How To Transform Your Savings Into a Miles-Earning Machine

If Defying Gravity has been looping in your head since Wicked stormed cinemas, you’re in good company. The musical’s empowering take on strong women shattering expectations is pretty much everywhere right now—and with good reason. 

Take Michelle Yeoh. Cast as Madame Morrible in Wicked, she’s still smashing stereotypes and demanding better representation and diversity. From kicking down doors in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to calling Hollywood out, she’s the real-life queen of #WomenInMaleFields—proving women are now running industries that were once all about the boys.

A 2024 study by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) shows that Singaporean women are stepping up too by increasingly taking on leadership roles and achieving greater financial independence. Translation: women are making power moves—and it’s your turn to join in. Don’t let your money sit there like a bored intern. Read on to learn how you can put those savings to work and rack up rewards while you plan your next big adventure.

 

A smarter way to maximise your savings

Here’s a clever strategy to make your savings work harder without dipping into your rainy-day fund. Meet UOB Lady’s Unstoppable Pairing: a power combo of the UOB Lady’s Savings Account and UOB Lady’s Credit Card. Together, they’re designed to help you rack up UNI$ rewards effortlessly—perfect for anyone looking to level up their savings game with minimal effort.

UNI$ rewards are the perks you earn with every swipe of a UOB rewards card. For the UOB Lady’s Credit Card, every $5 you spend on eligible purchases gives you UNI$1. Rack up enough of these, and you’ll be converting them into air miles faster than you can say “vacation.” 

The thing is, we know that earning miles the “normal” way—just by spending — is a long and arduous journey. It can feel like forever trying to land that return business class flight. 

But with the UOB Lady’s Credit Card and Lady’s Savings Account, you can supercharge your earnings to a whopping 25X UNI$ per S$5 spent (that’s a juicy 10 miles per S$1) when you spend in your preferred rewards category(ies) with no minimum spend required.

UOB Lady’s Credit Card	UOB Lady’s Savings Account
Earn 10X UNI$ for every S$5 spent (equivalent to 4 miles per S$1) on your preferred rewards category(ies)	Earn up to additional 15X Lady’s Savings Bonus UNI$ for every S$5 spent (equivalent to 6 miles per S$1) on your preferred rewards category(ies)

You can earn rewards across a variety of categories, including Dining, Fashion, Beauty & Wellness, Family (groceries and kids’ stores), Travel, Transport, and Entertainment. With the UOB Lady’s Credit Card, you can choose 1 category, and with the UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card, you get to pick 2—these can be changed every quarter, but more on that later.

The total UNI$ you can earn is based on the Monthly Average Balance (MAB) in your UOB Lady’s Savings Account each month. Basically, the more you save, the more UNI$ you’ll earn. 

Here’s a more detailed look at the mechanics: 

So, if you keep at least $10,000 in your UOB Lady’s Savings Account each month, you can earn a cool 15X UNI$ on your preferred rewards category(ies) spend.

Let’s break it down with a real-life example: Jane spends $800 on her UOB Lady’s Credit Card in her preferred rewards category over a month. Here’s what she stands to earn:

Lady’s Card Base 1X UNI$ on all purchases (Base UNI$: S$800 / every S$5 spent X 1X UNI$)	160 UNI$
Lady’s Card Bonus 9X UNI$ on preferred rewards category (Bonus UNI$: S$800 / every S$5 spent X 9X UNI$)	1,440 UNI$
Lady’s Savings Bonus up to 15X UNI$ on preferred rewards category (S$800 / every S$5 spent X 5X UNI$)	800 UNI$
Total UNI$ earned monthly	2,400

 If Jane keeps up her spending for a year, she’ll rack up 28,800 UNI$* over 12 months. That translates to a staggering 57,600 KrisFlyer miles. With those miles, she can redeem a return economy ticket to Tokyo or Seoul, which only requires 54,000 miles**. Or, if she’s feeling a bit fancy, she can trade in those miles for a return business class ticket to Bangkok, which typically costs around 48,000 miles**.

 

Shouldn’t I park aside my savings to earn interest instead of generating miles?

Ok, we know that maintaining a monthly average balance of S$10,000 may seem like a big commitment. And you might think that it may be more worth it to stick that $10k into a fixed deposit earning 3% p.a. instead.

But if travel is your thing, you might find that the extra miles from the Unstoppable Pairing offer more bang for your buck. Those miles could be your ticket to new adventures, making the Unstoppable Pairing not just a savvy financial move but a passport to experiences.

Here’s how.

Balance	Opportunity cost (Interest earned in a year if placed on FD at 3% p.a.)	Additional miles earned in a year if placed in Lady’s Savings Account	What you can redeem with the additional miles (excluding miles that you can already earn with your Lady’s Credit Card)
S$10,000	S$300	24,000 (based on S$1k spent/ month)	This can be redeemed for a one-way business class ticket to Bangkok (worth ~S$900).

As you can see, the additional miles earned by depositing S$10,000 in a UOB Lady’s Savings Account and spending just S$1,000 a month on your UOB Lady’s Credit Card is worth more than the S$300 in interest that you can otherwise earn in a year from fixed deposits.

We can even run this scenario again where you keep an MAB of S$100K and spend S$2K per month on the UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card: 

Balance	Opportunity cost (Interest earned in a year if placed on FD at 3% p.a.)	Additional miles earned in a year if placed in Lady’s Savings Account	What you can redeem with the additional miles (excluding miles that you can already earn with your Lady’s Solitaire Card)
S$100,000	S$3,000	144,000 (based on S$2k spent/month)	This can be redeemed for a one-way suites/first class ticket to Paris (~S$11,200)

 

This demonstrates how the pairing can offer practical benefits — by keeping your funds in the Lady’s Savings Account, you can earn additional miles that might be more valuable for your travel plans.

 

The benefits don’t stop there

Aside from boosting your miles from regular monthly purchases, this pairing offers practical benefits for women, like the freedom to choose and switch up your preferred rewards categories every quarter.

Dining out a lot this month? Set your rewards to the Dining category. Eyeing some new threads next? Shift to Fashion. Heading on a road trip? Switch it up to Travel. It’s all about making sure you get the most out of every dollar spent.

And for those luxury buys (hello, shoes and bags!), the UOB Lady’s LuxePay Plan lets you spread the cost with 0% p.a. instalments over 6 or 12 months at no cost. Yep, those mary-janes don’t have to stay on your wishlist forever.

With the UOB Lady’s Card and Savings Account, you can combine smart spending with saving, unlocking perks and rewards that go beyond typical interest—perfect for your next big adventure.

 

Been eyeing a pair of Gentle Monster sunglasses? Spend with your UOB Lady’s Credit Card or save with your UOB Lady’s Savings Account, and you could land a sleek pair of Gentle Monster sunglasses. Don’t wait—this exclusive offer ends 31 Dec 2024. Not a UOB Lady’s Savings Accountholder yet? Apply online now and enjoy up to S$240 cash credit to get started. Thinking about a credit card? The UOB Lady’s Credit Card is your perfect match—apply here and start earning rewards today.

T&Cs apply. Insured up to S$100k by SDIC.

*UNI$ can be converted into air miles at the conversion rate of UNI$1 = 2 miles.

** Based on Singapore Airline’s Saver Awards Chart as at October 2023, excluding taxes, charges and fees.

 

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This post was written in collaboration with UOB. While we are financially compensated by them, we nonetheless strive to maintain our editorial integrity and review products with the same objective lens. We are committed to providing the best information in order for you to make personal financial decisions with confidence.

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About the author

Audrey Ng is a bargain hunter who tries to sniff out the best deals possible whether it’s food, shopping or travel. She will out auntie the auntiest of aunties.