UOB has extended its discounted Payment Facility offer, letting you buy miles from 1.6 to 1.8 cents each using your credit card – no questions asked – until the end of May 2025.
EXPIRED This article relates to an offer or promotion which has now expired.
Back in February this year, UOB launched a new offer for those holding six of its credit cards to generate unlimited miles from 1.6 to 1.8 cents each through its Payment Facility, with a discounted fee applicable for payment applications approved through to the end of April 2025.
Well the good news for those considering this option is that the deal has been extended by another month, now good for payments approved between now and 31st May 2025.
While there are often cheaper ways to buy miles – with regular offers from Citi PayAll or third-party providers like CardUp and ipaymy – UOB’s Payment Facility stands out for its flexibility.
You can essentially “pay anything” by requesting funds to be transferred directly to your bank account, regardless of whether you actually have a bill to settle. That makes it a useful tool when you’re short on miles and need a quick top-up.
UOB will simply transfer the requested amount to your bank account – whatever you need it for, no questions asked.
UOB Payment Facility promotion
For payment applications approved from 25th February 2025 to 31st May 2025, UOB is offering a discounted administrative fee for one-time payments through its UOB Payment Facility (which also used to be called PRVI Pay, for the PRVI Miles cards).
Here’s how the fee and cost per mile works out, for each of the eligible cards.
UOB Payment Facility Promotion
(one-time payment)
You’ll notice the cost per mile (cents) in each example is the same as the fee percentage. That’s because instead of tapping into each card’s retail miles earning rate, all UOB Payment Facility transactions will be awarded with UNI$2.5 for every S$5 of the approved amount charged.
That’s equivalent to 5 miles per S$5 (1 mpd), but be careful. Unlike the usual S$5 rounding blocks we’re used to sticking to with UOB cards, it’s more optimal to make payment requests in S$10 denominations in this case, because UNI$2.5 (for a S$5 block) will round down to UNI$2.
UNI$5 (for a S$10 block), however, will remain intact (no round-down).
For example:
- a S$105 payment will earn 21 x 2.5 = 52.5 UNI$ (rounded down to 52), which is 0.99 mpd
- a S$110 payment will earn 22 x 2.5 = 55 UNI$ (no round-down), which is 1 mpd
Full terms and conditions for this promotion are available here.
Example
Here’s how the UOB Payment Facility works for a typical payment, at the 1.8% promotional fee under this offer using a UOB PRVI Miles card.
- $5,000 home improvements invoice arrives
- Apply for $5,000 via the UOB Payment Facility
- UOB transfers $5,000 to your bank account
- UOB charges $5,090 to your credit card ($5,000 + 1.8% fee)
- UOB credits 2,500 UNI$ to your reward account (5,000 KrisFlyer miles)
- Effective purchase rate $90/5,000 = 1.8 cents per mile
You can also transfer UNI$ to Asia Miles at the same rate.
Remember, you don’t even need to have a home improvement invoice to pay, or even produce. Provided you have a sufficient credit limit, UOB will do this “no questions asked”.
Application processing time is 4-6 working days.
Is it a good deal?
As our regular readers will know, we value KrisFlyer miles at around 1.9 cents per mile. It’s the upper limit at which we would be willing to ‘buy’ miles, in order to be comfortable that we will achieve at least that valuation or more when redeeming them.
You’ll notice that in this offer you are ‘buying’ KrisFlyer miles for 1.8 cents each (e.g. $90 / 5,000) with the PRVI Miles cards.
It isn’t a terrible deal, but it is close to the ceiling level where we think anyone should be ‘buying’ KrisFlyer miles, with the possible exception of a relatively small amount to achieve a specific redemption.
That means this offer won’t be of enormous interest to many of our readers, unless you know you will achieve outsize value for your KrisFlyer or Asia Miles stash.
Lower costs per mile are regularly offered for payments through the likes of Citi PayAll, ipaymy and CardUp, especially when bonus promotions are running, with many new offers for the 2025 income tax season already launched.
The beauty of the UOB Payment Facility is its flexibility – you can effectively “pay” any bill, even if one doesn’t exist, by having funds transferred from your credit card to your bank account for a one-time fee.
While the cost per mile is on the higher side, the versatility is also very good.
A useful top-up option
While the headline rate may not be the most exciting, UOB’s Payment Facility can be a handy way to top up your UNI$ balance before making a miles transfer – especially if you’re just shy of the next 10,000-mile block.
That’s because UNI$ must be converted to frequent flyer miles in blocks equivalent to 10,000 miles (5,000 UNI$).
For example, if you have 24,500 UNI$ (equivalent to 49,000 KrisFlyer miles), you’ll only be able to transfer 40,000 miles due to the block restriction.
By requesting a $1,000 payment via the facility (costing $18 with this offer using a PRVI Miles card), you’ll earn an extra 500 UNI$, taking you to a clean 25,000 UNI$ – just enough to transfer the full 50,000 miles in one go.
UOB has extended its discounted fee offer for the UOB Payment Facility programme by an additional month, now good for payments approved by 31st May 2025.
Buying miles at 1.6 to 1.8 cents each is far from the most competitive cost available, so this promotion won’t be of interest to most of our readers.
One nice benefit of the UOB Payment Facility is when you’re just looking to top up your miles balance to clear the next redemption threshold, but can’t wait to meet the next ‘block’ through your normal spending. This will often be at relatively low cost if you’re only short by a few miles.
In cases like that, this “no questions asked” option might just save the day.
(Cover Photo: Gili Lankanfushi)
