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You may have heard about the recent hubbub regarding the UOB Lady’s card, whose name is not as relevant anymore.
At the start of the month, UOB revealed that the UOB Lady’s card is now open to males, renouncing its gender-exclusive eligibility requirement.
This was exciting news for males in the miles community and probably generated a good amount of applications.
But is the UOB Lady’s card worth all the hype?
In this post, I’ll go through how the card works, its pros and cons, and who I think should use the card.
What Is The UOB Lady’s Card?
The UOB Lady’s card is a specialised miles card that earns bonus miles on transactions made under selected categories at a total rate of 4 miles per dollar (mpd).
But, for a limited time until 29 Feb 2024, this earn rate is boosted to 6 mpd – the highest rate around outside of merchant-exclusive transactions.
For transactions on non-bonus categories, the earn rate is 0.4 mpd.
Unlike most cards where the bonus categories are fixed, the UOB Lady’s card lets you choose your desired bonus categories from a selection of 7 available categories.
These categories can be changed every quarter, and all transactions made under the selected categories within the quarter will be eligible to earn 4 mpd.
The UOB Lady’s card comes in 2 main versions.
The first one is the entry-level, regular UOB Lady’s card with an annual income requirement of S$30,000.
The second is the affluent-level, UOB Lady’s Solitaire card with an annual income requirement of S$120,000.
There is technically a 3rd version in the UOB Lady’s Solitaire Metal card which is more premium.
It offers additional card benefits at the cost of a higher annual fee, but it is similar to the UOB Lady’s Solitaire card in terms of earning miles, so I will refer to them collectively.
As with all specialised miles cards, the UOB Lady’s card is a rewards card that earns points called UNI$ that can be converted into airline miles.
10 UNI$ are awarded for every S$5 spent on eligible transactions, which can be converted to airline miles at a rate of 5,000 UNI$ = 10,000 miles.
Here is an overview of the details of the UOB Lady’s card.
| UOB Lady’s | UOB Lady’s Solitaire | |
|---|---|---|
| Eligibility Requirement | S$30,000 annual income 21 years old | S$120,000 annual income 21 years old |
| Annual Fee | S$194.40 (1st year waiver) | S$410.40 (1st year waiver) |
| Earn Rate | 4 mpd (selected transactions) 0.4 mpd (other spend) | 4 mpd (selected transactions) 0.4 mpd (other spend) |
| Monthly Spend Cap | S$1,000 for 4 mpd No cap for 0.4 mpd | S$3,000 for 4 mpd No cap for 0.4 mpd |
| Points Validity | 2 years | 2 years |
| Miles Transfer Blocks | 5,000 UNI$ = 10,000 miles | 5,000 UNI$ = 10,000 miles |
| Transfer Partners | Cathay Pacific Singapore Airlines | Cathay Pacific Singapore Airlines |
| Transfer Fee | S$25 / transfer | S$25 / transfer |
How Does It Work?
As mentioned earlier, only transactions made under the selected bonus category for the quarter will be eligible to earn 4 mpd.
Out of the 7 bonus categories available, cardholders can choose which category they want for each quarter.
UOB Lady’s cardholders are entitled to 1 bonus category/quarter, while Solitaire cardholders are entitled to 2 bonus categories/quarter.
Selecting Bonus Category For The First Time
The first time you choose your bonus category (i.e. when you first receive the card), it will be immediately applicable in the current quarter.
It cannot be changed for the rest of the quarter.
Selecting Bonus Category After The First Time
Your subsequent selection of bonus categories will be applied in the next quarter.
If you submit multiple selections, the last selection that you submitted before the start of the next quarter will be applied.
For example, if you select “Dining” on 1 Aug, then “Travel” on 26 Aug, your bonus category for the quarter of Sep-Dec will be Travel.
You can select bonus categories for the next quarter before the next quarter commences, i.e. until 2359 of the day before the next quarter.
The bonus category for the current quarter cannot be changed once the quarter commences.
If You Don’t Select A New Bonus Category
If no new bonus category is selected for the next quarter, the selection from the previous quarter will apply.
For example, if you select “Dining” on 26 Aug, and make no further selection from 1 Sep – 31 Dec, your bonus category will be Dining from 1 Sep – 31 Mar.
After Selecting Your Bonus Category
Once your bonus category is selected, you will earn 4 mpd on all eligible transactions under that category.
This is capped at a spending of S$1,000 / calendar month for UOB Lady’s cardholders and S$3,000 / calendar month for UOB Lady’s Solitaire cardholders.
Which Transactions Fall Under Each Category?
The merchant category code (MCC) of a transaction is what dictates which category it falls under and thus whether it will earn 4 mpd or 0.4 mpd.
You can find out more about MCCs here.
Here is a summary of the bonus categories available and their eligible MCCs.
| Category | MCC | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Beauty & Wellness | 5912, 5977, 7230, 7231, 7298, 7297 | Discount, Mass and Drug Stores, Cosmetics Stores, Barber and Beauty Shops, Health and Beauty Spa, Massage Parlours |
| Dining | 5811, 5812, 5814, 5499 | Caterers, Eating places and Restaurants, Fast food restaurants and food deliveries |
| Entertainment | 5813, 7832, 7922 | Bars, Taverns, Lounges and Nightclubs, Motion Picture Theatres, Theatrical Producers and Ticket Agencies |
| Family | 5411, 5641 | Grocery stores, Children and Infants wear store |
| Fashion | 5311, 5611, 5621, 5631, 5651, 5655, 5661, 5691, 5699, 5948 | Department Stores, Men’s and Boy’s Clothing and Accessories Store, Women’s Ready-to-wear Stores, Women’s Access and Specialty, Family Clothing Stores, Sports and Riding Apparel Stores, Shoes Stores, Men’s and Women’s Clothing Stores, Miscellaneous Apparel and Accessories Shops, Luggage and Leather Stores |
| Transport | 4111, 4121, 4789, 5541, 5542 | Local Commuter Transport, Taxi, Cabs, Limousines and Travel Service, Service Stations and Automatic Gas Dispensers |
| Travel* | 3000 – 3299, 4411, 5309, 3500 – 3999, 4722 | Airlines, Hotels, Cruise Liners, Duty-free Stores, Online and Regular Travel Agencies |
Source: UOB Lady’s Card Terms & Conditions
The information above was obtained directly from UOB for each category except Travel.
For some reason, the MCC information for Travel was not included in UOB’s T&Cs.
Thankfully, The MileLion was able to attain this information from UOB and share it in this post, which I have filled up in the table accordingly.
With this information, you’ll have a good idea of which transactions fall under each bonus category, so you can better select the best category for yourself.
However, the MCC of a store is not something that is typically disclosed.
There are ways to check this, and The MileLion has written useful posts about this:
Between these 2 methods, you should be able to find out the MCC of most merchants.
What’s Good About The UOB Lady’s Card?
Now that we know how the UOB Lady’s card works, what’s the hype over it?
Highest Miles Earn Rate
The biggest reason is that UOB is running a limited-time promotion for the card, where the bonus earn rate is boosted up to 6 mpd instead of 4 mpd.
This is the highest miles earning rate available on the market that is not restricted to spending on specific merchants.
Most other specialised miles cards only earn miles at a rate of 4 mpd, so that’s a 50% increase in miles earning rate.
Commonly Used Bonus Categories
The 6 mpd earn rate isn’t just for show – remember that there are 7 bonus categories that cardholders can choose and change quarterly.
A wide range of transactions can be covered in these categories, so it’s easy to take advantage of this 6 mpd rate.
UNI$ Points Pooling
Plus, the points earned from the UOB Lady’s card – UNI$ – are pooled together with other UNI$-earning cards like the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa (PPV) and UOB PRIVI Miles.
Check out my review on the UOB PPV card here!
So you won’t have to worry much about having orphan miles if you use multiple UOB credit cards.
Earn Bonus Interest With UOB One Account
To top everything off, the UOB Lady’s card is also an eligible card to unlock bonus interest rates on the UOB One account if you spend S$500 during the month.
If you didn’t already know, the UOB One account boasts a generous interest rate of 3.85% – one of the highest rates on the market.
So, if you play your cards well, you’ll be able to earn 6 mpd on your expenses + 3.85% interest on your savings!
Is The UOB Lady’s Card Really That Good?
With all that’s been said, the UOB Lady’s card is looking like an amazing deal now – and it could be.
But, it might not be as impressive as it sounds for everyone.
6 Mpd Is Temporary
Here’s the thing: the 6 mpd earn rate is a limited-time promotion, i.e. it’s not permanent.
This promotion is due to end on 29 Feb 2024, after which, the earn rate will revert to 4 mpd.
While an earn rate of 4 mpd is still pretty good, there’s not much reason to choose the UOB Lady’s card over UOB PPV or HSBC Revolution.
Both the UOB PPV and HSBC Revolution cards earn 4 mpd on a wide variety of transactions – you’re not restricted to a specific category, which is the case for UOB Lady’s.
Flexible, But Not Really
The UOB Lady’s card offers the illusion of flexibility to cardholders by allowing them to choose their bonus category from a catalogue of 7 common categories.
While this sounds like it offers flexibility in terms of usage, it doesn’t.
The reality is that other competitors in the 4 mpd bracket – like UOB PPV, HSBC Revolution, and Citi Rewards – do not limit the 4 mpd earn rate to a specific category.
Check out my review of the Citi Rewards card here!
Instead, they broadly cover transactions that are made via contactless payment or online, which can include categories like dining, shopping, entertainment, etc. simultaneously.
These cards genuinely offer users flexibility in earning 4 mpd – because they are eligible for a variety of categories at the same time.
In this regard, it makes little sense to choose the UOB Lady’s card over any of these other cards for most transactions after 29 Feb 2024.
Sure, being able to change your bonus category every quarter beats having a fixed bonus category in perpetuity, so there is a degree of flexibility.
But the flexibility offered by the UOB Lady’s card pales in comparison to the leaders in the 4 mpd credit card space.
And, to make things worse, the segregation of bonus categories for the UOB Lady’s card makes it tricky to earn bonus miles in some cases.
For example, restaurants are classified under “Dining”, while bars are classified under “Entertainment”.
If you picked “Dining” as your bonus category but eat at a place that is registered as a bar, you won’t be able to earn 4 mpd on that transaction.
Similarly, some restaurants in hotels do not register under “Dining”, and may instead register under “Travel” (as they are in a hotel), so you also won’t be able to earn 4 mpd on that transaction.
Worse Than Competitor Cards
The 2 previous points in conjunction with each other mean that objectively, the UOB Lady’s card is worse than its competitors.
It has the same miles earning rate of 4 mpd but is applicable on much fewer categories.
In addition, the monthly cap for earning 4 mpd is the same as its competitors at S$1,000/month.
The UOB Lady’s Solitaire card is not as bad given that its monthly cap for bonus miles is S$3,000/month, which opens up more use cases for footing large bills.
Potentially Inefficient With UOB One Account Pairing
Being able to unlock bonus interest on the UOB One account is excellent – especially since it’s the only miles-earning UOB card that is eligible.
But you might face difficulty in maximising efficiency.
This is because a monthly card spending of S$500 is required to unlock bonus interest on the UOB One account.
Since the UOB Lady’s card restricts bonus miles earning to 1 category (or 2 for Solitaire cardholders), it means that you’ll want to put all of your S$500 spending on this category.
If you’re a relatively small spender, you’re probably unable to find 1 category in which you consistently spend S$500/month.
In this case, it means that you’ll either have to supplement your card spending with non-bonus category spending or forgo the bonus interest for the month.
Neither of these is ideal.
Granted, this is more of an issue for small spenders – people with large expenses, especially families, will unlikely face this problem.
Also, this is more applicable to regular UOB Lady’s cardholders rather than Solitaire cardholders.
This is because Solitaire cardholders can choose 2 bonus categories per quarter and often have higher annual income, which is usually accompanied by higher expenses.
Who Should Apply?
Now that I’ve given you my view on the pros and cons of the UOB Lady’s card, the question remains: should you apply for it?
In my opinion, there are 2 groups of people who this card is well suited for.
1: Already Use UNI$ UOB Credit Cards
The first group is anyone who is already consistently using a UNI$-earning UOB credit card like the UOB PPV, Visa Signature, Visa Infinite, or PRIVI Miles.
This is because UNI$ pools between all these cards.
So, even if you don’t use the UOB Lady’s card extensively, it presents you with an opportunity to earn 6 mpd for the next few months, which is a higher earning rate than any of these other cards.
It is essentially a temporary boost to your miles earning rate until the promotion ends, after which you will be able to collectively transfer your UNI$ earned from various cards to your preferred airline program.
For people who don’t use any UNI$-earning UOB cards yet, it’s not so straightforward.
Even though you will still be able to earn 6 mpd during this promotion, the issue is racking up sufficient UNI$ to transfer them out into your frequent flyer program at a reasonable cost.
Assuming that you only use the UOB Lady’s card for the selected bonus categories, the rate at which you accumulate UNI$ might be lower than expected.
Given that UNI$ has a validity period of 2 years, you’ll need to decide whether the number of miles you’re able to accumulate in 2 years will be worth paying the transfer fee of S$25 for.
2: Consistently Spend S$500/Month On Bonus Category
The next group is people who can consistently hit a spending amount of S$500/month on their selected bonus category.
If you’re able to do this, then getting the UOB Lady’s card is a no-brainer.
This will unlock bonus interest rates on the UOB One account, which allows you to take advantage of its high interest rates.
So, not only will you be able to take advantage of the 6 mpd promotional earn rate, but you will also enjoy high returns on your savings.
If you can’t hit S$500 of spending every month on your selected bonus category, it might still be worth using the UOB Lady’s card for expenses on other categories to hit S$500.
It all comes down to what is more valuable to you – using other cards to maximise your miles earning rate on other categories of spending, or being able to earn the high interest offered by the UOB One account.
Am I Applying For The UOB Lady’s Card?
Personally, I have applied for the UOB Lady’s card since I fall under group 1 as mentioned above – I have been using the UOB PPV for 2 years now and have accumulated a sizeable amount of UNI$.
I plan to use the UOB Lady’s card as a miles-earning accelerator until the 6 mpd promotion ends in Feb 2024.
After which, I will mainly be using it for travel-related expenses as my only way to earn 4 mpd on such transactions is via the HSBC Revolution card, which has a monthly spending cap of S$1,000 to earn 4 mpd.
The UOB Lady’s card will provide me with an additional S$1,000/month to earn 4 mpd on travel expenses, which will be useful since flight and hotel bookings tend to be expensive.
But for now, this plan simply remains a plan, since UOB has not gotten back to me on the status of my UOB Lady’s card application…
To summarise,
The UOB Lady’s card is finally available guys.
This opens up an opportunity to earn 6 mpd on daily expenses due to an ongoing promotion, which is currently scheduled to end on 29 Feb 2024.
This makes the UOB Lady’s card the highest miles-earning card around for now, but it doesn’t seem to be too useful once this promotion ends.
Nevertheless, the UOB Lady’s card can be a good card to pick up for selected groups of people to use in the long run due to UNI$ points pooling and its compatibility with the UOB One account.
Will you be applying for a UOB Lady’s card? Why or why not?
Let me know in the comments below!