Review: UOB Visa Signature Card

Here’s The MileLion’s review of the UOB Visa Signature, one of UOB’s oldest credit cards — veterans might remember that it launched back in 2006 with a striking purple design!

With 4 mpd on overseas spend, petrol and contactless payments (including SimplyGo), this is one of the most versatile cards on the market. If you were to optimise it perfectly, you could earn up to 115,200 miles per year, enough for a round-trip Business Class ticket to Japan or South Korea.

However, that’s easier said than done, because UOB made the card significantly more complex last year. The bonus cap is now split into two separate sub-caps of S$1,200, each of which requires a minimum spend of S$1,000 before the 4 mpd rate applies.

In other words, the margin for error is small — you’ll need to spend within the narrow corridor of S$1,000 to S$1,200 to maximise rewards. Moreover, unless you travel abroad every month, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to fully utilise the overseas spending bonus, effectively reducing the card’s realistic earning potential.

That said, the UOB Visa Signature remains one of my favourite cards, even if it does involve a little more strategy than your average card.

UOB Visa Signature
🦁 MileLion Verdict
☑ Take It ☐ Take It Or Leave It ☐ Leave It
What do these ratings mean?
The UOB Visa Signature offers excellent versatility, with 4 mpd on almost all local or overseas spending — though the mechanics take some getting used to.
👍 The Good	👎 The Bad
4 mpd on all FCY and contactless spend, SimplyGo and petrol A monthly bonus cap of S$2,400, the highest among 4 mpd cards Fewer miles lost to rounding compared to other UOB cards UNI$ pool with other UOB cards	Bonus cap is split into two rigid S$1,200 sub-caps Minimum spend of S$1,000 required to earn bonus miles Limited transfer partners Card mechanics can be confusing, especially to first-timers
💳 Full List of Credit Card Reviews

Overview: UOB Visa Signature

Let’s start this review by looking at the key features of the UOB Visa Signature.

Apply
Income Req.	S$30,000 p.a.	Points Validity	24-27 months
Annual Fee	S$218 (First Year Free)	Min. Transfer	5,000 UNI$ (10,000 miles)
Miles with AF	N/A	Transfer Partners	4
FCY Fee	3.25%	Transfer Fee	S$27
Local Earn	4 mpd	Points Pool?	Yes
FCY Earn	4 mpd	Lounge Access?	No
Special Earn	4 mpd on petrol and SimplyGo	Airport Limo?	No
Cardholder Terms and Conditions

How much must I earn to qualify for a UOB Visa Signature?

The UOB Visa Signature previously had a minimum income requirement of S$50,000. But this was never really enforced in practice, and many applicants reported successful approvals despite earning below this threshold.

In any case, UOB has since lowered the official income requirement to S$30,000, in line with the MAS-mandated minimum.

If you do not meet the minimum annual income, you can place a S$10,000 fixed deposit with UOB to get a secured version of the card. Visit a UOB branch for more details.

How much is the UOB Visa Signature’s annual fee? 

The UOB Visa Signature has an annual fee of S$218, which is automatically waived for the first year. The fee for the first supplementary card is waived in perpetuity, while the second card onwards is charged at S$109 per year.

While this annual fee is slightly higher than the S$196.20 you’d normally expect for an entry-level credit card, it’s fairly easy to get a waiver. However, be warned that UOB’s default behaviour is to automatically deduct your UNI$ to cover the annual fee.

How do UOB’s automatic UNI$ deductions for annual fees work?

On the first day of your card’s anniversary, you will be charged either:

1. 6,500 UNI$ for a full waiver
2. 3,250 UNI$ + S$109 for a half waiver

• If you have at least 6,500 UNI$ in your account, you will be charged (i)
• If you have less than 6,500 UNI$ but more than 3,250 UNI$, you will be charged (ii)
• If you have less than 3,250 UNI$, you will be charged the S$218 annual fee in cash

As much as I like the UOB Visa Signature, I wouldn’t dream of paying 6,500 UNI$ (13,000 miles) each year for the privilege of holding it. So it’s important to monitor your statement and request a waiver when this happens.

This can be easily done via the UOB TMRW app:

1. Log in to the UOB TMRW app
2. Tap Accounts at the bottom of the screen
3. Select the card you wish to request a fee waiver for
4. Tap Settings > Waive Fees
5. Select Annual Fee and confirm

You must wait for the annual fee to be posted to your account before a waiver can be requested. Otherwise you’ll get an error message saying “your card currently has no annual fee incurred within the past 120 days”. It usually takes 1-2 days for the annual fee to go from pending to posted, so be patient!

Also, it is normal that you don’t see a line item in the UNI$ history reflecting the annual fee refund. However, your eStatement will show the reversal, and your UNI$ balance will increase.

Be sure to set a calendar reminder for this annual exercise. If you can’t remember your anniversary date, look at the expiry date on your credit card; the month corresponds to the month your annual fee will be charged.

For what it’s worth, if UOB subsequently grants you a fee waiver, the reinstated UNI$ will have a fresh validity period of 24-27 months.

How many miles do I earn?

Regular earn rates

The UOB Visa Signature normally earns 1X UNI$ per S$5 (0.4 mpd) on anything that isn’t a bonus category.

Needless to say, this is a highly unattractive rate, and you should only be using this card for bonus-eligible spending.

Overseas, Petrol and Contactless Spend

The UOB Visa Signature earns 10X UNI$ per S$5 (4 mpd) on overseas, petrol and contactless spending, split 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): A minimum spend of S$1,000 in FCY in a statement month, capped at S$1,200 per statement month
• Category 2 (Petrol and Contactless): Spend at least S$1,000 in SGD in a statement month, capped at S$1,200 per statement month

Category 1 and 2 can be mutually exclusive. You can choose to fulfil just (1), just (2) or (1) + (2).

To put it another way, you can think of the UOB Visa Signature as a “two-in-one” card. One card rewards overseas spending, the other card rewards local contactless and petrol. Each card has its own minimum spend and cap.

It’s worth noting that until September 2025, Category 1 and 2 shared a unified bonus cap. Cardholders were free to allocate this cap in any way they wished, and could even spend the entire cap on a single category (e.g. you could earn 4 mpd on S$2,000 of FCY spend).

While the new system offers a higher overall bonus cap (4,320 UNI$ vs 3,600 UNI$), the category-level cap is lower. Therefore, if you use the UOB Visa Signature as a single category card, you’ll now earn fewer miles than before.

While the minimum spend requirement can be annoying to track, the UOB Visa Signature Card’s blacklist policy makes it very versatile. You don’t need to bother memorising any MCCs — simply pay in foreign currency, or through contactless, and 4 mpd is yours.

How is overseas spend defined?

For most banks, overseas spend simply refers to any online or in-person transaction charged in a currency other than SGD.

UOB, however, defines overseas spend differently. Not only must the transaction not be in SGD, it must also be processed through a payment gateway outside of Singapore. The first condition is straightforward, but the second is more tricky — how is a customer supposed to know where the merchant’s payment gateway is?

Fortunately, there’s a way of checking before you make a transaction, which I’ve written about in the article below.

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

The payment gateway issue will only affect online transactions. Using your card overseas in-person guarantees you 4 mpd, so long as you don’t fall victim to the DCC scam (i.e. always opt to pay in FCY and not in SGD).

How is petrol and contactless spend defined?

Petrol spend refers to any transactions made at petrol stations (MCC 5541/5542).

Shell and SPC are officially excluded in the T&Cs, but in practice, Shell earns UNI$ nonetheless. I can’t say for sure whether this is a feature or a bug, or whether it’ll still be accurate by the time you read this post, so do it at your own risk (I feel better about Shell than SPC).

Contactless spend refers to any transactions made via the following contactless methods. Do note that unlike the UOB Preferred Visa, you can earn 4 mpd by tapping the physical UOB Visa Signature card to pay. 

Payment Method	Eligible?
	✅
	❌
	✅
Excludes MST	✅
Tapping Physical Card	✅

Contactless spend does not include online or in-app transactions. 

For example, you will not earn 4 mpd if you use the UOB Visa Signature to make a purchase on Amazon or Shopee — unless it’s in FCY, in which case the bonus is by virtue of the currency, not the fact that it’s online.

I realise this can be confusing at first, so the general rule to remember is that if you hear a “beep” sound when you pay, it’s a contactless payment. If you don’t hear a beep (e.g. an online or in-app transaction), it’s not a contactless payment. 

What counts as a contactless payment?

What if I spend across categories?

Where people usually get confused is when they make both local and overseas petrol and contactless transactions. How does that affect the calculation of minimum spend and bonus eligibility?

The table below addresses some commonly-asked scenarios.

To keep it simple, remember this:

• Category 1 (Overseas Spend): Any transaction in FCY will count towards the S$1,000 minimum spend
• Category 2 (Petrol & Contactless): Any transaction in SGD on petrol & contactless will count towards the S$1,000 minimum spend

Here are a few scenarios to illustrate how it works.

Note in particular the last two scenarios, which show how overseas and local contactless spend do not mix. Overseas is overseas, local is local. Even if you unlock the overseas 4 mpd earn rate through FCY contactless spending alone, it has no bearing on whether you earn 4 mpd on local contactless spend. That requires a minimum spend of S$1,000 in SGD, period.

Say it with me: “Contactless overseas transactions do not double count towards “overseas” and “petrol and contactless”; it will only count towards “overseas”.”

Dealing with the sub-caps

Obviously, the sub-caps can be a huge frustration. 

UOB does not keep a running tally of how much cap you have left for each bonus category, nor does it categorise your spending. The only way to know how much cap remains for each bonus category is to go line by line and tally up the spend — which transactions belong to category 1, which transactions belong to category 2?

Fortunately, HeyMax offers a simple solution. The HeyMax Card Maximiser tracks your spending across each of the two bonus categories in real-time, showing you how far away you are from the minimum spend and bonus cap.

All it takes is a one-time setup, after which transactions will be tracked automatically. For more on this feature, refer to the post below.

Awesome: HeyMax Card Maximiser now supports UOB Preferred Platinum Visa & UOB Visa Signature

What is the FCY transaction fee?

All FCY transactions on the UOB Visa Signature Card incur a 3.25% FCY transaction fee, on par with the rest of the market.

Therefore, spending on your UOB Visa Signature overseas represents buying miles at 0.81 cents each (3.25%/4 mpd), which is reasonable enough in my book.

The UOB$ problem is no more!

Once upon a time, you had to take special precautions not to use the UOB Visa Signature at UOB$ merchants like BreadTalk and Cold Storage, because these transactions would earn UOB$ cashback instead of UNI$ points. 

But ever since 1 November 2024, UOB cardholders have been able to double dip on UNI$ and UOB$ cashback at UOB$ merchants. This means that UOB$ are no longer something to be avoided, but rather embraced— if you can earn miles and cashback on a transaction, why not?

Transaction date or posting date?

The minimum spend and bonus cap on the UOB Visa Signature is tracked based on posting date, not transaction date. 

For example, if your statement month ends on the 15th, and you make a transaction on 14 June that posts on 16 June, it will count towards the following statement month’s minimum spend and bonus cap.

Therefore, you should exercise caution when spending towards the end of the statement month, in case transactions “leak” into the following period.

Transaction date vs posting date: Which cards use what?

When are UNI$ credited? 

Base UNI$ are credited when the transaction posts. Bonus UNI$ will be credited in the following statement period.

How are UNI$ calculated?

Here’s how you can work out the UNI$ earned on your UOB Visa Signature:

You may have heard this common warning about UOB cards — “don’t use them for transactions that aren’t in multiples of S$5, because you’ll lose points to rounding!”

This is true in general. With UOB, transactions are rounded down to the nearest S$5, so a S$9.99 transaction earns the same as a S$5 transaction, and a S$4.99 transaction earns no points at all.

What you should know about UOB’s points rounding policy

However, this is much less of a concern with the UOB Visa Signature, because of how its points are calculated. When calculating the 9X bonus, all unrounded transactions are summed up, then rounded down once to the nearest S$5.

Here’s a simple example. Suppose you have three transactions for the whole month, S$99.99, S$199.99 and S$700.02.

• With the UOB Preferred Visa, each transaction is rounded down to the nearest S$5, so you’ll earn 3,960 miles (S$95*4 + S$195 *4 + S$700*4)
• With the UOB Visa Signature, each transaction is rounded down to the nearest S$5 for the purpose of 1X points (0.4 mpd), but all transactions are summed up for the purpose of 9X points (3.6 mpd). Therefore, you’ll earn 3,996 miles (S$95 * 0.4 + S$195 * 0.4 + S$700 * 0.4 + (S$99.99+ S$199.99+  S$700.02) *3.6)

Therefore, the impact of rounding is far less significant with the UOB Visa Signature. 

If you’re an Excel geek, here’s the formulas you need to calculate your points: 

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 in the T&Cs at Point 1(iii).

I’ve highlighted a few noteworthy categories below:

• Charitable donations
• Education
• Government services 
• Insurance
• Prepaid account top-ups (e.g. GrabPay, YouTrip)
• Real estate agents & managers
• Utilities

UNI$ will be awarded for CardUp, but not ipaymy. However, the UOB Visa Signature will only earn 0.4 mpd on such transactions, so you’re much better off using the UOB PRVI Miles or another general spending card instead.

What do I need to know about UNI$?

Expiry

The validity of UNI$ is often quoted as 2 years.

However, UNI$ actually expire 2 years from the last day of each periodic quarter in which the UNI$ was earned.

For example, any UNI$ earned between 1 January to 31 March 2025 will expire on 31 March 2027. This means that the validity is actually 24-27 months, depending on when the UNI$ were earned.

For what it’s worth, once you transfer your points to KrisFlyer you’ll have a further three years to enjoy them. If you choose Asia Miles, your miles will never expire so long as you earn or redeem at least one mile every 18 months.

You can check the validity of your UNI$ on the UOB TMRW app under Rewards + > My Rewards > UNI$. However, this will only show the next batch of expiring UNI$. If you want a full rundown of all expiring UNI$, you’ll need to contact customer service.

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 Signature, you can redeem 15,000 UNI$ in a single transaction and pay a single conversion fee.

It also means that you don’t need to transfer your UNI$ out before cancelling the UOB Visa Signature, assuming it’s not your last UNI$-earning card. 

Transfer Partners & Fees

UNI$ transfer to frequent flyer programmes at a 1:2 ratio, with a minimum transfer block of 5,000 UNI$.

There are effectively only two partners available however (converting points to Air Asia is like throwing them away), which is somewhat limited compared to competitors like Citi, HSBC and OCBC.

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

Transfers cost S$27 per programme (recently increased from S$25), regardless of how many points are transferred.

UOB used to offer an auto-conversion programme for KrisFlyer, which automatically converted any UNI$ in excess of UNI$15,000 into miles in blocks of UNI$2,500, on the last day of the calendar month.

However, this was discontinued on 20 May 2026. It’s no big loss, really, given how restrictive it was (only amounts above 15,000 UNI$ were converted, for reasons only UOB knows!).

Transfer Times

UOB transfers to KrisFlyer are typically 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 with no fees. 

S$5 for new Kris+ Users

Get S$5 when you sign-up with code W644363 and make your first transaction

However, those 1,000 UNI$ would normally have earned you 2,000 KrisFlyer miles, so you 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). 

If you choose to do so nonetheless, do remember that it’s a two-step process:

1. Transfer UNI$ to KrisPay miles
2. Transfer KrisPay miles to KrisFlyer miles

Do not forget the second step! If you wait more than 21 days, or spend any of the converted KrisPay miles via Kris+, the entire balance will be stuck in the Kris+ app. KrisPay miles expire after six months, and can only be spent at a poor ratio of 100 miles = S$1. 

Other card perks

Complimentary travel insurance

UOB Visa Signature cardmembers enjoy complimentary travel insurance coverage of up to S$500,000.

The full policy wording and benefits can be found here.

To activate coverage, cardmembers must:

• Charge the corresponding travel fare to their card, and
• Opt-in via this page, before the commencement of the trip

Additional coverage is great, but here’s the thing: you probably won’t be using the UOB Visa Signature for air tickets originating from Singapore. 

Remember, the UOB Visa Signature doesn’t earn 4 mpd for online transactions, unless they’re in FCY. And most of the air tickets you’re buying for flights originating from Singapore will be in SGD (even if you can pay in a foreign currency, remember that the payment gateway must be outside of Singapore). 

In theory, you could buy tickets from a brick-and-mortar travel agency and make in-person payment via contactless for 4 mpd and complimentary insurance coverage.

Visa Signature

As a Visa Signature card, UOB Visa Signature Cardholders will enjoy: 

• A fast-track to Avis President’s Circle status
• Access to the Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection, which includes additional benefits like complimentary breakfast and room upgrades

How does it compare to the UOB Preferred Visa?

💳 Summary: UOB Preferred Visa vs UOB Visa Signature
	UOB PPV	UOB Visa Signature
Min. Income	S$30K p.a.	S$30K p.a.
Annual Fee	S$196.20 (First Year Free)	S$218 (First Year Free)
Contactless Spend	4 mpd	4 mpd
Min. Spend for Contactless Bonus	None	S$1,000 per s. month
Bonus Cap for Contactless	S$600 per c. month	S$1,200 per s. month
Other Bonuses	4 mpd (Selected Online Trxns)	4 mpd (Petrol & FCY)
Min. Spend for Other Bonus	None	S$1,000 per s. month
Bonus Cap for Other Bonus	S$600 per c. month	S$1,200 per s. month
Tracking Period	Calendar Month (Posting Date)	Statement Month (Posting Date)
Points Awarding	Base and Bonus Together	Base and Bonus Separate
Rounding	Per transaction	Per month

It’s virtually impossible to talk about the UOB Visa Signature without bringing up the UOB Preferred Visa. Since both cards earn 4 mpd on contactless transactions, they’re often confused — but once you look more closely, they couldn’t be more different. 

The UOB Preferred Visa is arguably easier to use, since you don’t need to worry about minimum spends, the tracking period follows the calendar month, and base and bonus points are credited together with the transaction posts.

However, the UOB Visa Signature offers double the bonus cap, and as we saw earlier, loses far fewer points to rounding because the eligible bonus spend is aggregated before being rounded down once. 

For more on this, refer to the post below.

Head-to-head: UOB Preferred Platinum Visa vs UOB Visa Signature

Summary Review: UOB Visa Signature

Apply

🦁 MileLion Verdict

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

The UOB Visa Signature is one of the most versatile cards in the miles game — how many cards offer 4 mpd on almost all local and overseas spend?

But a simple card it is not. Back when it had a unified bonus cap, it was common to use it 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, while not going over S$1,200 per month.

If you’re not travelling, how likely are you to spend S$1,000 in FCY? Yes, online transactions qualify too, but spending S$1,000 in FCY through online transactions alone isn’t easy. Therefore, it’s a safe bet that most UOB Visa Signature Cardholders will be earning fewer miles than before.

Even so, it’s still a card I’m willing to keep, especially since I regularly max out the bonus cap on the UOB Preferred Visa and Maybank XL Rewards Card— the two closest replacements for the UOB Visa Signature. The HeyMax Card Maximiser also takes a lot of pain out of the equation. And since UOB pools points, the UOB Visa Signature could easily slot into a card portfolio also featuring the UOB Preferred Visa, UOB Lady’s Card and UOB PRVI Miles Card.

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