So you want a credit card? In the UAE, you’re spoiled for choice – we count over 200 of them from dozens of suppliers. There’s a lot of competition to get one or more of them into your wallet. So what’s on offer?
Provided you have a salary from an approved company, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a credit card supplier. Even if you’re self-employed, or if the bank doesn’t recognise your employer, there are usually ways around the drawbacks – often involving a small returnable deposit.
Indeed, picking your way through the options is likely to be the main problem. So how do you choose one card over another?
The cost of the card is likely to be less of an issue than in other countries, because the major cost element – the interest rate – will be uniformly pretty high.
But you will find differences in sign-up fees and annual charges. Some cards have both; some have neither. A ‘free for life’ card usually does mean free for life, but you’ll probably miss out on the level of rewards and loyalty points that a paid-for card will have.
And even the most basic cards do usually come with a selection of attractive extras (see box). These tend to be discounts at specific merchants or loyalty points that can be redeemed at the merchant or sometimes exchanged for cash. Straight cashback deals (which give you money back based on your total monthly spend) aren’t common in the UAE yet.
The rewards can be significant, and the savings can reduce the impact of the high interest rate. Loyalty points can mount up, particularly if they can be cashed in to pay for essentials such as utility bills. Air miles and lounge access can be useful, especially if you can top up your existing frequent flyer programme.
Free roadside assistance and travel insurance are common offers, and valet parking at malls can be useful. Discounts on shopping, entertainment and other expenses may also be attractive – especially if they mean you can try or buy something that otherwise would be out of your reach!
Extras and rewards to look out for
Supplementary cards at no charge
Air miles
Access to airport lounges around the world
Complimentary golf fees
Hotel discounts or upgrades
Special rates on holiday bookings
Discounted or free airport transfers
Meet and greet services at airports
Travel accident insurance
Purchase protection
Balance transfers from other banks at no charge or low rates
Loyalty points
Cashback deals
Special discount offers
Payment protection insurance
Utility bill payment options
Valet parking at malls
Zero interest payment plans for specific purchases
Best for … Rewards
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) has one of the broader ranges of credit cards in the UAE. They include the Excellency Visa Infinite card available only to the bank’s most valued Excellency customers; a selection of co-branded Lulu cards with value-packed rewards for shoppers at the well-known stores; and a good selection of Sharia’a compatible interest-free Islamic credit cards.
What impresses across the whole range though is the amount of effort that ADCB’s team has put into providing rewards for customers. We counted over 180 deals; most are available all the time, though ADCB cardholders are used to keeping an eye out for the limited monthly specials.
The rewards on offer include interest-free instalment payment plans for gym memberships, flights, holiday packages, hi-fi purchases and more; discounts at stores and (especially) restaurants of up to 25 per cent; and special rates or upgrades at hotels. The offers cover just about every dining option in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, for instance, but you’ll also find useful names for everyday purchases like Carrefour and Ace Hardware on the list.
We also like the zero per cent payment plan for school fees – spread the cost of education over 12 months by using your ADCB card.
On top of that, there’s ADCB’s well-established and award-winning TouchPoints programme. This earns at least 0.5 points for every dirham of retail purchase using one of ADCB’s cards, and up to 1.5 point per dirham on the premium cards. Customers also earn points on savings, investments, borrowing, online banking, bill-pay and many other interactions with ADCB. You can then use your TouchPoints at dozens of merchants – and you can even use them to pay utility and phone bills!
For more information visit: www.adcb.com or call 800 2030
Best for … Environmental awareness
First Gulf Bank (FGB) has a wide range of credit cards, and among them are some pretty special picks. For committed sports fans there are co-branded Ferrari and Manchester City Football Club cards, and for local residents, FGB’s Abu Dhabi Credit Card features regular draws with prizes that top AED 6 million each year as well as a bundle of extras and rewards.
If you are looking to give that little extra back to the environment, though, FGB has something rather special – the UAE’s first eco-friendly credit card, launched at last year’s World Future Energy Summit.
The Masdar card comes with a good range of extras, like discounts on golf green fees, free valet parking at UAE malls and Dubai International Airport, global airport lounge access, and fast track entry to Yas Waterworld and Ferrari World.
But it also allows you to show your support for environmentally sustainable initiatives.
The card itself is biodegradable, and for every AED 100 of purchases made with the card, FGB will contribute up to 0.6 per cent of the transaction value towards the First Gulf Bank Masdar Fund, which supports environmental and sustainable projects.
There’s also the First Green Rewards loyalty programme – for every dirham spent you get up to 1.5 First Green points to redeem against a variety of eco-friendly products and services.
At the card’s launch, FGB chief executive Andre Sayegh said: “We are inspired by the great vision of our leaders to offer socially conscious products and initiatives that meet genuine needs of the environment”.
For more information visit: www.myfgbcard.com or call 600 525500
Best for …. Frequent travellers
More than 30 credit cards here offer some kind of air miles programme. In some cases it’s the original Air Miles or an alternative such as Citi Miles or Skyy Miles; these can be used for purchases, including flights and sometimes upgrades, but there are often restrictions.
The most useful alternatives are tied directly into an airline’s frequent flier programme, the obvious candidates being Emirates’ Skywards and Etihad Guest. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has partnered with Etihad for a selection of co-branded Visa credit cards with a great profile; they earn 1.5 to 2.5 Etihad Guest Miles for every AED 4 spent using the card (depending on which card you go for). That’s the highest number of miles earned on an airline loyalty card in the Middle East. There’s a sign-up bonus of between 10,000 and 50,000 Guest Miles, and you also get fast-tracked through the Etihad Guest membership tiers.
With the ADIB Etihad Guest Visa Gold and Platinum cards you get additional benefits, including Priority Pass lounge access around the world (and with the Platinum card, four of those lounge visits are free each year) plus unlimited use of the Abu Dhabi International Airport and Dubai International Airport business lounges.
For more information visit: www.cards.adib.ae or call 800 2288
Best for … Flexibility
When Reem Finance (RF) was set up in 2008, the company emphasised that it was going to provide a simple and creative alternative to the established banks. That’s certainly been the case with its mortgages and other financing products; and the RF credit cards also offer something rather different.
Every dirham spent earns one Reem Point, which can be redeemed for products or services – or, unusually, for cash.
Other benefits include discounts on travel, dining, entertainment, wellness and lifestyle; 24/7 roadside assistance; purchase and fraud protection; a Credit Shield to cover loss of employment or death; and complimentary airport lounge access around the Middle East.
For added security Reem Finance cards have the chip-and-PIN technology.
It’s the unusual extras on the financial side that mark out the Reem Finance cards, though. They’re free for life, for a start, and so are supplementary cards. You can draw up to 50 per cent of your card limit in cash if you need to – a far more generous deal than some. Interest rates are competitive – RF believes they are the lowest in the market.
Reem Finance also claims the best Easy Payment plans around, with instalment schemes from three to 24 months at a flat monthly rate of 0.69 percent. Foreign currency transaction fees (currently 2.85 percent) also look competitive.
For more information visit: www.rfcreditcard.squarespace.com or call 800 7336
Handle with care
For some of the larger deals offered by a card’s reward scheme, it’s worth checking on the real value on offer.
A 25 per cent saving on a hotel stay will apply to the rack rate, the price before any discounts are applied; you can probably book a room independently for less than that.
Similarly, one air mile for every dirham spent doesn’t necessarily take you the same distance on every airline – different loyalty programmes often require different numbers of air miles for the same trip, and the cash-in value of generic air miles is often less than the airline’s own frequent flyer points equivalent.
Managing your card
The most attractive of the perks are probably those that ease the agony of payment. We like interest-free credit periods on purchases, generally offered at between 50 and 56 days. This means no interest will be charged on new purchases made with the card during the period, letting you buy now and repay later without penalty.
Look for the longest interest-free period available to gain maximum benefit.
In practice though it all depends on how close the date of your purchase is to the date of the card statement. If your bank generates statements on the 28th of the month, you’ll have the full interest-free payment period if you used the card to buy something on the 29th. But if you use the card on the 27th, the purchase is regarded as falling within the previous interest-free period and you might get only 20 or so days before interest is charged.
And, of course, the full interest becomes due as soon as the interest-free period is over, so it makes sense to try to pay off the value of your purchases before that happens.
More usefully, many credit cards offer a ‘purchase protection’ system, meaning if you buy goods on the card and it is lost or stolen within a set time – usually around 90 days – you can get the money back from the credit card company.
Dennis Jarrett