The Unstoppable Pairing: UOB Lady’s Card enhancements are a bust

It’s been a mixed 2024 so far for UOB Lady’s Cardholders.

Back in January, we received word that the epic 6 mpd offer would be extended for a further month till 31 March 2024, which was tempered by the news in Feburary that the UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card would be cutting its monthly bonus cap from S$3,000 to S$2,000 from 1 April 2024.

In addition to this, UOB has been teasing that some “exciting benefits” would launch in April, and now we know the details.

Here’s the tl;dr: if you’re a guy, you can stop reading here because nothing is changing beyond a new card face (I know it’s subjective, but I personally feel the current design is much more attractive). From 1 April 2024, your earn rates revert to the usual 4 mpd, with the reduced monthly cap for the UOB Lady’s Solitaire & Solitaire Metal Card coming into effect.

💳 UOB Lady’s Cards (From 1 April 2024)
Card	Earn Rate	Cap
UOB Lady’s Card Apply	4 mpd on choice of 1 bonus category	S$1,000 per calendar month
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card Apply	4 mpd on choice of 2 bonus categories	S$2,000 per calendar month
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Metal Card

If you’re a girl, UOB is launching what it calls “The Unstoppable Pairing” (yes, they’re actually calling it that), which allows you to earn up to 10 mpd by pairing the UOB Lady’s Card with the female-only UOB Lady’s Savings Account.

But as we’ll soon see, you may want to join the guys in sitting this one out.

“The Unstoppable Pairing”

From 1 April 2024, UOB Lady’s Cardholders will be able to earn bonus miles with the Lady’s Savings Account.

UOB Lady’s Cardholders will continue to earn the regular 10X UNI$ (equivalent to 4 mpd) for eligible transactions in their preferred rewards category or categories. 

On top of this, they can earn up to an additional 15X UNI$ (equivalent to 6 mpd) from the UOB Lady’s Savings Account, based on their Monthly Average Balance (MAB) as illustrated below. 

Now, if this reminds you of the KrisFlyer UOB Account, that’s because the underlying mechanism is similar. You’re basically putting funds in a (very) low-interest account so that you can earn more miles, and whether this is worth it all boils down to how much you’re implicitly paying.

We’ll get to the UOB Lady’s Savings Account in bit, but here’s where I point out the catch. Here’s what UOB says in its press release:

The Bonus UNI$ and Lady’s Savings Bonus UNI$ you can earn in a calendar month is capped at S$1,000 spent on your preferred rewards category if you are a UOB Lady’s Classic Card, UOB Lady’s Platinum Card or UOB Lady’s World Mastercard Cardmember; or S$2,000 spent on your preferred rewards category(ies) if you are a UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card or UOB Lady’s Solitaire Metal Card Cardmember

-UOB

To summarise, the bonus UNI$ from the Lady’s Cards and Lady’s Savings Account is capped at

• UOB Lady’s Card: S$1,000 per calendar month
• UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card/Lady’s Solitaire Metal Card: S$2,000 per calendar month

These are exactly the same spending caps for someone who has no balance in the Lady’s Savings Account, and I find it very strange that the bonus UNI$ cap has no link to your MAB. Say what you will about the KrisFlyer UOB Account, but at least the bonus miles cap grows with your MAB (albeit at a miserable 5% ratio).

In other words, this is what your incremental earning looks like, assuming you max out the S$1,000/S$2,000 monthly cap.

So when it’s all said and done, you’re looking at an incremental of 2,000-6,000 miles (Lady’s Card) or 4,000-12,000 miles (Lady’s Solitaire Card) per month. 

A simple illustration to sum things up:

• Jane has an MAB of S$10,000 in her Lady’s Savings Account
• She spends S$1,000 on her UOB Lady’s Card bonus category
• She earns 4,000 miles from her UOB Lady’s Card (4 mpd), and an extra 2,000 miles from her UOB Lady’s Savings Account (2 mpd)

Now, incremental miles are always welcome, but the bigger question is: what’s the opportunity cost of putting money in the UOB Lady’s Savings Account?

What is the UOB Lady’s Savings Account?

The UOB Lady’s Savings Account, which unlike the UOB Lady’s Card is restricted to females only, offers insurance coverage in lieu of interest.

Customers earn just 0.05% p.a. interest on their balance each month, and instead receive complimentary Female Cancer Coverage with a sum assured of up to S$200,000.

Now, I’m no expert on insurance, and I don’t know how much it costs to find third-party coverage through other underwriters. But given how easy it is to earn 5% p.a. interest on the first S$100,000 in your UOB One Account just by spending S$500 per month on your UOB Lady’s Card and crediting salary of at least S$1,600, you’re giving up a good amount of interest for that coverage. 

Do the additional UNI$ earned from the UOB Lady’s Card help to offset the opportunity cost? Well, given my value of 1.5 cents per mile, here’s the incremental return from holding a Lady’s Savings Account, and maxing out the monthly spending cap on the UOB Lady’s Card or Lady’s Solitaire Card, as the case may be.

Assuming you put S$10,000 in the account and you’re a UOB Lady’s Cardholder, you’ll earn an extra 2,000 miles per month, which I value at S$30. Had that money been put into a UOB One Account, you could have earned ~S$42 (5% of S$10K divided by 12 months), so you’d be losing out. 

If you were a UOB Lady’s Solitaire Cardholder, you’ll earn an extra 4,000 miles per month, which I value at S$60. That’s more than the interest earned on the UOB One Account, so maybe there’s a case to be made here? I’ve explored this a bit more in the article below.

UOB Lady’s Savings Account: Is 6 mpd worth a S$10,000 deposit?

Still, it certainly doesn’t make sense at the upper end. Assuming you put S$100,000 in the account, a UOB Lady’s Cardholder would earn an extra 6,000 miles per month which I value at S$90. The opportunity cost of interest is S$417! If you’re a UOB Lady’s Solitaire Cardholder, the extra 12,000 miles per month are worth S$180, which is still well below the foregone interest. 

Everyone needs to do their own sums, but if you’ve decided to participate nonetheless, my advice would be:

• Only deposit enough money in the UOB Lady’s Savings Account to hit the minimum MAB required for each tier (e.g. S$10,000, S$50,000, S$100,000), since there’s no incentive to deposit more (ignoring the increased cancer coverage)
• Make sure that in that month, you max out the S$1,000/S$2,000 cap on the UOB Lady’s/Lady’s Solitaire Card

You may need to be nimble with this, depositing and withdrawing funds as needed (there’s a S$2 monthly fee if your MAB falls below S$1,000).

Conclusion

UOB has unveiled some upcoming enhancements to the UOB Lady’s Cards from 1 April 2024, and there’s not much of interest here for the men. You’ll still have the same solid rewards card as before, just with 4 mpd instead of 6 mpd, and a lower bonus cap for the UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card.

For women, you have to decide whether the incremental miles and cancer coverage offered by the UOB Lady’s Savings Account are worth the foregone interest. I’ll let the experts weigh in here, but my sense is you could find cheaper coverage elsewhere, without having to tie up your funds in an account that earns close to zero interest. If you want to participate, then you should look to deposit the smallest possible amount of S$10,000, because the math progressively breaks down the more funds you put inside the Lady’s Savings Account. 

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the last year with my UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card, and even after 1 April 2024 it’s going to be remain a core part of my overall miles strategy. However, the UOB Lady’s Savings Account is a more marginal proposition, especially when the existing UOB Lady’s Card x UOB One combo is already working so well.

What do you make of these changes?