Saturday, April 12, 2008

Benefits of EZ-Link with UOB One card

EZ-Link was introduced in the year 2002 to replace the old magnetic farecard system for paying of bus and mrt fares. And to date, there are many uses for this card than just paying for transportation fares. As far as I know, it can also be used to pay for MacDonald purchases and earn points at the same time. But if you go to EZ-Link official website, you can see a whole list of places or merchants that actually accept payment by EZ-Link. The list is as follows:

Food & Beverage
F&N Coca Cola Vending Machines
McDonald's Restaurants
Chills Café
Woko Pte Ltd
Ananda Bhavan Restaurant
Shangri-la Hotel (Staff Canteen)

Gaming
Singapore Pools Branches

Government Services
Immigrant & Checkpoints Authority
National Library Board
Singapore Land Authority (Temasek Tower Office only)

Health
Tan Tock Seng Hospital Pharmacy
Health Sciences Authority

Shopping, Retail & Leisure
Chinese Swimming Club
More Than Words Pte Ltd

Tertiary Institutions
National University of Singapore (Central Lib, Science Lib, CJ Koh Law Lib, Hon Sui Sen Lib)
Singapore Polytechnic (Service Kiosk)
MDIS
British Council
Campus Supplies Pte Ltd
Ang Mo Kio Sec Sch
Bedok North Sec Sch
Chung Cheng High (Main)
Raffles Girls School
PLMGS (Canteen and Bookshop)
City Harvest Sch
Jurong Junior College
Nanyang Junior College
Pioneer Junior College
Institute of Technical Education (Simei)
NTU (Broadway canteen, Mcd, 7 Eleven, Sakae Sushi, subway, Old Chang Kee)
Republic Polytechnic

Private Bus Services
Metro Tours Singapore
Transit Network Consortium Ltd
Ming Yu Jiang Express Pte Ltd

Others
WYWY Office Solutions Pte Ltd
Expresspoint Business Services

Top-up services and ez-link payments are available at the following merchants:
7 Eleven
MDIS
PLMGS (Pacific Bookstores Pte Ltd)
Republic Polytechnic (Booklink)

Now if you are a person who as much as possible tries to make every payment using a credit card, you may find the above places or merchants useful to take note of. As you know the above places or merchants do not accept a credit card but if your EZ-Link is enabled for auto credit card top-up, that means when you make payment using EZ-Link you are indirectly using credits from your credit card. Isn't that wonderful?

Since there is a convenience fee of $0.25 for every top-up, it is advisable that your EZ-Link is linked to a credit card that offers high rebate like UOB One card (max 3.3%). Take for example, if you use UOB One card, choose the maximum $50 per auto top-up and assuming you make $300 worth of payments by EZ-Link every month, in total you incur six times of convenience fees amounting to $1.50. However from that spending you can potentially stand to earn rebates of $10 and your effective rebates will be $8.50 per month or 2.83% which is still very attractive.

This arrangement is especially useful if you want to make up for any shortfalls in order to meet the minimum spending of $300 or $800 for each month using UOB One card. For example, if your One card spending falls below the minimum amount, you can buy some groceries from 7 Eleven to cover the shortfalls.

Credits to Verbatin for highlighting to me the extra use of an EZ-Link.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh ya, that what i did.

last week i calculated that i am not going to hit the $800 per mth spending (as it take a few days for merchants to post the auto-top up to my UOB one card before the statement date on 15th), i decided to go to S'pore pools to use my EZ link card to "accerelate" the draw down my EZ link card value so that the auto-top can can be done sooner before the posting cross my UOB statements date.

for the record, i didnt win the 4D - just take it as a donation:p

Anonymous said...

Mike,

do you know if the top at the following has to use cash or can we use UOB credit card to top up?

7 Eleven
MDIS
PLMGS (Pacific Bookstores Pte Ltd)
Republic Polytechnic (Booklink)

Mike Dirnt said...

Verbatin i dont understand what you mean the top up? if your ezlink is linked, it will auto top up right? this morning i tried paying for newspaper using ezlink. just to test.

so i believe your sg pools is <$50? yeah if you always buy sg pools, why not just use ezlink for next bet. :)

Mike Dirnt said...

i mean i go 7 eleven to use ezlink for the newspaper.

Anonymous said...

Mike,

haha. it had cross my mind that u would be confused when u read my reply.

ok let me explain again.

my UOB statement date is from 16 Mar to 15 Apr 2008.

last week (around 7-8 Apr 2008), i only manage to spend abt $760 for my UOB one card.

1 more week to go for me to hit the $800. my ZE link still have $30left. i reckon my transportation expenses for 1 whole week is abt $20+ and I will not be able to finish it to enable a auto-top up to take place. if i do manage to use up the $30 value, it will take 2-3 day for the merchant to post the transaction to my statement. the timing difference would hv meant that i might not hit the $800

I also lazy to go down SP service to pay my utilities bill (it's on the way when i go to work but just feel lazy), i decided to head down to S'pore pools to try my luck at 4D to draw down my ZE link card value. I also went Macdonald to spend on breakfast.

Hence i was able to draw down my EZ link card to <$10. with that i am able to finish the $10 to enable the auto-top up to be executed before before my statement date.

Anonymous said...

Mike

I seldom buy 4D. that day juz use use it so that i can hit my target.

Anonymous said...

Mike

No need to thank me.

i shd thank you since u r the one who inform me that i can auto-top up my ZE link using UOB one card. i was not aware of that.

from then on, i begin to explore the various ways to make use of my EZ link more often.

In the mths ahead, there will be more competition between EZ link and Nets Cash card. I hope competition will benefit consumers by having more retails outlet accepting EZ link and Cash card. That will mean more savings for us.

Mike Dirnt said...

Verbatin im not confused. So you managed to reach your $800 goal right?

its been a long time i last went to sg pools. maybe i will pay a visit when euro 2008 starts. haha

i know the ezlink has been around for quite some time. its only that we dont utilise it until the visa top up and uob one card came. then its useful!

Anonymous said...

Yes i managed to hit my $800.

i watch EURO 2008 but i only bet a bit for fun.

during WC 2002 and 2006, i took half a day leave just to watch those matches.

Anonymous said...

guys, did it worked?
this read the condition from ezlink website:-
Please note that currently all ez-link cards approved and activated for the Auto credit card top-up facility can ONLY be used for payment of transportation fares....
http://ezlink.com.sg/autoTopUp.htm

Mike Dirnt said...

durio yes it does work. i have tried. so just use it.

verbatin i try not to miss big events like Euro and World Cup!

Anonymous said...

does it work for the citibank SMRT card?

any idea?

Mike Dirnt said...

no it does not.

Anonymous said...

hi mike, am i right to say that 1 ez-link card can only be linked to max 1 credit card and not more?

Mike Dirnt said...

hi ngee,

yes ezlink can link to 1 credit only. but if its linked, you can still top up from ezonline stations at the mrt through another credit card

Anonymous said...

hi mike, thks for the quick reply!

Anonymous said...

Hi Mike, does it mean i can use my Citibank Div to top up my ezlink card too?

Mike Dirnt said...

yes you can top up from any credit card actually. but take note the card reader cannot be used for the new ezlink

Zzz said...

Hi, Mike,

does top up from ezonline stations at the mrt through credit card incur any convenience charge? Thanks.