There are many credit card variants available from banks and financial companies in the UAE. Every bank / NBFC will have multiple types of credit cards to have offering covering the entire target segment customers.
But when it comes to choosing a credit card for you, following are the key factors to consider:
Understand clearly what you want to use the credit card for. This is the first step before deciding to go for any kind of card.
First of all, you need to identify your main reason for getting a credit card. You might be looking for a credit card for general spending, looking for a low interest rate charges, or looking for a cash back on all or some spend categories and so on. It is prudent to look for various available options in credit cards in the market and choose the best card which suits your lifestyle needs.
Interest rate charges
This is one of the important factors if you are looking for a credit card where you want to carry forward the balances and pay only minimum dues. With the current market circumstances most of the people are directly or indirectly impacted with the COVID 19. For people who is directly impacted with pay cut or job loss this is an important element to keep the balances in a card which charges minimum interest rate.
Annual fees and charges
There are broadly 3 types of credit cards are available in the UAE.
Free for live credit card – as the name debits these credit cards are free for basic usage. You may decide the card basis the stand-alone product feature like cash back, air miles, rewards program etc.,
Paid / Fee credit cards – you will have to pay fee to avail off this credit card ranging from AED 100 to AED 1000 or even more for some cards. Normally most of the credit card provider will give some kind of welcome reward for the fee cards.
Fee card with waivers / discounts on charges – Some banks / NBFCs waive of the credit card charges for the first year, in this case they will communicate first year fee. There are other types of paid cards where you will pay first year free and from second year onwards you can demand for waiver by calling contact center and they may extend waiver as well.
Rewards program / Loyalty points:
This is one of the common types of credit card in the market. By using this card, you can accumulate the reward point which can be used to purchase a product or book flight from the partnered Arline company.
Qualifying requirements
As per the UAE central bank guideline any customer who want a credit card to have a minimum monthly income requirement of AED 5000/- and salary should be credited in a bank account or exchange house.
Your total monthly credit repayment obligation (including 5%* of the new credit card limit) should not exceed 50% of your monthly salary.
Over and above the same each bank / nbfc will have their own guideline/ policy to extend credit card facility like job stability vintage, behavior in existing card / loan payment, credit bureau score, cheque repayment behavior, your current employer listing in the bank / nbfc, and so on.
There are various means to apply for a credit card. You may call the respective bank contact center if you have decided to purchase a bank/nbfcs credit card variant. In most cases the respective companies’ direst sales / tele sales staffs also will approach you to avail off the credit card. You can also compare the various offerings from the market in online platforms like www.bankbychoice.com and check your personalized eligibility estimate and apply online for the credit card.
