Why I moved away from UOB's Suite of Credit Cards - from Five Cards down to One

UOB used to be one of the banks to go to for credit cards (especially for us mile-chasers) and at one point in my life, I have held over five credit cards from this bank alone. I loved that the fact that the UNI$s (the name for UOB's point currency) accrued from all cards were pooled into a singular account (which means you only paid the FFP transfer fee once) and how they seem to have a card for every significant purpose. However, in my opinion, the bank has gone downhill from where it was, at least where credit cards are concerned. 

UOB Preferred Platinum American Express | Photo Credit: UOB

The most momentous move that the bank did was to stop the sign-up of the UOB Preferred Platinum American Express - this card used to give 20 miles per S$5 (equivalent to 4 miles per dollar) spent on dining with no annual cap. Sure, it is an American Express card and people love to say how it is not widely accepted and so on but the truth is that if you do spend a lot of money eating out (and most of us do), you can easily chalk up plenty of miles with this card alone. After doing that, they went on to impose an annual limit of UNI$ 12,000 (which converts into 24,000 miles) each year on dining - this translates to merely S$6,000 worth of dining expenses. So goodbye UOB Preferred Platinum American Express. 

UOB PRVI Miles American Express Card | Photo Credit: UOB

I used to hold the UOB PRVI Miles Cards as well and the reason this is plural is because I really did hold at least two versions of this card at some point. As most of you will already know, the UOB PRVI Miles Card comes in three versions - American Express, MasterCard and Visa. The American Express version comes with a number of extra perks such as rebate for airport transfers (up to two per quarter and eight per year) as well as renewal miles for hitting a minimum spend of S$50,000 each year. Even though the card did fairly well as a base spend kind of credit card (offering 1.4 and 2.4 miles per dollar on local and overseas spend), the Standard Chartered Visa Infinite gave me more (even though a minimum spend of S$2,000 is required each month). Since the annual fee waiver for the UOB PRVI Miles Credit Card was unsuccessful, I have decided to cancel it as well to consolidate my suite of cards. 

UOB Visa Signature Card | Photo Credit: UOB

The UOB Visa Signature Card is not a bad card but I have kind of 'outgrown' it I guess in certain ways. It gives you 20 miles per S$5 (equivalent to 4 miles per dollar) on overseas expenses when you charge anywhere between S$1,000 and S$2,000 in equivalent foreign currency each statement period. That is really not bad at all but since my overseas expenses have increased quite significantly over the years, this card just does not seem to satisfy my spending anymore - anything above S$2,000 in foreign currency spend earns you 0.4 miles per dollar which is miserable. I have now moved to the Standard Chartered Visa Infinite Card instead which even though gives me only 3 miles per dollar, gives me no cap on the number of points I can earn as well - all overseas expenses above S$2,667 each month will make sense. 

Photo Credit: UOB

To add salt to the injury, UOB has had a recent history of terrible new initiatives like the KrisFlyer UOB Debit Card and Account as well as the UOB Stash Account and I can't say that inspires confidence even though one must really question why Royston Lee has been loyal throughout.