Excellent if you pay for everything with your phone, and an ordinary card the moment you do not.
Two separate S$600 buckets at 4 mpd. The contactless one only pays when a phone taps the reader, never the card itself.
| Min income | Base earn | Bonus earn | Monthly cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| S$30,000S$40,000 for foreigners | 0.4 mpdeverything else | 4 mpdonline, and mobile contactless | S$600per bucket, so S$1,200 in total |
| Annual fee | Points expiry | Transfer blocks | Lounge access |
| S$196.20first year waived | 2 yearsfrom the end of the earning quarter | 10,000 miles5,000 UNI$, S$27 a time | None |
This card pays in UNI$, and UNI$1 is worth 2 airline miles, so "4 mpd" means every S$1 of qualifying spend earns 4 miles. The catch on this one is not what you buy, it is how you pay: the bonus needs a phone, not the card.
TLDR
Two independent 4 mpd buckets, each capped at S$600 a month: one for selected online spend, one for mobile contactless. Use both properly and you are earning bonus on S$1,200 a month, which most write-ups miss because they quote the S$600 and stop.
The catch is the wallet, not the category. The contactless bonus requires Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay tapped at a physical reader. Tapping the plastic card earns nothing extra. Neither does paying inside an app. That one distinction is where almost everybody loses this bonus.
Get it if
- Your phone is already how you pay for things
- You shop online and tap in person, so both buckets fill
- You want a low bar to entry: S$30,000 income and a waivable fee
Look elsewhere if
- You mostly tap the physical card, which earns nothing extra here
- You spend well past S$1,200 a month in these categories
- You want one bucket with real headroom rather than two small ones
What does it cost to hold?
S$196.20 a year, waived for the first year, and usually waived after that on regular use.
| Card | First year | Second year on |
|---|---|---|
| Principal card | Waived | S$196.20 |
| Supplementary card | Waived | Free |
How many miles do I earn?
4 miles per dollar in each of two buckets, capped at S$600 each, and 0.4 on everything else.
| Bucket | What qualifies | Rate | Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Selected online | Retail, supermarkets, dining, delivery, entertainment | 4.0 mpd | S$600 / month |
| Mobile contactless | A phone tapped at a physical reader | 4.0 mpd | S$600 / month |
| Everything else | 0.4 mpd | Uncapped |
The cap was halved. The bonus ceiling became about S$600 per bucket on 1 October 2025. Any review or forum post written before that date quotes a higher number, so if the figures you have seen elsewhere look better than these, check the date on them.
Worth saying plainly, because it is the card’s one real advantage: supermarkets are in the online bucket. Most Singapore miles cards exclude groceries entirely, so an online shop here earns 4 mpd where the same basket on an HSBC Revolution earns 0.4.
Where do people lose the bonus?
By tapping the card instead of the phone, and by treating the two caps as one.
There is no clever routing to discuss on this card. UOB closed those doors and pretending otherwise would waste your time. What is worth your attention is a set of habits that decide whether this card earns 4 mpd or 0.4.
| How you paid | Bonus? | What actually happens |
|---|---|---|
| 📱 Phone tapped at a reader | ✓ Yes | Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay. This is the bonus |
| 💳 Physical card tapped | ✕ No | Visa payWave on the plastic earns no bonus here at all |
| 📲 Paying inside an app | ✕ No | In-app wallet payments are not contactless for this purpose |
| 🛒 Online groceries | ✓ Yes | Supermarkets sit in the online bucket, unusually |
| 🔁 Recurring payments | ✕ No | Excluded from the online bucket |
| ⛽ Petrol at SPC or Shell | ✕ No | Both sit on UOB’s standard exclusion list |
Use both buckets or you are leaving half the card unused. They are separate ceilings, not a shared one. Someone who shops online and taps their phone is earning on S$1,200 a month; someone who does only one is earning on S$600 and paying the same fee.
One small thing in your favour: UOB accumulates micro-transactions across the month rather than rounding each one down, so the S$3.20 kopi paid by phone still counts. On a card whose bonus lives on phone taps, that adds up quietly.
Atome earns no bonus UNI$ on this card: the T&C catch-all covering payment service providers is applied to BNPL, and customer service confirms it. Amaze has been blocked on every UOB card since 2024. If you have read about either route working, it was not on this card.
What earns nothing at all?
Utilities, insurance and education are excluded outright.
| Excluded | Points earned | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 💡 Utilities and telco bills | Zero | Includes recurring card billing |
| 🛡 Insurance premiums | Zero | Nearly every SG miles card does this |
| 🎓 School and course fees | Zero | Education MCCs excluded outright |
How do I turn points into miles?
5,000 UNI$ to 10,000 miles, at S$27 a conversion, and the points expire in two years.
UNI$ pool across every UOB card, which matters more here than usual: on a S$600 cap it takes a while to reach a transfer block, and a second UOB card can top up the balance rather than stranding it. Two years from the end of the earning quarter is the deadline to watch.
| Programme | UNI$ for 10,000 miles |
|---|---|
 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 5,000 UNI$ |
 Cathay Asia Miles | 5,000 UNI$ |
What should I pair it with?
Something that earns when the phone is not an option.
| The gap | What it costs you | What closes it |
|---|---|---|
| Anywhere that will not take a phone | 0.4 mpd | A card where the plastic itself earns |
| Spend past S$600 in either bucket | 0.4 mpd instead of 4 | A card with a larger or uncapped bonus |
| Travel booked anywhere | 0.4 mpd on your largest purchases | A card that earns on travel |
| Utilities, insurance, education | Zero | A card that does not exclude them, or accept it |
Build your miles card stack
One card never covers everything. Put in what you actually spend and see which cards to hold together, and what to put on each.
Build my stack→The verdict, restated
A good card wearing an easy-to-miss condition. If your phone is already your wallet, two S$600 buckets at 4 mpd on a waivable fee is a genuinely strong everyday setup, and the online grocery bonus is rarer than it sounds. If you tap the plastic out of habit, you will earn 0.4 mpd and never understand why.
UOB Preferred Visa Card T&Cs updated 10 March 2026 and the accompanying FAQ, both checked 27 July 2026. Rates, fees and caps correct as of 5 August 2026. The petrol bonus excludes SPC and Shell. This guide shares my own experience for education, it is not financial advice, and card terms change: always verify with the bank before applying.