UOB Preferred Card Introduction
The UOB Preferred Card has some unique benefits, but it also lets you collect UNIRM, the credit card points of UOB that you can use as cash, redeem for airmiles, or exchange for other products.
It's not a card I would recommend to everyone, but its benefits may still appeal to some. Let's go through them so you can decide if you need this card.
Benefits Overview
There are two main benefits with this card: the Coffee Bean buy one free one, and UNIRM you can put toward airmiles.
Update (July 2026): An earlier version of this card advertised a Golden Screen Cinemas buy-one-free-one on Fridays. That perk is no longer in UOB's current card terms, so I have removed it from this review. The Coffee Bean 1-for-1 is still live. Always check the latest UOB Preferred Card terms before applying, because banks change these often.
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Buy One Free One
Buy a drink at a Coffee Bean store with this card and you are entitled to another complimentary drink of the same or lesser value. The offer is available once a day on weekdays (Monday to Friday), at Coffee Bean stores in Peninsular Malaysia, except the outlets in the Satellite Building at KLIA and KLIA2.
Here is what it is actually worth. Say you buy two drinks a week at around RM16 each and claim the free one each time:
RM16 x 52 weeks = RM832 a year in free drinks
That already covers the RM198 annual fee more than four times over, before you count a single UNIRM point. A few years back I used to get my coffee at Starbucks or Coffee Bean almost every day, usually two drinks an order. If I had this card back then it could easily have saved me a couple of hundred ringgit a month.
So the maths is simple: if you are already a regular Coffee Bean customer, this one perk pays for the card on its own.
Collect UNIRM to use it as cash or redeem airmiles
UNIRinggit, or UNIRM, is the name UOB gives its credit card points. Unlike some other banks, you can spend the points directly, redeem airmiles, or exchange them for products as usual.
You earn UNIRM on the following spending categories:
- 10 points for every Ringgit spent on selected streaming services (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, YouTube Premium)
- 5 points for every Ringgit spent on dining, entertainment and groceries
- 3 points for every Ringgit spent on petrol and recurring transactions
- 1 point for every Ringgit on other local spending
The 5x dining, entertainment and grocery tier is capped at RM1,000 spend per category, and the 3x petrol tier is capped at RM500.
Pay with UNIRinggit
The commonly cited "pay with UNIRinggit" rate is around 1,000 UNIRM to RM1. I have not been able to confirm this exact rate against an official UOB source, so treat it as a rough guide and check the current rate in the UOB TMRW app before you rely on it.
Taking that rate at face value: earn 1,000 points on a RM200 dining spend, then spend those points at 1,000 to RM1, and you are effectively getting RM1 back on RM200, or a 0.5% return.
I wouldn't call that terrible if this is the only card you carry, but you can easily find cashback cards with a much higher return. UOB does run campaigns from time to time that raise the value of UNIRinggit.
from uob rewards carnival
For example, with the campaign above you can pick a credit card purchase from the last 60 days and pay it off with UNIRinggit inside the app, which works out to a return of about 1.25%.
Redeem airmiles with UNIRM
The exact UNIRM-to-miles ratio for this card tier is not published on an official UOB page that I could verify. UOB's Enrich partner listing shows 20,000 UNIRinggit as the minimum block to start a miles conversion for the Preferred tier, and premium UOB cards (Visa Infinite, PRVI Miles Elite) are widely reported to convert at a better 12,000 UNIRM to 1,000 miles.
If the Preferred tier converts at roughly 20,000 UNIRM to 1,000 Enrich Miles, and I value each Enrich Mile at RM0.04 on this blog, then RM4,000 of dining spend earns 20,000 UNIRM, worth about RM40 of miles. That is a return of around 1%, or 0.25 miles per ringgit, and only on the dining, entertainment and grocery categories.
That isn't a horrible rate, especially after all the banks cut card benefits through 2024 and 2025. Just confirm the live conversion rate in the app first, because I could not verify it from an official source.
Redeem other products with UNIRM
You can use the points to redeem other goods, such as paying your credit card service tax and annual fees, gift vouchers like a TNG Reload PIN, or electronics like an iPad.
Most of the time these are worse value than airmiles. It is basically a low-cost way for the bank to reclaim outstanding points.
For example, a RM50 TNG Reload PIN for 40,000 UNIRM means RM8,000 of dining spend, a return of 0.625%. Maybe better than paying with UNIRinggit, but definitely worse than airmiles.
Annual Fees & Salary Requirement
The minimum annual income for this card is RM36,000, or a monthly income of RM3,000. The principal cardholder must be 21 and above, and supplementary cardholders 18 and above.
The UOB Preferred Card has an annual fee of RM198 for the principal card and RM30 for a supplementary card, plus the standard RM25 service tax for each activated card.
Since 1 January 2026, UOB waives the annual fee if you spend at least RM20,000 in the previous 12 months. So if the card is your daily driver, the fee effectively disappears.
Who Should Get UOB Preferred Card?
In my opinion the UNIRinggit value is mediocre and the bonus spending categories are quite limited. Personally I prefer a card with broad categories, so I can skip the hassle of thinking about which card to use every time.
That said, the card offers great value if you already spend at Coffee Bean regularly. As shown above, a couple of drinks a week can cover the annual fee several times over, and the new 10X UNIRM on streaming is a nice bonus if you pay for Netflix or YouTube Premium. The UNIRM is just extra on top if you don't already have a better cashback card or airmiles card.
Anyway, if you have a card you think beats this one, or you want me to review a specific card, let me know in the comments below.
