How does the UOB Payment Facility work?

The UOB Payment Facility (previously called UOB PRVI Pay) is a platform that allows UOB credit cardmembers to earn miles when paying monthly bills, rent, taxes or insurance premiums, in exchange for a small admin fee. 

That’s in theory, at least. In practice, UOB doesn’t care what you’re doing. You could be paying electricity bills or trading simp DAOs; so long as it’s within your credit limit, it’s fair game. This is basically a way of buying miles, and when UOB says “pay anything”, they really mean it.

UOB Payment Facility

In this guide, I’ll walk you through how the UOB Payment Facility works, and how it measures up to competitors like CardUp and Citi PayAll.

Overview: UOB Payment Facility

Here’s an overview of the current admin fees for the UOB Payment Facility, which reflect a discount for one-time payments made by 31 March 2025. 

In practice, there is almost always an ongoing promotion, making the discounted rates effectively the standard rates.

💳 UOB Payment Facility Rates
	One-time	3 mo.	12 mo.
UOB Reserve Card	1.9% 1.7%	2.8%	4.3%
UOB Privilege Banking Card	2.2% 2%	3%	4.5%
UOB Visa Infinite Card	2.2% 2%	3%	4.5%
UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card	2.2% 2%	3%	4.5%
UOB PRVI Miles Card (all versions)	2.3% 2.1%	3.1%	4.6%
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card	2.3% 2.1%	3.1%	4.6%
All Other UOB Cards	2.4% 2.2%	3.2%	4.7%

Cardholders can choose between a one-time, three month or 12 month payment option.

• If you choose the one-time option, the full amount will be charged to your next monthly card billing statement, together with the admin fee. UNI$ will be credited in a single lump sum
• If you choose the 3/12 month option, the amount will be billed in 3/12 monthly installments, with the admin fee billed in the first instalment. UNI$ will be credited based on the monthly instalment payable

All payments made via the UOB Payment Facility earn a flat rate of UNI$2.5 for every S$5 approved, regardless of card. In other words, the UOB Payment Facility earns 1 mpd with all UOB cards, instead of the regular earn rate.

Given a 1 mpd earn rate, the cost per mile is basically the admin fee, e.g. 1.7% means 1.7 cents per mile.

To illustrate, let’s say you hold a UOB PRVI Miles Card and want to buy 5,000 miles with the one-time payment option. Here’s how the process works:

Applications are processed within six working days.

Important things to note about UOB Payment Facility

Before you use the UOB Payment Facility, here’s two important things to note:

• Amounts charged to the UOB Payment Facility do not count towards the minimum spend for welcome offers
• Amounts charged to the UOB Payment Facility do not count towards the S$50,000 minimum spend required for an annual fee waiver and 20,000 bonus miles with the UOB PRVI Miles AMEX

That said, UOB Reserve Cardholders who charge at least S$10 million (yes, that’s not a typo) to the UOB Payment Facility in a year will be upgraded to a UOB Reserve Diamond Card, so that’s something I guess!

Isn’t this rather expensive?

If you’re familiar with alternative bill payment platforms like CardUp or Citi PayAll, then the UOB Payment Facility may seem very expensive.

And you’re right. The cost per mile with those platforms can be in the 1.0-1.5 cents range, depending on the card type and ongoing promotions. So why would you be willing to pay prices closer to 2 cents with the UOB Payment Facility?

It’s important to remember that both CardUp and Citi PayAll aren’t “no questions asked”; the payment must be linked to a genuine economic transaction. That could be rent, it could be a helper salary, what it can’t be is to yourself. 

CardUp requires you to submit documentation for most payments. Citi PayAll is more lax with the documentation requirement, but still has rules against paying yourself or overpaying taxes just to generate miles (I’m sure there are people who get away with this, but if you get caught, it probably won’t end well).

Now, realistically speaking, most people should be able to find some sort of bill to pay through either platform, given their wide scope of coverage.

But if you’re lucky enough to have no bills in your life, then the UOB Payment Facility would be the next best alternative.

Another scenario where the UOB Payment Facility can come in handy is topping up your account to the next transfer block of 5,000 UNI$. For example, if you have 23,500 UNI$ in your account, you could charge S$3,000 to the UOB Payment Facility to earn another 1,500 UNI$, allowing you to transfer out a total of 25,000 UNI$.

What can you do with UNI$?

UNI$ can be transferred to three frequent flyer programmes (though it’s really two, because converting points to AirAsia is like throwing them away) at the following ratio:

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

Transfers cost S$25 each, regardless of how many points are transferred. However, if you hold a UOB Reserve, UOB Visa Infinite Metal, UOB Visa Infinite or UOB Privilege Banking Card, you will enjoy free conversions of all UNI$, including those earned on the UOB PRVI Miles Card. 

Conclusion

The UOB Payment Facility is a way for UOB cardholders to buy as many miles as they wish, capped only by their credit limit.

It’s not the cheapest way of buying miles, though, and if you have a legitimate bill to pay, you could almost certainly acquire them for less through a platform like CardUp. 

So unless you know a way of generating higher returns than the admin fee (using the cash that gets credited to your account), the real appeal here is being able to top up your UNI$ balance to avoid orphan points.

Are there any other uses for the UOB Payment Facility you can think of?