the most exclusive cards in Singapore.

Fast forward a decade and a half and its successor, the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card, has an income requirement of “just” S$120,000– still substantial, but nowhere as high as it used to be. The mantle of UOB’s most extinguished (sic) card has been passed to the UOB Reserve, and the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card now competes in the so-called “$120K segment”. 

⚠️ Regarding income requirements

Until June 2023, the minimum income requirement for the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card was S$150,000. At the time of writing, UOB’s online application portal has yet to be updated, and entering an income of <S$150,000 will trigger an error message. Existing customers can circumvent this by applying via SMS. Send Yesvim<space>Last 4 digits of existing UOB card<space>NRIC# to 77672.

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

	Principal Card	Supp. Card
First Year	S$648	1st card free, 2nd onwards S$290.69
Subsequent

The UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card has an annual fee of S$648, which is strictly non-waivable. The first supplementary card is free for life; the second card onwards costs S$290.69 per year.

Cardholders receive 25,000 miles each year the annual fee is paid. That’s a fairly unattractive 2.59 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?

UOB is currently offering a very attractive, uncapped sign-up offer for the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card, valid for applications from 1 June to 31 August 2023.

Cardholders who spend at least S$4,000 within 30 days of approval and pay the S$648 annual fee will receive:

New-to-UOB customers	Existing UOB customers
80,000 miles + 20 x S$10 GrabFood or GrabTransport vouchers	40,000 miles + 20 x S$10 GrabFood or GrabTransport vouchers
New-to-UOB is defined as a customer who: does not currently hold any principal UOB credit cards, and has not cancelled a principal UOB credit card in the past six months prior to 1 June 2023

For avoidance of doubt, the miles quoted in the table above already include the 25,000 miles that cardholders get for paying the annual fee each year.

The T&Cs of the welcome offer can be found here.

How many miles do I earn?

🇸🇬 SGD Spend	🌎 FCY Spend	⭐ Bonus Spend
1.4 mpd	2.4 mpd	None

SGD/FCY Spending

The UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card earns:

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

1 UNI$ is worth 2 airline miles, so that’s an equivalent earn rate of 1.4 mpd for local spending, and 2.4 mpd for FCY spending.

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

Card	Local Earn	FCY Earn
SCB VI	Up to 1.4 mpd*	Up to 3 mpd*
UOB VI Metal Card	1.4 mpd	2.4 mpd
DBS Vantage	1.5 mpd	2.2 mpd
OCBC VOYAGE	1.3 mpd	2.2 mpd
HSBC VI	Up to 1.25 mpd^	Up to 2.25 mpd^
Citi Prestige	1.3 mpd	2 mpd
Maybank VI	1.2 mpd	2 mpd
AMEX Plat. Reserve	0.69 mpd	0.69 mpd
*Min. S$2,000 spend per statement month, otherwise 1 mpd for both SGD and FCY ^Min S$50,000 spend in the previous membership year, otherwise 1 mpd (SGD) and 2 mpd (FCY)

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

Unfortunately, there’s another UOB 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 (Hotels.com is an example), 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!)

UOB$ merchants

UOB Visa Infinite Metal Cardholders will not earn any UNI$ at UOB$ merchants. 

UOB$ is UOB’s card-wide cashback programme and includes Cold Storage, Crystal Jade, Giant, Guardian, Starbucks and Toast Box, among others. For the full list, refer to this link.

I’ve written about some potential workarounds in the following post.

Workarounds: How to earn miles at UOB$ merchants with UOB cards

Pairing with a KrisFlyer UOB account

It is possible to earn a bonus 5-6 mpd on your spending if you open a KrisFlyer UOB deposit account, but I’d strongly advise you against doing this. This account pays a measly 0.05% interest, and caps the bonus miles you can earn at a mere 5% of your monthly average balance.

For example, if you put S$50,000 inside the account, the maximum bonus miles you could earn each month is just 2,500 (5% of 50,000), which you’d hit after spending just S$500 on your UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card. Keep in mind, you’d be earning 0.05% interest on your S$50,000 balance too. 

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

Local Spend	Round down transaction to nearest S$5, then divide by 5 and multiply by 3.5. Round down to the nearest whole number
FCY Spend	Round down transaction to nearest S$5, then divide by 5 and multiply by 6. Round down to the nearest whole number

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. 

🚆 What about SimplyGo?

If the minimum transaction to earn miles is S$5, then what’s the point of using the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card with SimplyGo? Don’t worry: for Visa, UNI$ are awarded based on the accumulated SimplyGo spending per calendar month. So with the exception of extreme circumstances (e.g. where you take just 1-2 rides a month), you’ll definitely earn some miles.

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  Earn Rate: 1.4 mpd	Citi Prestige Earn Rate: 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: 

Local Spend	=ROUNDDOWN (ROUNDDOWN (X/5,0) * 3.5,0)
FCY Spend	=ROUNDDOWN (ROUNDDOWN (X/5,0) * 6,0)
Where X= Amount Spent

Don’t forget that UOB makes it super 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:

• Charitable Donations
• Government Services 
• 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 hospital bills nor education-related expenses from earning points.

While UOB excluded hospital bills in February 2021 and education-related expenses in September 2019, special exemptions were carved out for the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card. 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 avoidance of doubt, CardUp transactions will also earn miles with the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card, even though ipaymy does not.

What do I need to know about UNI$?

❌ Expiry	↔️ Pooling	✈️ Transfer Fee
2 years	Yes	Waived
⬆️ Min. Transfer	✈️ No. of Partners	⏱️ Transfer Time
5,000 UNI$ (10,000 miles)	3	48 hours

Expiry

UNI$ expire 2 years from the last day of each periodic quarter in which the UNI$ was earned. Each UNI$ period is calculated commencing from January to December of each calendar year. Expired UNI$ cannot be replaced or reinstated.

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$ at one shot and pay a single conversion fee.

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 programs at a 1:2 ratio, with a minimum transfer block of 5,000 UNI$ (let’s ignore AirAsia, because converting points there is like throwing them away):

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$25 conversion fee. And since UNI$ 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

Based on my experience, most points transfers are completed within 48 hours. 

If you need your points credited instantly, you can do so via Kris+. 1,000 UNI$ can be transferred to 1,700 KrisPay miles, which can then be transferred to KrisFlyer miles at a 1:1 ratio. 

S$5 for new Kris+ Users

Get S$5 (in the form of 750 KrisPay miles) when you sign-up with code W644363 and make your first transaction

Transfers are immediate, but 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). 

Other card perks

S$120 Grab vouchers

Ever since January 2023, UOB Visa Infinite Metal Cardholders have received two free S$5 GrabGift vouchers monthly via SMS, which can be redeemed for Transport, Food, Mart or Express services.

New cardmembers will receive the codes from the second month of card open date (e.g. if a card was opened in January 2023, the cardmember will start to receive the promo codes via SMS from February 2023 onwards).

Over the course of a year that’s S$120 of extra value. While it’s debatable whether you should take the vouchers at face value (since ordering via GrabFood usually entails a markup), that’s still worth factoring into your overall valuation. 

Unlimited lounge visits (+1 guest)

UOB Visa Infinite Metal Cardholders used to receive a measly four free lounge visits per membership year. That was woefully inadequate, considering other cards in its segment were offering unlimited visits.

Thankfully, that’s now been rectified, and cardholders now receive unlimited visits (+1 guest) to DragonPass lounges worldwide.

Card	Lounge Network	Free Visits (Per Year)
		Main	Supp.
HSBC VI	LoungeKey	∞	∞
OCBC VOYAGE	Plaza Premium	∞	∞
UOB VI Metal Card	Dragon Pass	∞ + 1 guest	N/A
Citi Prestige	Priority Pass	∞ + 1 guest	N/A
Maybank Visa Infinite	Priority Pass	∞	N/A
DBS Vantage	Priority Pass	10	N/A
SCB VI	Priority Pass	6	N/A
AMEX Plat. Reserve	N/A	N/A	N/A

It’s noteworthy that UOB is offering lounge access through DragonPass as opposed to Priority Pass or LoungeKey. The DragonPass network is arguably more useful given Plaza Premium’s divorce from The Collinson Group (which runs Priority Pass and LoungeKey). DragonPass members can still access Plaza Premium Lounges as per normal, and at some airports that’s the sole contract lounge option.

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. 

I wouldn’t get too excited about this, however,  since 15,000 bonus miles for S$100,000 spend is a pittance of a return. There’s really no reason why you should be putting so much spend on a general spending card in the first place. But hey, if you’re going to do it anyway…

Dining discounts

From now till 30 December 2023, UOB Visa Infinite Metal Cardholders enjoy 50% off a la carte weekday lunch for 2 diners at the following restaurants:

Pan Pacific Singapore

• Edge (Also applicable for weekday lunch buffet)
• Hai Tien Lo
• Keyaki

PARKROYAL COLLECTION Pickering

• Lime (Also applicable for weekday lunch buffet)

PARKROYAL on Beach Road

• Ginger (Also applicable for weekday lunch buffet)
• Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurant

PARKROYAL on Kitchener Road

• Spice Brasserie
• Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurant

Si Chuan Dou Hua, TOP of UOB Plaza

For all other times, they’ll enjoy 30% off the dining bill at the abovementioned restaurants, and 20% off the dining bill at PARKROYAL COLLECTION Marina Bay restaurants. 

Complimentary travel insurance

Accidental Death	US$1,000,000
Medical Expenses	N/A
Travel Inconvenience	Flight Delay: S$400 Baggage Delay: S$500 Lost Baggage: S$1,000
Policy Wording

The UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card offers complimentary travel insurance.

Cardholders are covered for 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 Visa Infinite Metal Card members have access to a “no questions asked” Payment Facility that lets them buy unlimited miles at 2 cents each, subject to their credit limit.

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

• Deposit S$5,000 into your designated bank account
• Charge S$5,100 to your card (S$5,000 + 2% fee)
• Award UNI$ at a rate of UNI$2.5 per S$5
• This gives you a total of 2,500 UNI$ (5,000 miles; the payment facility fee doesn’t earn miles)

You take the S$5,000 they deposited to pay off your card bill, then you’re out of pocket S$100. You’ve basically bought 5,000 miles for S$100, or 2 cents per mile. 

Frankly speaking, 2 cents per mile is way above what you should be paying. The “gold standard” for buying miles is set by Citi PayAll, with promotions regularly bringing the price down to around 1 cent apiece.

At most, you might consider using the UOB Payment Facility to top off your UNI$ balance to the next 5,000 block needed for a transfer.

Pan Pacific DISCOVERY Platinum status

UOB Visa Infinite Metal Cardholders will receive a complimentary upgrade to Pan Pacific DISCOVERY Platinum status. 

This provides benefits including a one-category room upgrade and 3 p.m check-out, subject to availability. 

Summary Review: UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card

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🦁 MileLion Verdict

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

Here’s some words I never thought I’d write: I could really see a case for getting the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card.

The sign-up bonus of 40,000/80,000 miles +S$200 Grab vouchers helps to offset a big chunk of the annual fee, plus there’s $120 of annual Grab vouchers (drip fed though they might be), unlimited lounge visits for the cardholder plus a guest, and 25,000 renewal miles in subsequent years. 

What’s more, if you regularly spend big on education and hospital bills, this is one of the few cards on the market that still rewards such transactions. And if you regularly use other UOB credit cards like the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa , UOB Visa Signature and UOB Lady’s Card (as you should), adding the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card to the mix allows you to enjoy free UNI$ conversions. 

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