How to navigate the UOB Visa Signature’s tricky new bonus caps

Back in July, the UOB Visa Signature announced some major changes to its rewards structure, which were a mixed bag by all accounts.

UOB Visa Signature Changes
👍 The Good	👎 The Bad
SimplyGo now earns 4 mpd Monthly bonus cap increased to S$2,400	Monthly bonus cap now split into two categories of S$1,200 each
Changes apply to statement months ending on and after 1 September 2025

The good news was that SimplyGo bus and MRT rides were reclassified as contactless spending, making them eligible to earn 4 mpd. Moreover, the overall bonus cap was increased from S$2,000 to S$2,400 per statement month, allowing cardholders to potentially earn an extra 19,200 miles per year.

The bad news was that the bonus cap was also split into two separate sub-caps: S$1,200 for overseas spend, and S$1,200 for contactless and petrol. This meant that cardholders could no longer allocate the bonus cap between the two categories as they saw fit.

Now, the annoying thing about cards which track minimum spends and bonus caps by statement month is that whenever changes are made, the implementation date will vary from person to person. In this case, the changes began rolling out in August, and by 1 September 2025, all cardholders will be on the new system.

So how should you be using the UOB Visa Signature — if at all — going forward?

What’s different about the UOB Visa Signature now?

Here’s what hasn’t changed.

The UOB Visa Signature still earns 10X UNI$ per S$5 (4 mpd) on overseas, petrol and contactless spending, divided into:

• A base reward of 1X UNI$ per S$5 (0.4 mpd)
• A bonus reward of 9X UNI$ per S$5 (3.6 mpd)

The bonus reward is subject to the following conditions:

• Category 1 (Overseas Spend): Spend at least S$1,000 in foreign currency (FCY) in a statement month
• Category 2 (Petrol and Contactless): Spend at least S$1,000 in SGD in a statement month

The table below addresses some commonly-asked questions, like which category overseas contactless spending counts towards.

In short, all you need to do is look at the currency. Anything that is in FCY belongs to Category 1. Anything that is in SGD belongs to Category 2.

All this is exactly the same as before. What has changed is the way the bonus cap is applied.

Old system

Previously, the bonus reward of 9X UNI$ per S$5 was capped at:

• Categories 1 & 2: 3,600 UNI$ per statement month (equivalent to S$2,000 of spending)

Cardholders were free to allocate this cap in any way they wished, and could even spend the entire cap on a single category.

The table below provides some illustrations.

New system

Now, the bonus reward of 9X UNI$ per S$5 is capped at:

• Category 1: 2,160 UNI$ per statement month (equivalent to S$1,200 of spending)
• Category 2: 2,160 UNI$ per statement month (equivalent to S$1,200 of spending)

While the overall cap is higher (4,320 UNI$ vs 3,600 UNI$), the category-level cap is lower. This means it’s no longer possible to spend the entire cap on a single category.

Let’s look at those scenarios again.

In 3 out of 4 scenarios, you’re earning fewer miles than before, because each category’s bonus cap is now fixed at S$1,200.

How should you use the UOB Visa Signature now?

In theory, the UOB Visa Signature has been buffed because the monthly bonus cap is now S$2,400 instead of S$2,000. Therefore, if you were to fully max out each of the two bonus categories, you’d earn 9,600 miles a month, compared to 8,000 miles before.

In practice, however, you’re likely to be earning fewer miles. Why? Because of the introduction of strict sub-caps for each bonus category.

Previously, most people would use the UOB Visa Signature as a single category card, focusing on either overseas spend or petrol and contactless each month (you could theoretically use it for both, but optimisation would require spending exactly S$1,000 on each category— no easy task).

Now, using the UOB Visa Signature as a single category card will only earn you 4,800 miles a month. To reap the benefit of the extra bonus cap, you must use both categories, and spend at least S$1,000 per month per category.

It’s almost as if the UOB Visa Signature is now two cards in one. 

	Bonus	Min. Spend	Cap
“Card #1”	4 mpd on overseas spending	S$1K	S$1.2K
“Card #2”	4 mpd on petrol and contactless spending	S$1K	S$1.2K

• Card #1: Offers 4 mpd on overseas spending, with a minimum spend of S$1,000 in FCY, and capped at S$1,200 per statement month
• Card #2: Offers 4 mpd on petrol and contactless spending, with a minimum spend of S$1,000 in SGD, and capped at S$1,200 per statement month

To put it another way:

• In the past, the sweet spot to hit was S$1,000 to S$2,000 of spending on either Category 1 or Category 2
• Now, the sweet spot to hit is S$1,000 to S$1,200 of spending on both Category 1 and 2

Granted, it’s not impossible to spend between S$1,000 to S$1,200 (I mean, the DBS yuu Card’s 10 mpd has a minimum spend and cap of S$600 per month!), but think about it: if you’re not travelling, how likely are you to spend S$1,000 in FCY? Sure, overseas spend can include both online and offline transactions, but even so, it’s not that easy to consistently spend S$1,000 online in FCY each month.

The way I see it, the UOB Visa Signature is now a more troublesome UOB Preferred Platinum Visa. You can use it wherever contactless spending is accepted, but you must spend at least S$1,000 per month, or else you’ll earn just 0.4 mpd!

	UOB Visa Signature	UOB Preferred Platinum Visa
Earn Rate	4 mpd on contactless spend	4 mpd on mobile contactless spend
Min. Spend	S$1,000 per s. month	None
Cap	S$1,200 per s. month	S$1,110 per c. month
Contactless spend= tap physical card or phone | Mobile contactless spend= tap phone

Don’t get me wrong. It’s good we still have another 4 mpd-almost-everywhere option. It’s just that you really need to commit to using the UOB Visa Signature once you start spending, because of the S$1,000 minimum spend.

As for overseas spend, the closest competitor would be the Maybank XL Rewards Card, which also earns 4 mpd on all FCY spend. 

	UOB Visa Signature	Maybank XL Rewards
Earn Rate	4 mpd on overseas spend	4 mpd on overseas spend
Min. Spend	S$1,000 per s. month	S$500 per c. month
Cap	S$1,200 per s. month	S$1,000 per c. month

While the UOB Visa Signature has a bonus cap that’s 20% higher, there’s less margin for error when spending compared to the Maybank XL Rewards (i.e. S$1,000 to S$1,200 versus S$500 to S$1,000).

Also, when making online transactions, you need to ensure that the merchant’s payment gateway is located outside of Singapore— another UOB (and BOC) specific quirk. 

How to check where a merchant’s payment gateway is located

All this to say I’m still going to be using the UOB Visa Signature, but only in months where I know my spending is going to be elevated.

Keeping track of spending across categories

If you really do plan to spend on both categories, it’s going to be a royal pain to track your spending. UOB does not keep a running tally of how much cap you have left for each bonus category, nor does it categorise your spending.

Therefore, the only way to calculate your minimum spend and remaining bonus cap for each category is to tally up items line by line — which transactions belong to Category 1, which transactions belong to Category 2?

But mercifully, there’s a workaround, as suggested by a MileLion community member: Get a supplementary card.

To be clear, this does not increase your bonus cap. What it does is make it much easier to track your spending. For example, you could put all the spending for Category 1 on the principal card, and all the spending for Category 2 on the supplementary card.

Since these cards are shown as separate accounts on internet banking, you can just look at the total spend on a card level. Incidentally, this is what I’ve done for my UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card, to better manage its now separated bonus caps (it’s no coincidence that UOB made a similar change to both cards at the same time!).

Conclusion

The UOB Visa Signature now comes with a higher monthly bonus cap, but it’s split into two separate sub-caps that can’t be combined. Those who continue using it as a single category card will earn fewer miles than before, and you’ll need to spend on both categories to benefit— not an easy feat given that one of them requires FCY spending. 

The upshot is that this card, already not the simplest to use, is now even more complicated. And that’s probably a feature not a bug, insofar as it helps UOB better control its rewards costs.

How will you be using your UOB Visa Signature going forward?