UOB World Card

Refined Points Metric (RPM): 6.13

Recommendation: Poor

Annual Fee

RM600

Annual Income

RM60,000 per annum

Airline Miles Earn Rate

Local: 1 Airline Mile = RM15.00

Overseas: 1 Airline Mile = RM3.00

E-Wallet: 1 Airline Mile = RM1.25

Supermarkets: 1 Airline Mile = RM3.00

Airport Lounge Access

6X Access per year
Local Lounges only

Payment Network

Review | UOB World Card

The UOB World Card is meant to be the replacement for the Citi Rewards credit cards after the acquisition of Citi by UOB in Malaysia. With a minimum annual income requirement of RM60,000, one would expect the credit card to have benefits and privileges similar to those of other credit cards by other banks, or at least competitive features.

With the credit card sitting alongside other UOB credit card offerings such as the UOB PRVI Miles credit card, I was frankly unsure what's the purpose of this credit card's existence, other than a replacement card for previous Citi Rewards cardholders.

Not to mention, the Mastercard branding is extremely difficult to find, and you'd be wondering whether this credit card is on the Mastercard or Visa network, as there zero indication and information regarding this aspect, other than the word "Mastercard" in the product disclosure sheet.

However, there are some important details about the UOB World Card that might lean you in if you're one of its target customers, and I'll also share why you should opt for the UOB World Card instead of the UOB PRVI Miles card, despite both of these cards requiring an annual income of RM60,000.

Air Miles Conversion

The UOB World Card, despite having various distinctions for spending categories is labeled as a "Travel" card by UOB. Let's start by taking a look at the local spend category and E-Wallet category.

The UOB World Card grants you 12X UNIRM points on E-Wallet reloads. This sounds like a great benefit, until you realize that the special rate is capped at RM300 per merchant per calendar month.

This is truly a waste, as the card has immense potential to compete in this space, given that the only other credit card that offers decent amount of points for E-Wallet reloads is the Alliance Bank Visa Infinite credit card, which conveniently has the same annual income requirement.

Based on the table above, it is pointless to consider iTunes in the UNIRM earning process, given that you cannot make any purchases in Malaysia using iTunes as it is not an E-Wallet. Hence, it is only logical to consider the UNIRM earned via TNGD, BigPay and Boost.

What the figures above essentially mean is that you earn a maximum amount of 10,800 UNIRM each month, by fully utilizing the reload limit on your E-Wallets using the UOB World Card.

Honestly, spending RM900 of E-Wallet reloads is easy. With almost every retail merchant accepting E-Wallet as payments nowadays, RM900 is practically nothing for the average consumer, especially if you are holding the RM60,000 annual income UOB World Card.

Hence, it's truly a shame that UOB has capped this to RM300 per E-Wallet, because if the cap was raised, you would be able to earn a substantial amount of airline miles.

Also, note that UOB has a minimum of 15,000 UNIRM required to convert your UNIRM to airline miles, and hence, despite maximizing the cap, you're still short of a few thousand UNIRM if you're a new credit card holder.

Of course, at this point, I'm nitpicking, but the stance still remains the same. If you're one of those consumers that tends to redeem your airline miles for last minute flights, then the UOB World Card will likely disappoint you.

The good news for the UOB World Card is that if we zoom out into the bigger picture, the total UNIRM earned from the measly RM900 cap per month is somewhat decent for a RM60,000 annual income credit card.

Essentially, you'll be able to earn 8,600+ Airline Miles with a combined spending of RM10,800 in one calendar year.

This is an earning rate of 1 Airline Mile = RM1.25, but capped at only RM900 per month.

In contrast, the excellent Alliance Bank Visa Infinite grants you a cap of RM3,000 per month on E-Wallet reloads. This is 333% higher than the cap set by the UOB World Card. What's even better is that the Alliance Bank Visa Infinite has an annual fee of RM438 that can be waived with an annual spend of RM12,000, which is very easy to achieve.

Moving on, the UOB World Card does offer additional UNIRM on several occasions, such as 5X UNIRM on groceries.

As demonstrated in the table above, maximizing the cap on this special department stores/hypermarket spending category only nets you a maximum of 15,000 UNIRM per month. Of course, you still earn 1X UNIRM for transactions after RM3,000, but at this point, it's pointless to do so.

Perhaps the most confusing benefit of the UOB World Card is the capped UNIRM 5X points on Overseas spend. It's no secret that banks earn a good amount of transactional fees when a credit card user spends overseas, so I'm surprised to see such a cap of UNIRM points by UOB. Nevertheless, with HSBC also imposing a similar limit on its TravelOne Mastercard, I guess its no surprise that UOB is following suit.

Assuming total utilization of RM24,000 each year, you earn a maximum of 120,000 UNIRM (or 8000 Airline Miles).

Now, obviously, if you're a frequent reader of my blog, you'll likely be someone that's smart enough to know that the UOB World Card isn't your go-to credit card for Overseas spend. In fact, a RM24,000 annual income credit card such as the CIMB Travel Platinum credit card already earns you 1 Airline Mile for every RM2.50 spent with no capping.

Be sure to check out my Ultimate Guid, KrisFlyer Ultimate Guide and Asia Miles Ultimate Guide for comparisons on the airline miles earning rates for various credit cards.

As always, we theoretically bring all the math together. In order to maximize the UNIRM earned each year, you'll have to spend a total of at least RM5,900 per month. By doing so consistently, you'll be able to earn up to a maximum of 36,000 Airline Miles each year.

At this point, most of you are going to ask, why bother coming up with these numbers when it's logically impossible to reach the spending cap each month?

The reason is simple. By doing so, we can effectively compare the UOB World Card with other credit cards in the market and decide whether it's worthwhile to obtain the credit card once you have a clearer picture of how many miles you'll earn at the end of the year.

In my opinion, the greatest flaw of the UOB World Card is that it's UNIRM earnings are consolidated into different merchant categories. Yes, by combining the Local E-Wallet Spend (RM900) + Department Stores/Hypermarket Spend (RM3000) per month, you're earning a total of 25,800 UNIRM per month. 25,800 UNIRM translates to 1720 Airline Miles.

In contrast, the Alliance Bank Visa Infinite, which caps its 8X TBP on E-Wallet Reloads to RM3000/month, earns you 24,000 TBP per month. 24,000 TBP translates to 1600 Airline Miles.

So yes, you're right that the UOB World Card earns you slightly more airline miles than the Alliance Bank Visa Infinite, but are you 100% confident that you can spend RM3,000 on department stores/hypermarkets every month to fully realize this potential?

Whereas with the Alliance Bank Visa Infinite, topping up your E-Wallets with RM3000 every month means you can effectively use this RM3000 at ANY MERCHANT in Malaysia and it doesn't matter at all, because you've already secured the 8X TBP!

Ultimately, it's really important to get down to the details before you decide on which credit card to obtain. It's these little details that people usually miss.

I was speaking to a close relative stay-at-home mom the other day who told me how she obtained the UOB World Card solely because of the 5X UNIRM granted for supermarkets. She told me she's happy that a credit card in Malaysia finally grants you more points for grocery runs. Unfortunately for her, she only spent roughly RM600-800 on groceries each month, well below the cap of RM3000 given by UOB. However, she spends almost RM2000+ each month on dining, cafes, coffee and other misc. activities as well.

Sad to say, that RM2000+ spend with her UOB World Card has gone to waste, as the UOB World Card only grants you 1X UNIRM for local transactions! If she had the Alliance Bank Visa Infinite credit card instead, she would have no problem consolidating both her RM600-800 grocery spend each month and her RM2000+ lifestyle activities and earn a substantial amount of airline miles for regional travel.

At this point, I'll stop short of speaking more about other credit cards, but I can assure you, I'm definitely not paid to write this!

Special Deep Dive: Bonus 125,000 UNIRM

I'm writing a new section for my UOB World Card review after a few of you have asked me to factor in the bonus 125,000 UNIRM earned after RM48,000 spend.

For those unaware, UOB grants you bonus 125,000 UNIRM if you manage to spend at least RM48,000 using your UOB World Card within one calendar year. In this section of my review, I'll be giving you several scenarios to illustrate obtaining this bonus UNIRM as well as the combined total UNIRM and amount spent in each situation.

Now, given that you will need to spend at least RM48,000 in one year (the date starts from your card activation date), this means that you'll be earning UNIRM through that RM48,000 spent alongside the bonus UNIRM you receive. So there are several ways to visualize this.

First, given that the UOB World Card grants you 12X UNIRM for E-Wallets (capped at RM900/month) and 5X UNIRM for departmental stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets, your first strategy would be to maximize this spend in order to fulfill the RM48,000 spend criteria. However, the issue is that the UNIRM earned on E-Wallets and Supermarkets/Hypermarkets/Departmental Stores are capped.

As per the table above, with the capped spending monthly in place, you would need at least 12+ months to spend RM48,000 in the best possible way to earn the highest amount of UNIRM possible. Assuming you can do this perfectly, you'll be able to earn a total UNIRM of 434,600, which translates to 28,900+ Airline Miles (Enrich/KrisFlyer/Asia Miles).

Now, obviously this is just a hypothetical visualization. I don't think anyone would logically spend RM3,000 per month on groceries alone, but if you do, then the UOB World Card is perfect for you.

With that being said, let's take a look at a more realistic example.

Now, with the more realistic example above, I'm assuming that the cardholder spends RM4,000 per month. Given that this is a RM60,000 annual income credit card (min RM5,000/month), I think this is a realistic expectation for the targeted cardholder.

With this example, we have a more logical and realistic scenario whereby the cardholder does majority of spending via Local Spend, but still maximizes the RM900 E-Wallet cap per month and spends RM1,000 on groceries. This translates to a total UNIRM earned of 339,800, which earns you roughly 22,000+ Airline Miles.

Now, finally, we have an even more realistic example, whereby most of the cardholder's spend is accumulated via Local Spend (1X UNIRM). In this example above, we assume that the cardholders spend's at least RM5,000 per month and 10% of the RM48,000 spent is done overseas.

In this example above, the cardholder would earn a total of 291,080 UNIRM within 10 months, which translates to roughly 19,400+ Airline Miles.

So, let's put all the information together. We can see that it's not as easy as it seems to obtain the 125,000 Bonus UNIRM simply because you'll need to spend at least RM4,000 per month in order to meet the deadline. Remember, one crucial requirement for obtaining the Bonus UNIRM is that you'll need to spend RM48,000 in one year.

With such a requirement, the question remains on whether the UOB World Card is a suitable credit card for earning airline miles locally. In my humble opinion, given that you'll consolidate most of your spending on 1X UNIRM merchant categories, it definitely isn't worth the hassle. You'll probably accumulate more debt in credit card interests rather than earning useful UNIRM!

As I have mentioned many times, always remember that the total points you earn are only one side of the story. You also need to consider the merchant categories that grant you extra points for useful spending, such as dining and E-Wallets.

Airport Lounge Access

I know how important it is to obtain information about lounge access at a glance, so if you're queuing up to enter a lounge in ASEAN, here's the important details about the UOB World Card credit card:

Number of Lounge Access Passes: 6X per year
Supplementary Access: Yes, quota is separate from principal cardholder
Spend Conditions: No spend conditions

Lounge Access List in Malaysia:

Plaza Premium Lounge KLIA Terminal 1 Main Terminal Building
Flight Club Signature KLIA Terminal 1 Satellite Terminal
Plaza Premium Lounge KLIA Terminal 2 (Gateway@klia2)
Flight Club Grab n' Go KLIA Terminal 2 (Gateway@klia2)

For the full list of lounges, please click here to visit UOB's website.

UOB tends to be generous with its lounge access benefits, like what we've seen on the UOB PRVI Miles Elite Credit Card, and the UOB World Card is no exception. You're granted 6X complimentary access to airport lounges in Malaysia.

You do not have access to airport lounges outside of Malaysia, a peculiar omission, given that UOB is a Singaporean bank and that the UOB World Card is a RM60,000 annual income credit card.

I'd expect them to at least mirror the offers by the HSBC TravelOne Credit Card, which grants 6X access to lounges in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong, but sadly this is not the case.

Final Thoughts

The UOB World Card is truly a missed opportunity by UOB to capitalize on the growing middle-income segment market dominated by the HSBC TravelOne Credit Card and the Alliance Bank Visa Infinite credit card. One might argue that UOB focuses its efforts on the UOB PRVI Miles Visa Signature credit card instead for airline miles accrual benefits, but that credit card has an even worst local spend earning rate than the UOB World Card!

Usually, I'd recommend getting the UOB World Card as a side credit card to take advantage of the RM900 E-Wallet 12X UNIRM earning rate monthly, but I honestly don't think the RM600 annual fee justifies having this credit card at all. Not to mention, you don't want to have too many credit cards giving you the same benefits (or capped in this case) as having too many credit cards might not be good for your credit score.

Be sure to check out my Ultimate Guide, KrisFlyer Ultimate Guide and Asia Miles Ultimate Guide for comparisons on the airline miles earning rates for various credit cards.