New Exclusions for UOB Cards: ipaymy, Utilities, and More

From 1st August 2022 onwards, UOB will be adding a bunch of new exclusions across its cards. This was announced alongside the nerf of UOB One last week.

UOB Absolute isn’t affected

The UOB Absolute remains relatively free of exclusions – the whole point of its existence in the first place.

ipaymy

ipaymy is specifically excluded across UOB cards, and UOB One was not the only victim to be nerfed. Interestingly enough, UOB has opted to keep CardUp out of these exclusions, and we know it’s not an oversight because CardUp was indeed added as an exclusion for UOB One.

What seems very clear is that CardUp would continue to work with a card like UOB PRVI miles while ipaymy wouldn’t from next month; definitely a coup for the folks at CardUp.

It also leaves a rather huge question – particularly for those who prefer cashback – does this mean that CardUp (and ipaymy until 1st August) works with UOB EVOL? That is a lot less clear… and in fact I’m going to hazard a guess and say no.

Firstly, banks have been known to impose exclusions that don’t really make sense. A while ago, they added exclusions for Amaze to a bunch of cards including Visa cards which have never worked with Amaze. The lack of a specific exclusion has also never stopped banks from withholding rewards for cards.

Secondly, there have been zero reports of UOB EVOL working in my chat group. Perhaps I should test this out, but I’m going to say it’s safe to declare that EVOL does not work with either CardUp or ipaymy, and if you do want to try it I’d suggest going for a small amount to test the waters first. Or simply just use OCBC FRANK which has been working thus far.

Utilities

Utilities is another exclusion that has been added to UOB cards, this time with the exception of UOB One. It’s a bit of a bummer, but I have been putting my utilities mostly on GrabPay for the monthly Grab Power Up Challenges. Between the base points, cashback from top-ups, and Grab Power Up Challenge reward, the rewards are around 5% depending on your challenge tier.

Others

UOB has also amusingly added other exclusions such as “RWS-Levy” to the list of exclusions. Does this mean that one could get 6.67% cashback with the UOB EVOL when entering the casino? Do they even accept Paywave at the levy counter? Were there so many people making such spends that UOB had to exclude this? What about the levies at MBS? I have so many questions, but probably won’t need the answers.

Another example of exclusions that don’t make much sense, UOB has inexplicably added Razer Pay as an exclusion. Someone send them my Telegram channel where they can keep up with such things please.

Conclusion

As far as nerfs go, I don’t think these were devastating ones since alternatives are readily available. UOB still has some strong cards in both cashback and miles categories that I use on a daily basis, and they are currently running promos which don’t annoyingly require you to be the first 100 each month. Check them out here.

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