Explained: UOB Miles Cards and S$5 Spending Blocks

Last Updated: 1st September 2025

For people who collect miles, UOB is a difficult bank to ignore. The bank has quite a few strong cards in its arsenal, with multiple 4 miles per dollar cards that are relatively easy to use. As with most cards that give higher rewards, there are certain criteria and gotchas to watch out for, and one of the bigger pain points for UOB cardholders would likely be how UOB awards points in blocks of S$5 spend.

Making things a little more confusing, the mechanic affects some UOB cards more than others. This does make it a little trickier to use UOB miles cards, but understanding how things work can make it less of an issue.

To make things a little easier to remember, I’ll categorise the different UOB cards — Group A which is more affected by the S$5-block caveat, and Group B which is affected less.

Group A: cards that are more affected by S$5 blocks

Cards in Group A include:

• UOB Preferred Platinum Visa (except SimplyGo)
• UOB PRVI Miles
• UOB Visa Infinite

When someone makes a transaction of S$9, one would expect a 4 miles per dollar card to offer 36 miles per dollar given the simple Math that S$9 × 4 miles per dollar = 36 miles. However, UOB awards points for every S$5 spent instead.

For instance, UOB Preferred Platinum Visa awards UNI$10 per S$5 spent which is equivalent to 20 miles per S$5 rather than just 4 miles per S$1. A S$9 transaction would be rounded down to S$5 instead, giving just 20 miles. This results in a very lacklustre 2.22 miles per dollar earn rate.

UOB PRVI Miles and UOB Visa Infinite are also similarly affected, giving just 7 miles for a S$9 transaction (because the amount is again rounded down to S$5) instead of the 12 miles we expect from cards that offer 1.4 miles per dollar.

Card	Local Earn Rate	Actual Miles Earned for S$9 Transaction	Expected Miles
UOB Preferred Platinum Visa	UNI$10 per S$5 (4 miles per dollar)	20 miles (~44% less)	36 miles
UOB PRVI Miles	UNI$3.5 per S$5 (1.4 miles per dollar)	7 miles (~42% less)	12 miles
UOB Visa Infinite	UNI$3.5 per S$5 (1.4 miles per dollar)	7 miles (~42% less)	12 miles

It isn’t as bad with larger transactions though. A S$999 transaction, for instance, should get 3,996 miles (S$999 × 4) with a 4 miles per dollar card, and UOB Preferred Platinum Visa will give 3,980 miles (S$995 × 4). This is an earn rate of 3.98 miles per dollar, a negligibly lower earn rate than the 4 miles per dollar we expect to receive.

Card	Local Earn Rate	Actual Miles Earned for S$999 Transaction	Expected Miles
UOB Preferred Platinum Visa	UNI$10 per S$5 (4 miles per dollar)	3,980 miles (~0.4% less)	3,996 miles
UOB PRVI Miles	UNI$3.5 per S$5 (1.4 miles per dollar)	1,393 miles (~0.4% less)	1,398 miles
UOB Visa Infinite	UNI$3.5 per S$5 (1.4 miles per dollar)	1,393 miles (~0.4% less)	1,398 miles

Conclusion: if the transaction size is a little larger, using cards from Group A isn’t much of an issue. When transaction sizes are smaller, you need to be more aware of how many miles you are losing to S$5 blocks. In fact, anything under S$5 gets no miles at all.

Group B: cards that are less affected

Group B contains cards that aren’t as affected, and it includes:

• UOB Visa Signature
• UOB Lady’s
• UOB Lady’s Solitaire

The reason why Group B cards aren’t as affected is due to how points are awarded:

Type of Points	Earn Rate	Time of Awarding
Base Points	UNI$1 per S$5 (0.4 miles per dollar)	When transaction posts
Bonus Points	UNI$9 per S$5 (3.6 miles per dollar)	End of month (based on total amount spent)

These cards offer a base earn rate of UNI$1 per S$5 spent which translates into 0.4 miles per dollar. At the end of the month, the card then awards a bonus of UNI$9 per S$5 spent (or 3.6 miles per dollar) on the total amount spent within the month.

This is quite a bit different from cards in Group A, and to illustrate the difference, we can take an example of a cardholder who spends 100 transactions of S$9.99 within a month.

For base points, each S$9.99 transaction is rounded down to S$5. Every transaction now earns just 2 miles (S$5 × 0.4 miles per dollar), making a total of 200 miles for the 100 transactions.

For bonus points, every transaction is added up before the amount is rounded down to the nearest S$5. 100 transactions of S$9.99 is hence S$999. This is rounded down to S$995 before the bonus earn rate is applied, earning a total of 3,582 miles (S$995 × 3.6 miles per dollar).

When you add them up, you get 3,782 miles for S$999 spend, or 3.79 miles per dollar. This isn’t too far from 4 miles per dollar, which is why Group B cards aren’t as affected.

Conclusion: with Group B cards, you don’t have to really care about S$5 blocks since the bulk of the points come in the form of bonus points calculated at the end of the month on your total spend.

SimplyGo transactions are the least affected

In recent months, SimplyGo transactions have been added to the list of transactions earning 4 miles per dollar for UOB Visa Signature and UOB Preferred Platinum Visa.

Such transactions are the least affected as UOB will total up the entire month’s spend within a calendar month and do the rounding once. For example, someone who spends S$4.23 per day on SimplyGo transactions for 30 days in a month would accumulate S$126.90 of spending. UOB will award points based on S$125 (S$126.90 rounded down).

Summary

In conclusion, UOB’s S$5 blocks is really an issue only if you are using Group A cards. This unfortunately includes the otherwise excellent UOB Preferred Platinum Visa, and users of this card need to be careful when they are making spend on smaller transactions.

Those who use Group B can worry about S$5 a lot less as it’s almost a non-issue.

	Group A	Group B	SimplyGo Transactions
Awarding	Base and bonus points awarded when transaction posts	Base and bonus points awarded when transaction posts	7th of the following month
Cards	UOB Preferred Platinum Visa* UOB Visa Infinite UOB PRVI Miles	UOB Visa Signature* UOB Lady’s* UOB Lady’s Solitaire*	UOB Preferred Platinum Visa* UOB Visa Signature*
Verdict	More affected by S$5 blocks; need to be careful when transactions are smaller	Less affected by S$5 blocks; can ignore the issue altogether	Least affected by S$5 blocks; can ignore the issue altogether

Subscribe for more deals and updates!

If you’re someone who wants to earn more from credit cards, savings accounts and other financial deals, stay subscribed to the Telegram or WhatsApp so you can be notified of news and deals. Remember to unmute and turn on notifications or the updates may not reach you.

Seth Wee was a licensed financial adviser representative from 2009 to 2025, with over 16 years of experience in Singapore’s financial advisory industry.

He started Sethisfy.com in 2019 to share practical insights on credit cards, banking products, and miles strategies, helping readers identify financial products that deliver the best value. Seth has been featured in CNA, Channel 8, Today, and a host of other publications. In 2025, he was also part of a panel at CPF’s Ready For Life festival.

Subscribe to the channel for free updates!

Disclaimer: I may receive an affiliate/referral fee when you sign up for services/products on this site, and such fees keep the site running. I would only recommend services/products I would personally use or recommend to my own friends and family, but I do not provide any warranty or guarantee for the quality of these services/products. Thank you for supporting my site!

Please exercise due diligence when signing up for any service/product as I will not be liable for any personal loss, financial or otherwise. Content published here are my sole views and personal opinion, and none of the information here constitutes personal financial advice nor represents the views of my employer(s).