UOB Malaysia will be introducing not one, but three brand new credit cards soon, as part of the bank’s migration of Citi’s card business. These three cards are named UOB Zenith, UOB PRVI Miles Elite, and UOB World.

We’ve known for a while that as part of UOB’s acquisition of Citi Malaysia’s consumer banking business, Citi’s credit cardholders will receive UOB cards with equivalent benefits. In recent months we’ve seen UOB revising some of its existing cards to mirror some of Citi’s outgoing cards (such as the UOB ONE Classic and Platinum and UOB Lazada cards), and the addition of the Zenith, PRVI Miles Elite, and World is likely to address existing gaps in the UOB card portfolio.

At the time of writing, the product pages for these cards are not live yet, but the T&C documents of the cards – which are already available on UOB’s website – reveal plenty of information on the benefits of the cards. A quick glance at the documents also tells us that these new cards are very similar to some of Citi’s equivalent cards:

• UOB Zenith – Citi Prestige
• UOB PRVI Miles Elite – Citi PremierMiles
• UOB World – Citi Rewards World Mastercard

Before we take a closer look at each card, it’s important to note that UOB has not revealed the redemption rates of these new UOB cards. This is key because different cards have different redemption rates (the UOB Visa Infinite has a better air miles redemption rate than other UOB cards, for example) so we’ll need to wait a little more to see if these new cards are worthy of securing a spot in your wallet. In addition, the annual fees as well as the actual card faces of these cards have not been revealed.

UOB Zenith

The UOB Zenith will likely be UOB’s highest-tier card above the Visa Infinite, offering a straightforward points earning mechanic:

• 1x UNIRM for every RM1 spent on local retail transactions
• 2x UNIRM for every RM1 spent on overseas retail transactions

There’s also a spend bonus of 250,000 UNIRM which will be awarded when you spend at least RM240,000 on the card in a membership year. This will cover transactions normally excluded from such programmes, such as government and JomPay transactions.

Aside from that, UOB also mentions a Relationship Bonus Programme that applies for the UOB Zenith card, where cardholders may receive additional UNIRM on their annual spend based on how long they’ve kept their cards. Specifically, the Relationship Bonus Points will be calculated as a percentage of your annual spend in an anniversary year, as indicated in the table below:

Years holding UOB Zenith	Relationship Bonus percentage
1 to 3 years	10%
4 to 6 years	20%
7 to 9 years	30%
10 years and above	50%

However, the T&C page does not indicate if existing Citi Prestige cardholders will be able to carry forward their existing ownership periods over to the UOB Zenith.

In addition to these points-earning perks, UOB Zenith cardholders will be entitled to 12x complimentary access to Plaza Premium Lounge (PPL) and PPL’s affiliate partners in a year covering over 1,100 lounges around the world. Cardholders will also enjoy exclusive UOB Zenith Global Concierge Services including a dedicated hotline.

You can also enjoy complimentary limo rides home from the airport, provided you’ve made at least three retail transactions overseas using your UOB Zenith card, within 30 days prior to the date of your ride redemption (receipts must be provided as proof). Curiously, this complimentary ride perk is made available only until September 2023, but there’s always the chance that UOB will renew it after its expiry.

Lastly, the Prestige’s “complimentary fourth night” programme will also be extended to the UOB Zenith, where cardholders will enjoy one complimentary night when they book a stay of at least four consecutive nights at selected hotels and resorts via the UOB Zenith Concierge. Your stay must be fully paid using the UOB Zenith card in order to qualify for this perk. 

UOB PRVI Miles Elite

The UOB PRVI Miles Elite is likely the replacement for the Citi PremierMiles Card. Instead of introducing a new rewards points system (the Citi PremierMiles earns PremierMiles points instead of the usual Citi Rewards Points), the PRVI Miles Elite will earn UNIRM just like the other UOB rewards cards.

The main card value propositions (CVP) remains largely similar between both cards: cardholders earn accelerated points earnings for travel-related expenses, right down to the annual bonus points rewarded upon payment of annual fees. The UOB PRVI Miles Elite will earn:

• 10x UNIRM for foreign currency transactions (including online)
• 5x UNIRM for Airlines-related spending
• 1x UNIRM for all other transactions (with the usual exclusions like government-related transactions, JomPay, EPP, and others).

As for the annual bonus, cardholders who pay the annual fee will receive 60,000 UNIRM.

Meanwhile, the airport lounge access and airport limo ride benefits from the Citi PremierMiles is retained in the UOB PRVI Miles Elite card – there are no changes whatsoever in both instances, where cardholders will continue to get 8x access to airport lounges across 9 countries. For the airport limo benefit, UOB will retain the dedicated booth at KLIA Terminal 1 (to be renamed UOB Airport Limo Priority Booth) where cardholders will need to display at least 3 overseas transaction receipts no more than 30 days old from the date of ride redemption.

UOB World

The UOB World card is the likely successor to the Citi Rewards World Mastercard. Virtually every benefit has been ported over to the UOB World, starting with the points earning benefits:

• 12x UNIRM for selected e-commerce & e-wallet transactions (covering iTunes, Touch ‘n Go, Boost, and BigPay)
• 5x UNIRM for Departmental Stores & Hypermarkets up to RM3,000 per statement cycle (covering AEON, AEON Big, Marks & Spencer, Metrojaya, Parkson, Isetan, B.I.G., Cold Storage, Everise, Giant, Jason’s Food Hall, Jaya Grocer, Servay, Lotus’s, and Village Grocer)
• 5x UNIRM for Overseas Spend up to RM24,000 equivalent per membership year
• 1x UNIRM for all other transactions (with the usual exclusions, including unique ones such as utilities, petrol, and any “top up or reload transactions” besides the e-commerce & e-wallet transactions specified earlier)

The annual bonus benefit is also ported over to the UOB World, where cardholders who accumulate an annual spend of at least RM48,000 will receive a lump sum 125,000 UNIRM bonus.

Lastly, the UOB World will also grant cardholders airport lounge access benefits covering 6x complimentary access to Plaza Premium Lounges located in KLIA Terminal 1 and KLIA Terminal 2.

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We will likely see UOB officially announcing these three cards soon, as their T&C document clearly state an effective date of 1 July 2023. We’re also close to the completion of UOB’s migration process; based on its current timeline, this exercise is expected to wrap up sometime in September. With the addition of these three new cards, UOB’s credit cards portfolio now totals 14 cards – one of the biggest in the country.

(Source: UOB [1, 2, 3])

• TAGS:
• Citi
• UOB Bank
• UOB PRVI Miles Elite
• UOB World
• UOB Zenith