New UOB rewards exclusions for Utilities and ipaymy from 1 Aug 2022

UOB today announced that it will stop awarding UNI$, miles and cashback for certain transactions from 1 August 2022.

Key Exclusion 1: Utilities

All UOB cards except for UOB Reserve and UOB One will stop earning UNI$, miles and cashback for Utilities payments (MCC code 4900) from 1 August 2022.

Best cards for Utility bills

You can earn 1.2 miles per dollar for Utility bills with the Standard Chartered X card. However, because of its high annual fee and unattractive benefits, it’s hard to justify keeping this card just for Utilities payments.

For that reason, I recommend switching to one of the following cashback cards for Utility bill payments:

1. UOB Absolute Cashback: 1.7%
2. AMEX True Cashback: 1.5%

The above fuss-free cards do not require any minimum spending and do not have any caps on the amount of cashback that can be earned.

Additional note 1: If your Utilities company do not accept AMEX cards, you can still earn up to 1.7% cashback by first topping up your Grab wallet with the above cards (to earn the cashback), and then making the payment with your GrabPay Mastercard.

Additional note 2: You can still earn up to 4.33% cashback on payments to Singapore Power if you spend at least $500 per month for the entire qualifying quarter.

Key Exclusion 2: ipaymy

All UOB cards except for UOB Reserve will stop earning UNI$, miles and cashback for ipaymy payments from 1 August 2022.

Best cards for ipaymy payments

From 1 August 2022, these are the best cards for ipaymy payments:

1. Citi PremierMiles: 1.2 MPD
2. DBS Altitude (Visa): 1.2 MPD

Key Exclusion 3: Medical/Health services

Krisflyer UOB card will stop earning miles for medical/health transactions from 1 August 2022.

Best cards for Medical/Health payments

The best cards for Hospital and Medical payments remain the same, in my view:

UOB Absolute Cashback: 1.7%
AMEX True Cashback: 1.5%

Additional note: If the hospital/clinic do not accept AMEX cards, you can still earn up to 1.7% cashback by first topping up your Grab wallet (to earn the cashback), and then making the payment with your GrabPay Mastercard.

Bottom line

This will be the last month to earn 1.4 MPD on utilities payments. Visit our page of the best cards in Singapore at any time to see the best credit cards for each spending category.

H/T: MainlyMiles