The Singaporean Maldivian

The UOB SP Alumni VISA Gold Debit Card

SP Alumni and Staff Now Have Their Own Credit and Debit Card!

UOB and SP have teamed up to come up with a VISA Gold Credit and Debit Card. Packed with a host of privileges such as SMART$ Cashback where users will enjoy more than 3% cashback from top names like Shell, Metro and Tung Lok Group of Restaurants.

Importantly, holders of the card pay NO Annual Fees for the main and first supplementary card holder.

The partnership was sealed at a signing ceremony held at the Tulip Room, Singapore Polytechnic on 25 Jul 05. Representing UOB was Mr Gary Voon, Vice President and Head, Commercial/Co-brand cards while Liew Beng Kiong, Ag Director, Student and Alumni Affairs (SAA) represented SP.

As part of the partnership, UOB has also made a donation to the Singapore Polytechnic student endowment fund for needy students.

We need your support. There will be more contributions to the Endowment Fund as you charge more to the card. This will benefit present and future SP students in need of financial assistance.

So what are you waiting for! Your free card awaits.

For more information, SP Alumni and Staff can contact Eng Luan, SAA, at 68790408 or email annaneo@sp.edu.sg.

The application form can be found in the link at the top of the post.

I think this is pretty cool actually. My crappy UOB VISA Electron card is beginning to peel and it’s breaking apart as you can see below:

So anyway, the VISA Electron cards aren’t really accepted widely anyway. According to the UOB website:

Worldwide Recognition:
The Card is accepted at more than 20,000 choice outlets in Singapore and over 12 million VISA Electron merchants worldwide
As a global ATM card, it is accepted at ATMs in Singapore and more than 800,000 VISA / PLUS ATMs worldwide

Sounds pretty good at first, but then you look at their UOB VISA R Classic Card (also a debit card):

Worldwide Recognition:
The Card is accepted and recognised at more than 30 million VISA merchants worldwide, including those operating on the Internet and mail/telephone orders
As a global ATM card, you’ll enjoy access to over 800,000 VISA / PLUS ATMs worldwide and access to the local ATM and NETS networks

Quite a difference eh?

So it seems that the VISA Electron card isn’t really as good as having a regular credit card. It’s a sort of lower end debit card I guess. But I think I applied for it because I wasn’t yet a Permanent Resident and hence not eligible for the VISA R Classic card. Anyway, my VISA Electron has been giving me some trouble as it can’t be used for some online purchases and it was also rejected by Hollywood Clicks, a local online DVD rental service. However,
I think the VISA R Classic card should work ok since its worldwide recognition is on par with that of the regular UOB VISA Gold Classic Credit card:

Worldwide Recognition
At more more than 29 million establishments around the world
At more than 780,000 VISA global ATMs and 21,000 participating financial institutions

Ok, so there’s a sort of catch though. The UOB Visa R Classic Card has an annual card membership fee of S$24. I suppose you can say it isn’t much, about S$2 a month or about four Burger King meals. But now that I’ve learnt of the UOB SP Alumni VISA Gold Debit Card, some extra options have opened up. The SP Alumni card actually is quite tempting because of the perpetual fee waiver and also that it helps needy students through the SP Endowment Fund. The more you charge to the card, the more UOB will contribute to the fund.

Now the only thing left to find out is how the card looks like.

Technorati Tags: SP Alumni | Singapore Polytechnic | UOB SP Alumni VISA Gold Debit Card

Posted in: Check this out

Tags: consumerism, singapore polytechnic, visa

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005 at 10:07:28 pm and is filed under Check this out. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.