In general, banks only offer sign-up bonuses for principal cardholders, not supplementary ones. That really shouldn’t come as a surprise, since principal cardholders are usually the ones who make the money.
However, there’s one exception: UOB.
UOB has a special programme that rewards principal cardholders for adding supplementary cardholders to their account. This has been running for a while now, but it’s definitely worth covering because it’s basically a way of generating some free money every few months, even if you already have a UOB card yourself.
UOB supplementary card welcome offers
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| Offer Details |
Principal UOB cardholders can earn gifts when they apply for a supplementary card, and their supplementary cardholder meets a certain minimum spend following approval.
The only condition is that the supplementary cardholder must not be an existing principal or supplementary holder of any UOB credit card.
Here’s the details of the current offer, which is valid for supplementary cards applied for and approved between 1 July to 31 August 2024:
- Gift: S$80 cash credit
- Minimum spend: S$1,500 within the first two months from date of approval
For avoidance of doubt, spending must be on the supplementary card only; principal cardholder spend will not be counted.
This offer is capped at the first 100 principal cardholders per calendar month (i.e. 100 for July, 100 for August) to meet the approval and spending conditions. A maximum of one gift can be enjoyed for the entire promotion period, regardless of how many supplementary cardholders you add.
If eligible, the cash credit will be awarded by 31 December 2024. The T&Cs of this offer can be found here.
How does this offer compare to previous ones?
UOB has been running these supplementary cardholder acquisition offers for some time now.
Here’s an idea of what previous promotions have offered (gaps between offers don’t imply there was no promotion during that period, but rather that the Wayback Machine doesn’t have it archived):
| Period | Offer | Spend (Per month, for 3 months) |
Cap |
| 1 Apr to 30 Jun 23 |
S$100 Grab Food vouchers | S$500 per mo. x 3 | 60 |
| S$60 Grab Food vouchers | S$200 per mo. x 3 | 140 | |
| 1 Jul to 30 Sep 23 | S$150 Grab Food vouchers | S$700 per mo. x 3 | 100 |
| S$100 Grab Food vouchers | S$500 per mo. x 3 | 200 | |
| 1 Jan to 31 Mar 24 | S$200 cash | S$1,000 per mo. x 3 | 100 |
| S$150 cash | S$700 per mo. x 3 | 200 | |
| 1 Apr to 31 May 24 | S$80 Grab Food vouchers | S$700 per mo. x 2 | 100 |
Regardless of how attractive you feel the current offer is, it doesn’t hurt to participate because even though you can only enjoy one gift per promotion, there’s nothing stopping you from participating in subsequent promotions as and when they come.
For example, I can sign up one family member for a supplementary card during this promotion, get the welcome gift, then sign up another family member for another supplementary card during the following promotion. Basically, so long as I have family members that don’t have a principal or supplementary UOB card already, I can “encash” them every time a new promotion comes round.
How much do supplementary cards cost?
All UOB credit cards enjoy a perpetual annual fee waiver for the first supplementary card. If you have the UOB Lady’s Solitaire Metal Card, UOB Lady’s Solitaire or UOB Privilege Banking Card, you get the annual fee perpetually waived for two supplementary cards.
You can refer to this page for the full fee schedule.
Is it worth it?
This is certainly a deal worth considering, given that there’s very little to lose.
While there is an annoying “first X” clause, to the extent that you’re giving your supplementary cardholder a card that they should be spending with anyway, any extra gifts are just the icing on the cake.
For example, I could give a family member a supplementary UOB Visa Signature Card, telling them to use it for in-store contactless payments or foreign currency spend. Even if they ultimately don’t qualify for the first X, those transactions would still earn 4 mpd, which is the best possible outcome (as a reminder, supplementary cards utilise the bonus cap of the principal cardholder).
Think of it as a way of “monetising” your family members who don’t qualify for credit cards themselves. And even if they subsequently wish to apply for a principal card of their own, the supplementary card won’t disqualify them from new-to-bank welcome bonuses.
Conclusion
Principal UOB cardholders who add supplementary cardholders to their account can now enjoy an S$80 cash credit, subject to meeting a minimum spend of S$1,500 within two months.
This offer is capped at 100 cardholders per month till 31 August 2024, but there should be a new promotion after that. All you need to do is keep finding new people to sign up!
