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5 Best Credit Cards in UAE With Cinema Offers

Posted on May 24, 2022May 24, 2022 by admin

Even though the advancement of technologies has enabled several options for watching movies on demand, watching a movie in a cinema hall with friends or family is a wonderful experience on its own. Experiences like watching a movie on the big screen cannot be compared to watching a movie on a computer, laptop, electronic tablet, or smartphone.

It is fascinating watching visual storytelling come to life on screen. The surround-sound system, as well as the refreshments, offer a unique experience while watching a movie in a cinema hall.

The UAE offers an unparalleled cinematic experience that is unique and enjoyable, which is every movie lover’s dream. Movie theatres in the UAE give you an immersive experience and are a luxury which most people may not be able to afford on a regular basis. You can solve this dilemma by using a credit card with offers and promotions on movie tickets at cinemas in the UAE. Cinemas in the UAE have partnered with credit card companies and banks to give movie buffs the optimal choice to spend on movies. You can now watch the latest movies at the cinema and have a fulfilling experience with your friends and family and save as well.

Credit Cards with Cinema Offers

Most of the credit cards are offering buy one and get one free on purchasing movie tickets.

Listed below are the 5 best credit cards that offer you the best cinema discounts.

MANHATTAN PLATINUM CARD – STANDARD CHARTERED

Cinema offers:

– Customers can avail 4 tickets Customers can avail 4 tickets during weekdays in a month through “Buy 1 get 1” on Standard tickets at VOX. This comes along with 20% off on select meals on all days. In addition to this, customers can also avail 20% off on weekdays at Roxy Cinemas.

Minimum Salary – AED 8,000
Rate – 3.45%
Annual Fee – AED 525
Key features
- Golf offers
- Cinema Tickets
- Dining Offers
- Balance Transfer
- Purchase Protection
- Extended Warranty
Top reasons to choose
- First year free second year onwards AED 525
- Buy 1 Get 1 Free on 2D and 3D movie tickets at all VOX
- Discounts of up to 20% at over 200 airport restaurants
- Amazon gift card worth AED 500 as joining offer

CASHBACK CREDIT CARD – HSBC

Cinema offers:
- Customers can avail 10 complimentary tickets at VOX on Sundays. 20% off at Roxy valid on weekends. No minimum spends required.
Minimum Salary – AED 10,000
Rate – 3.45%
Annual Fee – AED 313
Key features
- Golf offers
- Cinema Tickets
- Dining Offers
- Balance Transfer
- Purchase Protection
- Extended Warranty
Top reasons to choose
- Get AED 300 cashback when you apply today
- No annual fee for the 1st year
- ‘Buy 1 Get 1 Free’ tickets at Vox Cinemas
- Up to 10% cashback on your spend
- 1000s of discounts and benefits with HSBC ENTERTAINER app

VISA PLATINUM CREDIT CARD – EMIRATES NBD

Cinema offers:
- Customers can avail 10 complimentary tickets through Vox Buy1 Get 1 at Standard Cinema. In addition to this 20% off on weekdays at Ultra Premium, Platinum Plus, Luxury Gold Plus and Classic Silver Plus at Roxy. This offer is applicable only until Sept 2020 and not available on public holidays. There is no minimum spend requirement on this card for this offer.
Minimum Salary – AED 12,000
Rate – 3.35%
Annual Fee – AED 0
Key features
- Golf offers
- Valet Parking
- Cinema Tickets
- Dining Offers
- Health & Fitness
- Balance Transfer
- Car Registration
- Airport Lounge Access
- Airport Chauffeur Services
- Purchase Protection
- Extended Warranty
- Air Miles
Top reasons to choose
- Earn rewards on all domestic & international spends
- Comprehensive lifestyle offers
- Discounts on flights and holiday packages
- Flexible payment options
- Lifetime free card along with a AED 300 Noon.com Voucher

VALUE CARD – ADIB

Cinema offers:
- 50% off on movie tickets with Visa. Book online at VOX cinemas every Sunday. Offer valid on a maximum of 10 free tickets per month for each card holder. A maximum of 4 (four) tickets may be purchased by any Visa Platinum cardholder per session. the offer is available for 2D and 3D standard, Premium View, MAX, KIDS, 4DX sessions and standard area seats at City 101.6 MAX at City Centre Deira and standard area seats at IMAX.
Minimum Salary – AED 8,000
Rate – 3.09%
Annual Fee – AED 0
Key features
- Golf offers
- Cinema Tickets
- Dining Offers
- Balance Transfer
- Purchase Protection
- Extended Warranty
Top reasons to choose
- Free for life
- Dining discounts in UAE

MY RAS AL KHAIMAH PLATINUM CREDIT CARD – RAKBANK

Cinema offers:
- Customers can avail 10 tickets at VOX on Buy1 Get 1 on Sundays and 20% off at Roxy on weekdays and not on public holidays, this Roxy offer is applicable only till the 30th of Sept 2020. There is no minimum spend requirement to avail this offer.
Minimum Salary – AED 8,000
Rate – 3.45%
Annual Fee – AED 0
Key features
- Cinema Tickets
- Dining Offers
- Balance Transfer
- Car Registration
- Airport Lounge Access
- Travel Insurance
- Airport Chauffeur Services
- Purchase Contactless Tech
- Roadside Assistance

Top reasons to choose
- Protection
- Earn up to 3.75 RAK rewards per AED of spend
- Chance to win 500,000 RAK rewards every 3 months
- Earn RAK rewards on all spends
- Free for life
- Cardless cash withdrawals

Top banks that provide credit cards with cinema offers in the UAE

Eligibility criteria to apply for credit cards with cinema offers in the UAE

You need to meet the following requirements to be eligible for credit cards with cinema offers in the UAE

You should belong to the age group of 21 and 65
You should be a salaried individual
You should have a minimum monthly salary as required by the bank
You should have the minimum deposit in your account as required by the bank

Documents needed for applying for a credit card with cinema offers

You need to provide the banks with the following documents when you apply for credit cards with cinema offers in the UAE

Application form by the bank
A valid Emirates ID
Original Passport
Applicants from non GCC countries must present a valid resident visa
Security check signed by the applicant

Where to apply?

You can apply for a credit card with cinema offers via any of the following methods:

Online – from the bank’s official website or via the digital banking app provided by the bank
Offline – from the bank’s physical brank office nearest to you
Via phone – from the bank’s phone banking feature, where you can connect with the bank via a phone call

Digital Banking In UAE

Posted on May 20, 2022May 20, 2022 by admin

Digitization is defined as the conversion of data into a digital format with the implementation of technology. The world has become more and more digital in every. Banking is one of the first sectors to witness the impact of digitalization. Many transactions have been taken over by machine learning to not only have a more efficient transaction but also in detecting fraud and keeping banks and its customers data safe.

In the last two decades, the advancement in technology and the era of smartphones have unleashed new forms of banking solutions on mobile apps. The stiff competition from other financial technology providers made it imperative for traditional banks to quickly adapt to the changing times and transform digitally.

Thanks to the era of digital banking, many customers haven’t set foot inside a bank branch. During the turbulent time of the pandemic, digitalization has opened many new doors for both the banking sector as well as the customers. Customers are able to access everyday banking functions via a mobile app or over the internet on their personal computers and mobile phones. Many businesses went cashless during the pandemic as well, thus encouraging more cashless transactions at a wide swath of stores from grocery shops to high-end brands.

What is digital banking?

In simple terms, digital banking refers to banking services carried out through an online digital platform without involving any paperwork. This includes combining online banking services and mobile banking services under one umbrella.

Online Banking:

Online banking is having access to all bank features and services via the bank’s website from your computer. You can log into your account to view your balance and make payments like rent or electricity bills. You can also access additional banking features such as applying for credit cards or loans at many banks via your online banking portal. With online banking, you do not need to physically go to the bank and can access many of your financial services on your personal computer from the comfort of your home.

Mobile banking:

Mobile banking is using the mobile banking app of your bank on your mobile device and having access to the features and services on your mobile device such as a smartphone or a tablet. The apps are proprietarily issued by your bank, and you can log into your account on your online banking portal. Mobile banking was designed for people on the go who would like to have access to their banking services even when they do not have access to a computer. Banking apps have features such as mobile check deposits, bill payments, and fund transfers and convenient features like peer-to-peer payments. Banks also use mobile apps to send notification alerts such as deposit received or low balance or fraud detection.

Online banking and mobile banking together create the digital banking umbrella, giving customers access to banking services wherever they may be. Or in some cases wherever the customers are graced with a secure and strong Wi-Fi signal.

Who offers Digital Banking?

Digital Banking in the UAE is different from the traditional form of banking. Digital banking as implied can be availed online without having to physically visit the bank, however, digital banking offers even more features and services online. Services like opening an online account, deposits, fund transfers, online payments, tackling insurances, paying loans and much more services are offered without the necessity to visit the bank in person.

Digital banking in the UAE is offered through two primary sources:

Brick-and -Mortar banks
Digital online only banks

Customers may choose a mode of banking that caters to their needs best.

The difference between Digital Banking and Online Banking

Even though they sound similar, online banking and digital banking are not the same. Both of them are forms of banking as online banking falls under the category of digital banking. Online banking is defined a bit more narrowly than digital banking.

With online banking, a customer can avail of some of the banking services like bill payments, fund transfers, access to account statements and account summary online on the bank portal accessed by a computer or on the mobile app of the bank without having to visit the bank. For services like opening a bank account or applying for banking services, the customer would have to visit their bank branch.

In digital banking, the customer does not need to visit the bank for any services, including opening a new account and applying for bank services. Customers can also avail of other services like making payments, transferring funds, and several other services. The customer can avail of these banking services from anywhere and at any time using the bank website or the bank mobile app. The process of banking is completely automated and paperless.

Digital Product Services

With access to a stable internet connection and an internet enabled smart device, digital banking has a lot to offer:

Obtain bank statements:

- View and download your bank statements for any specific period

Transfer of funds:

- UAEFTS hosted by central bank provides Real Time Gross Settlements RTGS, , the need to issue cheques and DDs have been eradicated

Mobile banking:

- Mobile banking is digital banking through an application optimized for smartphones and tablets.

Cash withdrawals:

- ATMs facilitate cash withdrawals at any point in time.

Bill payments:

- The auto-debit feature for bill payment lets a user setup monthly debit in favour of regular utility payment

Finance:

- Invest, open fixed deposit accounts and raise loans through digital banking. Link your De-mat account to provide a seamless flow of funds to invest promptly.

Manage cheques:

- Intervene in the cheque clearing process using digital banking to stop the cheque if the need arises

Monitor transaction records:

- Receive alerts and notifications to the linked mobile number or email address. The notification arrives as soon as the transaction is executed. Digital banking also lets you monitor account balances or outstanding at the click of a button.

Types of digital banks

The following are some of the main types of digital banks:

Neobank

- They are digital banks operating online without any physical presence and provide remote access to their services via a mobile app. Many do not hold a bank license and partner with an existing bank for bank licensed operations.

Challenger bank

- Refers to a recently launched bank that challenges the traditional banking institutions. Being more user friendly and cost effective, challenger banks focus on the audience segments that are underserved by the big financial institutions.

New bank

- They are fully licensed neobanks that provide a full range of banking services and the only difference from brick and mortar banks is the mode of operation, which is completely online.

Nonbank

- They are non banking institutions that provide financial services like streamlined loans or mortgages but they do not simultaneously accept deposits or offer checking and savings accounts.

Advantages of Digital banking

With the number of services provided and the client as well as bank convenience factor taken into consideration, many advantages are offered to both the banks as well as the clients.

Some of these advantages are:

Increased customers
Enhanced efficiency
User friendly experience
Data driven decisions
Cost efficiency
Improved usability
Greater personalization
Client and bank convenience
Anytime anywhere availability of access
Automatic payment features
Services to remote areas
Reducing the risk of counterfeit currency
Strengthens privacy
Time saving

Digital banking tips

Even though digital banking is safe and secure, it is always advisable to remain cautious with one’s private information

Do not write down your login details with credentials and password anywhere
Do not share your credentials with anyone including banking officials
Do not tell your banking card pin to anyone
If your card is lost, report it on the bank website and immediately block it
Call your bank and ask for clarification if you have any doubts about payment or pin requests received.

Digital transformation in the banking sector of the UAE

With the advancement seen in technology, innovation, and futuristic outlook, UAE is at the forefront of the digitalization of the banking industry. The digitalisation of the banking sector, in general, can be traced back to the 1960s when ATMs and payment cards were introduced to the people. With the popularity of the internet in 1980, banks began offering internet-based services to their customers to make transactions quicker and easier.

Keeping pace with global developments in the digitalisation of banking, the banks in UAE are quickly adapting to digital only solutions and joining the digital banking fray. The banks in UAE realised the opportunity and challenges in the financial technology revolution and began changing to fit the need and demands of the market. In the second half of the previous decade, a number of banks launched digital banking initiatives. These initiatives include a separate digital only banking platform, strengthening the existing mobile banking platforms, refocusing services on digital platforms as compared to services in branches and catering to customers’ lifestyles and the younger generation.

The top leading banks in the UAE such as Emirates NBD, Mashreq, and Commercial Bank of Dubai were the first to commit large resources to the digital transformation of the banking system in the UAE. Emirates NBD’s Liv., Mashreq’s Neo and CBD’s CBD.Now are all digital banking propositions focused on branchless delivery of banking services to their customers through mobile banking technology.

Top Digital Banks in the UAE

The UAE has always kept pace with the global trends in financial technologies. Currently, UAE is home to a number of digital banks and the number keeps increasing. From personal banking to banking optimised for businesses and youth there are a number of options available in the UAE.

EMIRATES NBD LIV

Launched in 2017 by Emirates NBD, the bank is geared toward the youth in the UAE. After digitally enrolling with Liv, customers can do banking via Liv’s Apple or Android app.

EMIRATES NBD E20

Due to the popularity of Liv, Emirates NBD launched another digital banking platform in 2019 called the E20 to cater for digital business banking.

MASHREQ NEO

Launched in 2017 by Mashreq Bank, Neo offers a wide range of services via a mobile banking app to suit modern banking needs. Named as Middle East’s best mobile banking app in 2020 by World Finance, you can also invest in gold, forex, and stocks from the same digital app.

Yap is the digital banking app of RakBank that is completely paperless. With the latest security and technological features, YAP users can bank safely from anywhere. You can also track your financial decisions along with the YAP app’s financial analytic tools.

ADIB SMARTBANKING

Created by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), SmartBanking offers its users many benefits. Get your card delivered to your doorstep and have access to savings account across the Middle East and free ATM withdrawals at ADIB ATMs across the UAE.

ADIB AMWALI

Created by the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), Amwali is a digital only bank created to cater to the UAE’s youth. Children can learn financial management lessons on the app and track their savings and spending from the money sent by their parents. The advance parental control abilities allow parents to track the child’s account and set limits for them.

Digital banking services have seen a rapid surge in customer acceptance across the UAE. The younger generation was quicker to accept digital platforms and digital servicing, while the older generation was cautious at first, although now are fast adapting to the gaining digital banking traction.

Islamic Finance & Banking

Posted on March 30, 2022 by admin

What is Islamic Finance?

Islamic finance simply put is a method of conducting financial transactions, banking, and managing money with moral principles that respect Islamic law or Sharia. Islamic finance includes activities like saving, investing, and borrowing money either for business or personal transactions that are permissible under Sharia and that comply with Islamic Laws. The concept of Islamic finance also refers to the type of investments that are permissible under Sharia.

Sharia or Islamic Law constitutes a broad set of rules that guide an individual on leading an ethical life. These rules and guidelines are derived from the Qur’an and the sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad. The word Sharia in Arabic means “the way,” thus showing an individual the ideal way to live. In the context of Islamic finance, the rules and guidelines place an emphasises on justice and partnership. Hence, you may hear Islamic financial services often described as “Islamic finance” or “Shari’ah-compliant”.

Principle of Islamic Banking

The Islamic law or Sharia recognises money only as a medium of exchange which has no value in itself. Therefore, as per Sharia law money cannot generate more money. The Islamic law prohibits the income earned through the medium of interest generated. This interest can be defined as interest generated through lending money, or interest earned by money simply sitting in an account.

Islamic finance is principally based on trading with emphasises on justice and partnership. The use of money for the purposes of making money is explicitly forbidden.

The main principles of Islamic finance are:

Wealth must be generated from lawful trade and asset-based investment
Each transaction must be related to a real underlying economic transaction.
Investment should have a social as well as an ethical benefit to wider society beyond pure return
Profit/Loss and Risks should be shared
All harmful activities (haram) should be avoided

Therefore, banks can make a profit from the buying and selling of Shari’ah-compliant goods and services. When a customer deposits money according to Islamic law, the bank needs to select a Shari’ah-compliant investment for the purpose of that deposit. The profits and risks that come with the investment are shared equally with the bank. The practices of Islamic banking have some clear ethical advantages over more traditional banking systems, which can be seen as unprincipled.

Things Prohibited in Islamic Finance

In order to comply with the Shari’ah, certain activities are prohibited in Islamic finance.

The following activities are strictly prohibited in Islamic finance:

Charging and receiving interest (riba):

A lender charging a straight interest, irrespective of how the underlying assets fare disobeys the concept of risk sharing, partnership, and justice. Thus, representing money being used to make more money. Investment in companies that conduct borrowing excessively is also prohibited.

Investments in unethical businesses (haram):

Investing in businesses that deal with activities like alcohol, gambling, drugs, pork, pornography, or anything else that Shariah considers unlawful or undesirable is prohibited.

Investments in transactions that involve speculation, uncertainty, or extreme risk (gharar):

This type of investment is considered gambling, which is prohibited (haram). For example, investing or speculating on the futures and options markets is prohibited. Mutual insurance (which relates to uncertainty) is permitted if it is related to a reasonable and unavoidable business risk.

Uncertainty about the subject matter and terms of contracts:

Selling something that one does not own is prohibited. Investing in special financial techniques that is available for contracting to manufacture a product for a customer is considered as investing in a product which one doesn’t own, as the product hasn’t been made yet. A manufacturer can promise to manufacture the product under certain agreed specifications at a determined price and on a fixed date and in this case, the risk taken is by a bank that would commission the manufacturer and sell the goods on to a customer at a reasonable profit for undertaking this risk. Thus, the bank is exposed to considerable risk. Avoiding contractual risk in this way means that transactions have to be explicitly defined from the outset. Hence, complex derivative instruments and conventional short sales or sales on margin are prohibited under Islamic finance.

Things Permitted in Islamic Finance

As mentioned above, the receipt of interest is not prohibited in Islamic finance. Hence, when Islamic banks provide finance, they have to find other means to earn their profits. This can be done through the profit share relating to the assets in which the finance is invested or can be via the fee that is earned by the bank for the service provided. The essential feature of Islamic law is that when commercial loans are made, the lender must have a share in the risk. If this is not so, then any amount received over the principal of the loan will be regarded as interest.

The following activities are permissible financing instruments in Islamic finance:

Profit and Loss Sharing Contracts (Mudarabah):

The Islamic bank pools together investors’ money and accepts a share of the profits and losses, as agreed upon with the depositors beforehand. The bank invests in a group of mutual funds screened for Sharia compliance. These investments are then filtered to determine whether any sources of income to the business are prohibited. Companies that hold a lot of debt or are engaged in forbidden lines of business are excluded. In addition to actively managed mutual funds, passive funds also exist. They are based on such indexes as the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index and the FTSE Global Islamic Index.

Declining Balance Shared Equity

Commonly used to finance a home purchase, declining balance shared equity calls for the bank and the investor to purchase the home jointly. The bank will then gradually transfer its equity in the house to the individual homeowner, whose payments comprise the homeowner’s equity.

Lease to Own

This arrangement is akin to the declining balance shared equity. The financial institution or bank puts up most of the money for the house and agrees to sell the house to the eventual homeowner at the end of a pre-decided fixed term. A portion of every payment goes toward the lease and the balance goes towards the home’s purchase price.

Instalment Sale (Murabaha)

An instalment sale starts with an intermediary buying the home with a free and clear title to it, which is then sold to a prospective buyer on an agreed upon sale price. This price includes some amount of profit. This purchase can be made either outright (lump sum) or through a series of deferred (instalment) payments. This credit sale should not be confused with an interest-bearing loan as it is an acceptable form of finance.

Leasing (Ijarah)

Leasing or Ijarah involves selling the right to use an object for a specific time. The condition followed must be that the lessor should own the leased object for the duration of the lease. A variation on the lease, ‘ijarah wa ‘iqtina, provides for a lease to be written where the lessor agrees to sell the leased object at the lease’s end at a predetermined residual value. This promise binds only the lessor and the lessee is not obligated to purchase the item.

Islamic Forwards (Salam and Istisna):

These are used for certain types of business and are not that common. The price for the item is paid in advance and the item is delivered at a definite point in the future. The help of an Islamic legal advisor is usually required as there is a host of conditions to be met to render such contracts valid.

Some permissible Basic Investment Vehicles are:

Equities

Sharia law allows investment in company shares (common stock) as long as those companies do not engage in any forbidden activities (haram). Investment in companies can be in form of shares or by direct investment (private equity).

Fixed-Income

Retirees who want their investments to comply with the principles of Islamic finance face a dilemma in that fixed-income investments include riba, which is forbidden. Hence, specific types of investment in real estate provide steady retirement income while not running afoul of Sharia law. These investments can be direct or securitized, such as a diversified real estate fund.

Basic Insurance Vehicles

As traditional insurance is not permitted as a means of risk management in Islamic law, a possible Sharia-compliant alternative is cooperative (mutual) insurance. Investors contribute to a pool of funds, which are invested in a Sharia-compliant manner. Funds are withdrawn from the pool to satisfy claims, and unclaimed profits are distributed amongst the policyholders.

Who makes the rules for Islamic Finance?

Islamic finance offers products and services that comply with Islamic law (Sharia) and often the question that comes up is of who decides what is and is not sharia-compliant? Also, what mechanisms are existing to enforce those judgments?

There are several options a bank can utilise to keep check of these rules

Sharia Supervisory Boards:

Generally, each Islamic finance institution has a sharia supervisory board (SSB). This board is composed of at least three jurists. These jurists although are paid by the bank, act as independent consultants and are involved in both consultative and regulatory aspects. They verify operations, answer the staff’s questions, advise on charity contributions (zakat), and certify products.
The Sharia Supervisory Boards decide what is allowed (halal) or forbidden (haram) based on the two main sources of Islamic law; the Quran and the Sunnah; or what Prophet Muhammad reportedly said and did during his lifetime. Board decisions are taken by a majority vote and are binding on the bank.
These SSB members are religious scholars who specialise in Islamic jurisprudence. It is not necessary for them to be Muslims only. In countries like the UK, there are also non-Muslims experts who have studied and specialised in this matter extensively.
Over the past decade, Islamic finance has rapidly expanded across the world and finding qualified people to sit on SSBs has become challenging. In the world of Islamic finance, reputation is important and sharia non-compliance can be extremely fatal to a bank.

Sharia-Compliance Consultancy: A Juicy Business

With the increasing popularity of Islamic finance, a number of private firms have emerged over the past few years offering sharia compliance services or consultancies. Their clients are not only Islamic banks but also conventional lenders and companies who wish to develop products or acquire certifications that will allow them to tap into the Islamic market.
These consulting firms employ a group of Islamic scholars who function like an externalised sharia board, providing guidance and issuing Islamic rulings (fatwas) in exchange for a fee.

International Standards and Central Banks

At the international level, two supervisory bodies are created for Islamic finance. They are the Bahrain-based Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and the Malaysian Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB).
These bodies collaborate with institutions such as the IMF or the World Bank to promote sharia compliance globally. The AAOIFI sets basic standards for the Islamic finance industry while the IFSB issues recommendations based on risk assessment.
In Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, AAOIFI standards are mandatory but, in most countries, their standards and recommendations are not binding. If a bank doesn’t comply, there are no sanctions. It is up to each independent country government to enforce certain rules through their central banks who impose those rules on sharia boards.
In all countries except for Sudan and Iran Islamic finance exists alongside conventional banking. For Islamic banks, this means navigating a dual regulatory framework. This means the country follows the country’s laws and regulations as well as sharia compliance.

Growth of Islamic Finance

The concept of Islamic finance can be traced back to about 1,400 years ago when the concept came into existence along with the foundation of Islam. However, the establishment of formal Islamic finance related to the banking sector came into being only in the 20^th century. In recent history, it can be traced to as recent as the 1970s, when Islamic banks in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were launched. The concept has since grown with Bahrain and Malaysia emerging as centres of excellence in the 1990s.

Shari’ah-compliant financing (SCF) or Islamic finance is recognised as one of the fastest-growing segments in the global financial system. Since 2009, the estimated compound annual growth rate has been 17%, proving the significance of Islamic finance in the global economy. The Islamic finance sector has had a significant expansion since, with a growth rate of at least 15%-25% per year. As of 2015, the industry’s global assets had reached up to $1.6 trillion in value. In today’s date and time, it is estimated that worldwide Islamic financial institutions oversee assets valued at over $2.5 trillion with hundreds of specialised institutions located in more than 80 countries, which are managed under the rules of Sharia.

Understanding the importance Islamic finance plays in the global economy, the popularity of Islamic finance is reaching systemic significance in a number of countries in Asia. Islamic finance has achieved at least a 15% market share in the domestic banking sector in countries like Brunei, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. The expansion of Islamic finance can also be seen in developing member countries (DMCs) within Central West Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Here Islamic finance has been expanding to new jurisdictions and maintaining momentum where it already has a strong established presence. The DMCs have begun implementing legislative and regulatory initiatives to establish themselves as Islamic financial hubs.

Islamic finance is gaining popularity not only in countries having predominantly Muslim populations but also in European and African countries. Luxembourg, Hong Kong, China, the United Kingdom, and South Africa have debuted sovereign Sukuks (Islamic trust certificates, similar to conventional bonds), with all issuances being at least twice oversubscribed, demonstrating strong demand for Islamic finance globally. According to a State of Global Islamic Economy report in 2019, the total sharia-compliant assets are expected to grow to at least $3.5 trillion by the year 2024. Islamic finance is proving to be an increasingly relevant sector as can be derived from the increasing market share of Islamic finance in the domestic banking sectors around the world.

The Bottom Line

Islamic finance is a century-old practise that is gaining recognition throughout the world. Islamic banks are by far the biggest players in the Islamic finance industry, accounting for almost $1.75 trillion or 70% of the total assets. In 2019, Islamic finance represented about 1% of global financial assets with an 11.4 % growth rate. Islamic finance is expanding quicker than conventional finance, however with COVID 19 that growth is expected to slow down but remain positive. In some geographies like the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) or Sub-Saharan Africa, Islamic banks are now competing directly with the Western banks to attract more Muslim clients and given the increasing development of Muslim nations, this field is expected to undergo even more rapid evolution. Islamic finance will continue to address these challenges of resolving Islamic investment policy and modern portfolio theory.

How Digital Banking Systems Enhance Customer Experience?

Posted on March 24, 2022March 24, 2022 by admin

Technology is ever changing and continues to revolutionise the world in which we live. In less than a decade, the lives of every single person worldwide have changed from being digital second to digital first. As technology is developing towards providing a comfortable lifestyle, people’s preferences are changing with respect to living in this easily accessible digital world. The world has seen significant improvements and advancements digitally in the last few years alone. These advancements would only continue to grow and inspire people to adapt to the changes in their lifestyles. Gadgets like laptops, smartphones, tablets, and computers have become an integral part of almost everyone’s daily life. Internet and online preferences have seen a significant rise, adding to the comfortable lifestyle of an individual.

The Continuous evolving landscape, cutting-edge competition, along with rising customer expectations have become a general thumb rule to adapt to in almost every industry. The banking sector is no exception and is one of the first industries to adapt to digital advancements. The banking and financial sector being the backbone of any economy is understandably on the frontline for digitalisation and advancement. This is also why many insurances, banking services, and financial institutions and providers have to keep up with the new trends to tend to their customers promptly.

SoulWallet helps you compare and find the best credit card across various banks, that are suited for your needs for you to have an easy and hassle-free experience. The well-researched, solidly structured, unbiased content along with unique tools at SoulWallet help you make well informed financial decisions for your personal and business transactions. In the process, SoulWallet helps you identify the options that will let you save money and enjoy the best perks.

Digitalisation in Banking

With the digitalisation of the banking sector, more and more people prefer to manage their financial activities from making payments, transactions like transferring of funds, checking their bank account statements to applying for loans and credit cards by simply logging into their digital banking portals and conducting these activities from the comfort of their homes or from on the move without having to visit the bank. Digital banking is a system that helps banks and financial institutions to digitalise their banking services and make them convenient to use for the customers as per their convenience. Digital banking services can include activities like money deposits, withdrawals, management of the customer’s bank account, application for financial products, like credit or debit cards, management of loans and other transactions.

Digitalising the banking sector has also helped grow their customer base and transactions can be carried out easily from any area of the world. In order to incorporate this, various digital platforms have established easier links between people from different remote corners, connecting them to the banking and financial institutions and providing them with the service they need. That is why the preference for digital banking for both customers and bankers is thriving.

In many cases, physical restrictions and complications lead to a sharp surge in a demand for an online platform for financial activities and digital banking services. A study by Mastercard revealed that 62% of the respondents in Europe expressed a keen desire and interest in moving from the physical banking aspect to banking using digital platforms in the year 2020. With the complications arising due to the pandemic, over half of the world’s population prefers using online facilities and banking apps more than ever and have expressed a more positive interest in digital banking overall. Customers have switched banks for banks that offer banking features that provide safe, quick, and convenient access to their finances online. Fast, simple, and effortless digital experiences have now become the default mode for consumers throughout their lives, and it’s becoming increasingly important for banking too, particularly as all the big techs have upped their involvement in their respective sectors.

Digital banking authorizes its customer’s personalization at the scale that drives between 5 and 15% revenue growth for the corporations in the financial service sectors. Banks functioning digitally have also witnessed a reduction in costs and streamlined processes. This end-to-end integration has also helped provide an engaging customer experience in financial services that allow business transformation with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Customer Experience in Banking

In the year 1999, when the world was steadily digitalising, Dell’s then Chief Information Officer Jerry Gregoire proclaimed, “the customer experience is the next competitive battleground.” The two decades since have shown this to be a very accurate prediction in all sectors of business.

All the efforts a bank puts in making each and every one of their individual clients feel important while interacting and transacting with the bank is referred to as the customer experience (CX). The cumulation of all the interactions that a customer perceives along the entire journey is also a part of the customer experience. Customer experience is the most important aspect in the banking and financial sector. Every strategic approach taken by the banks is to meet the demands of their customer and to satisfy their customer needs. In this day and age, it is crucial for banks and financial institutions to digitally transform themselves to deliver a consistent banking experience online for their customers.

A study by the digital banking report has concluded that improving the customer experience in banking should be the first goal for all banking institutions and financial service providers. The banks that invest in the customer experience trends have a higher rate of recommendation, greater wallet share and are more likely to up and sell or cross-sell products and services to existing customers.

In the financial service industry, customer experience carries equal weightage, if not more. Addressing customer suggestions and preferences is much more impactful in the long term and forms a loyal customer base. Banks and financial institutions that adopt new trends and strategies to revamp the banking and financial service experiences are steady in the market and have a loyal and expanding customer base. Banks and financial institutions that have used digitalisation and technology to create seamless, convenient, and intuitive customer experiences have dominated their markets.

What are the Customer Expectations from Digital Banking Experience?

Customers expect their banks should focus on creating an experience culture that would nurture all their needs, build trust, and offer personalised experience as per their convenience.

The key customer expectations when it comes to digitised banking experience are:

Easy accessibility – Banks and financial institutions need to provide quick and easy to use digital platforms that are accessible across multiple devices, mainly smartphones and computers. Various features and banking transactions should be carried out easily on these platforms without any wait time. The high quality banking experience along with easily connecting with the bank directly is a must.

Real time assistance – Often customers need real time assistance and prefer instant support. This not only builds confidence in the customers but also encourages loyalty and recurring customers. Using live assistance tools like co-browsing and video chats, banks can provide real time support and help to their customers. Chatbots also help scale their support and customer interactions.

Personalised services – Customers almost always prefer personalised services and relevance as per their needs. They would look for products and services that match their needs and provides subsidies that would be beneficial to their needs and usage. Banks can identify the key business drivers and deliver personalised support that would help shape the customer experience in banking.

Data security – Many customers are sceptical about their financial and important personal information being misused or taken advantage of. Data security is the most crucial point for any banking and financial sector. Customers need to feel safe sharing their finance and personal information with the bank. A healthy relationship between banks and customers is only created with a secure network and when a bank can guarantee security to the data of their customers.

Multifunctionality – Customers prefer banks that offer them options and solutions to any of their problems immediately. The banks need to keep pace with the latest developments of the market and technology and offer services across different channels simultaneously.

Design – Many traditional banking institutions often do not concentrate on their interfaces and fail to attract new clients. A customer today will prefer banks to have an exceptional UI along with easy to use website or mobile apps. Investing in improving digital channels attracts more customers.

Three ways Banks can conquer Customer Experience in Digital Banking

Banks hold enjoy strong customer relationships and trust since their establishment. Even with the services and products becoming available digitally, most of the customers trust their banks and banks that offer superior and personalised services. To further thrive in this digital era, banks need to harness the available advanced banking technology. This will allow the banks to match with the seamless and intuitive customer experiences offered by other big tech and their competitors.

To conquer customer experience in digital banking, banks need to focus on three key areas:

Transform the business models and mindset to a customer first approach – The customer first mindset requires banks and financial institutions to think about customer needs relentlessly and make things easy and accessible for the customers.

Leverage advanced banking technology – All banks require advanced digital banking solutions that help them manage their customers worldwide. Using technologies like application programming interfaces (APIs), cloud, and artificial intelligence allows banks to analyse and manage their vast amounts of data and large customer base.

Maintain and extend your trust advantage – Trust being the most important factor, offers a valuable advantage to build close and personal relationships with customers. Combing technology with customer experiences, banks can enhance customer experience and develop stronger trust with their clients.

Tips to Improve Digital Transformation

For banks to succeed in digital transformation and to avoid outdated assumptions while creating exceptional services that focus on their customers, banks should follow the following customer experience tips:

Serve more instead of selling
Make emotional connections with customers instead of overloading them with lots of information
Provide actionable solutions to customers instead of just focusing on features
Create an integrated flow for the customers instead of disintegrated experiences
Become disruptive instead of being protective

Ways to Improve Digital Customer Experience in Banking

The adoption of digital enablement technologies by banks that are able to function together smoothly is required to orchestrate a connected and enhance customer experience.

The following strategies are options for banks to achieve this state:

Proactive engagement for improved financial management – Financial institutions have various means and innovative methods to collect data, analyse and channel strategies to diversify the means of engaging customers and building better and stronger relationships in real time. By educating customers, notifying customers without delays, and conducting surveys help banks in conducting proactive customer engagement.

Offering live assistance – Mapping a consumer banking journey is an excellent way to gain a detailed understanding of the customer’s experience. This can help banks discover common customer complaints, gain insights into improving the consumer journey, help in identifying the touchpoints customers have with the bank and understand their expectations better. This also helps in improving customer resolution time, reducing sale cycle and number of touchpoints for the customer.

Using chatbots as Financial Concierge – Artificial intelligence has played a significant role in technological development. Using AI chatbots is a common practice for customer interactions. This helps in providing faster and more accurate solutions to customers in real time and help in connecting with the right department and bank personnel without much response delay. The chatbots also provide customer information to the banks to help them identify the customer and the problem quicker and thus provide accurate solutions.

Prioritise a seamless omnichannel customer experience – Modern customers prefer to connect with the bank across various different channels according to their convenience. Banks need to provide the same time of services across all channels, both online and offline.

Understand the customer journey – Creating an unrivalled customer experience is an aspiration of all banks and this can be achieved by following the end to end customer journey. Customer needs, actions, barriers, and motivation can be considered at every stage of the customer journey and any shortcomings can be dealt with immediately without wasting time.

Make use of big data and analytics – Understanding customers is the foundation for sustainable competitive advantage in the digital banking and financial sector. With the help of analytics and data, banks can gain valuable insights to segment customers, evaluate opportunities, and predict models to strengthen engagements and increase the customer experience of digitalised banking services.

Using a personalised customer experience approach – Personalisation is imperative, and every customer demands it. These elements help banks to put customers first, leverage this customer data and deliver multi channel customer experience, thus improving the customer experience overall worldwide

Transparency, Security, Trust as customer experience tools – Forbes says that customers want to feel valued, appreciated, and confident, and customers who feel this, will advocate the brand. Using these tools builds deep trust and cultivates loyalty in customers who in turn recommend the bank or financial institution to others, thus providing more value to the banks.

Trends Reshaping Customer Experience in Banking for 2022

Enhancing Products & Services with Mobile App Data – In this age and time many mobile banking applications aren’t so much as nice to have rather than on a need to have basis. Banks without this capability are at a severe disadvantage, as customers have come to expect convenient and easy to use a mobile app as a basic necessity. These apps and software enable the banks and financial institutions to analyse the data collected and the machine learning algorithms can help the banks to extract valuable information in return from this customer data, which can then be leveraged to develop new products, optimise the existing processes, better empower customers, and improve the overall customer experience.

The Branch of the Future – Customers do not prefer to visit the physical branches as frequently as they once did and pecks like complimentary coffee and free Wi-Fi aren’t enough to draw modern customers to their physical branches. Physical branches see themselves competing with their own online platforms for customer attention. With the need to reimagine the physical branches to a branch of the future many banks are taking steps in modernising their physical branches to offer more technological services. For example, some branches display mobile, and tablets loaded with their banking apps on display, while some banks have capitalised on the value of one on one, face to face interactions with customers to help them utilise their money better and offer consultative services for the same.

Advising Services – As customers look for ways to grow their money in a safe and secure manner, usually find themselves in a whirlpool of information on the internet and random financial advice, which may or may not be practical for them or may be too broad to be of any real use. Banks can use this opportunity to improve their financial services and pair their customers with in-house financial advisors who can provide tailored advice as per their customers’ needs. This will not only help build trust and better relationships between the banks and the customer but will also offer a competitive advantage. With the help of customer relationship management (CRM) technology, banks can collect and analyse data and build detailed customer profiles which in turn, the in-house advisors can use to gain overall knowledge of their customers thus being able to offer personalised services.

Artificial Intelligence – A customer these days would prefer to reduce human interaction and would prefer to have automated services. This is also apt with the situation where the customer is put on hold while calling the bank’s customer service helpline to report an issue. With the volume of incoming calls steadily increasing and having a limited number of bank representatives on hand to field them, banks have to find innovative ways to tackle this situation without losing the trust of their customers. With the help of artificial intelligence, banks stand to save a substantial amount of resources and help customers more accurately while also improving customer experience in banking. Using artificial intelligence in an innovative manner, banks can also provide virtual assistants to provide money management tips and tricks to customers.

Automated Onboarding – For most banking customers, a quality customer experience hinges on their first impression with bank interaction. This first impression takes place during customer onboarding in the bank. Traditionally, a lot of paperwork and documents were required along with multiple visits to the banks. Digitalisation and making onboarding an electronic process has made it easier for customers as well as for banks. Customers can do it as per their convenience and from the comfort of their homes, whereas banks can use the automated process to compile the data with ease and accuracy, further enhancing the overall customer experience.

Support for Digitalization & Remote Service – In the last year alone, the importance and need for digital channels and remote services have been highlighted quite a bit. Making this transaction digital has been proven to be difficult for many banking customers, more specifically customers from older generations and customers who do not have access to digital platforms. In the coming years, banks need to double their efforts to smooth this transition for their customers. Providing additional support in terms of educating customers, to providing step by step tutorials and interactive videos would help increase customer knowledge and thus improve the overall customer experience. The more comfortable and confident a customer would feel while interacting on the digital platforms and remote services, the better their overall financial services customer experience will be.

“Humanizing” Digital – Even though artificial intelligence and digital platforms are leading banking customer experience; trust is always built on human interaction. To make this a comfortable union, a growing number of banks are offering a mix of artificial intelligence and live support for customer services, generating efficiency gains while still providing customers with the kind of personal touch they need. As technology advances, artificial intelligence and chatbots can be made more personal and be given personalities to have a more customised conversation with the customer and be able to leverage sentiments to detect emotions and respond appropriately.

Hyper-personalisation – Personalisation has been topping the customer experience list for years and the advancements made are tailored around that. The next frontier of personalisation is hyper-personalisation. When compared to standard personalisation that uses data analytics to deliver targeted marketing and sales messaging to different customer segments, hyper-personalisation is using a combination of predictive analytics like artificial intelligence and machine learning to monitor individual customers’ real time usage data and provide services and suggestions accordingly. Armed with this technology, banks can queue more targeted and one on one marketing campaigns and offers.

Proactive Engagement – One of the best things about advanced analytics is that it provides financial institutions with a level of insight into their customers that once seemed impossible. Today, banks can monitor customers’ financial health and proactively offer assistance with financial management or suggest opportunities to grow their wealth. Depending on customers’ preferences, this service can be offered over digital platforms or in person. Watching out for their customers’ interest to demonstrate the value added enhances the overall financial services customer experience.

Doing the Right Thing – The past two years have been challenging and has placed a significant financial strain on individuals as well as businesses. Banks can help their customers by being transparent about their process, data management and being honest about their policies and practices. Sustainability, honest and transparent business models go a long way in ensuring trust between a customer and the financial institution. Offering financial advising services to help their customers regain their footing shows concern and helps build a long term relationship between banks and their customers. Ultimately, doing the right thing by the customer is about demonstrating to customers that you intend to put their best interests first.

Tips for banks on Improving the Customer Experience

Assemble a dedicated customer experience team solely for that purpose
Establish strong feedback loops to gain valuable insight
Take an iterative aspect to optimization
Keep the customer at the centre of the business
Be honest and promise only what they can deliver
Enhance the mobility of products & services
Be a financial advisor throughout the customer’s journey
Mirror customer experience of branch to internet banking
Leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automate routine tasks to save time and optimise value

Popularity of Digital Banking in the UAE

The United Arab Emirates has always been keeping a steady pace with global developments, especially in the era of digitalisation of banking. From the year 1960, with the introduction of ATMs and later internet banking and mobile banking, banks and financial institutions in the UAE have always been in the now. Today, banks propose digital only solutions; and lately, non-bank entrants are also joining this digital banking fray.

The banks and financial institutions in the UAE began to realise the challenges and opportunities of the financial technology revolution that had begun sweeping across all the industries in the second half of the previous decade. This prompted a number of banks and financial institutions to launch digital banking initiatives. These initiatives ranged from separate digital only banking platforms to strengthening of existing mobile banking platforms, rationalising branch based services, and refocusing staff on value-added services rather than repetitive and less-profitable branch operations.

Top Digital Banks in the UAE

Currently, UAE is home to more than a dozen digital banks with the numbers expanding rapidly. From personal banking to banking optimised for businesses and youth, there are a number of options currently available in the UAE.

Emirates NBD LIV
Mashreq Neo
Yap
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB)
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB)
First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB)

Banks and Financial Institutions Driving Customer Engagement for Banking in the UAE

Here are some of the customer engagement strategies used by the big players in the UAE’s banking and finance sector

RAKBANK

Is relentlessly focusing on user education reflections in the surge in adoption and usage
RAKBANK is one of the largest and most prominent banks in the UAE. They have prioritized user education in their strategy. The Bank is focused on informing and educating customers about contactless and digital wallet payments via various digital channels such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Garmin Pay, Fitbit Pay, and SwatchPAY. RAKBANK communicated about the safety and convenience offered by the digital payment options to nudge a habit formation among customers.

Commercial Bank of Dubai

Is prioritising financial inclusion and is optimising customer onboarding process
The customer’s shopping preferences are changing from physical stores to predominantly online channels, thus changing the mode of payment and banking in general. Digitization of services has accelerated in the last two years by the pandemic and thus resulted in a phenomenal uptick in digital adoption. Commercial Bank of Dubai has introduced end-to-end seamless onboarding, to make the process easier and faster for customers. Consumers can now open an account from the comfort of their homes in under two minutes and less than ten clicks using their Emirates ID.

Mashreq Bank:

Is unlocking meaningful engagement with customers by deep diving and extensively studying customer behaviour and personalization

Banks and fintech have had a tremendous opportunity to deepen their relationships with their customers in the last two years. These relationships need not be limited to transactions but can span multiple other use cases like school fee payment, food order, and other services the Bank can facilitate. Banks need to make the customer’s life easy across all digital touchpoints and provide relevant and personalized experiences for various age groups and segments. Mashreq Bank analyses customer behaviour understands it and makes proactive decisions to personalize communication using AI-enabled optimization.

Banks by understanding the different areas of customer experiences can come up with an extensive customer engagement strategy to reduce the gaps between customers and the bank. The significance of the digital banking experience can be attributed to the various benefits offered like reduced operational costs, retaining customers, and the ability to stay ahead of competitors by using the latest technologies. The customer experience in the banking ecosphere holds massive untapped potential for growth, from meeting the day-to-day needs of consumers and focusing on preparing for disruptive future technologies.

list of best emirates skywards credit cards in UAE

Best Skywards Credit Card in UAE

Posted on March 22, 2022November 21, 2023 by admin

What are the best Emirates Skywards credit cards for UAE residents?

As the world’s populace fervently hopes, we are all finally putting the nightmare of Covid 19 behind us and hopefully getting back to our pre-pandemic lives. Here in the UAE life has pretty much gone back to normal and one can’t help but notice the air of optimism of all the possibilities that now lie ahead which were a distant dream for the last two years. One of the biggies of course is that travel is back on the menu again folks! Whether it is to just go back and visit our families and loved ones or to be able to travel again as tourists and visit new destinations which was, let us admit, a favorite indulgence but almost cruelly denied to us these past 2 years.

As UAE residents we are so fortunate to have access to Emirates Airlines which is easily one of the best airlines in the world and is the obvious airline of choice when considering any international travel for us. How often do we find ourselves looking for reasons to stretch our budgets a bit to justify any price differences travelling with Emirates versus other budget airlines? Deep down we know that traveling with Emirates is quite simply the best option in terms of the entire experience – right from the dedicated terminal, class leading on demand in-flight entertainment options, direct routes saving us the hassle of multiple stops and of course for the well-heeled travelers amongst us, the Emirates business class lounge experience which is second to none!

A great option for residents and citizens to enjoy the many benefits of flying with Emirates Airlines is to use an Emirates Skywards credit card which is offered by some of the leading banks in the UAE. These credit cards are offered as a partnership between Emirates Airlines and the bank and offer a multitude of benefits to customers who have these credit cards. These benefits can vary from earning Emirates Skywards miles on purchases made with the credit cards, gaining membership to exclusive Emirates Airlines membership tiers including Skywards Silver status, and in some cases, even the coveted Skywards Gold Tier membership status. These tiers bring their own significant benefits to customers and ‘earning’ them by getting a credit card is a quick and easy way to gain entry into these exclusive membership categories. But these are just a couple of examples and as you will find out these credit cards offer a wide array of benefits to suit every individual profile.

Given the popularity and demand for flying with Emirates it is no wonder that several leading banks offer co-branded Emirates Skywards credit cards as part of their credit card portfolio offerings. And as can be expected, not all of these cards offer the same level of benefits or are indeed even offered to the same profile of customers. There are no fewer than 14 different Emirates Skywards co-branded credit cards currently available in the UAE and it is no easy task to identify which of them is best suited to you. But fret not, our team here at Soulwallet.com has done the heavy lifting to help you find the best ones suited to your specific needs.

Banks in UAE that currently offer Emirates Skywards co-branded credit cards are –

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB)
Citibank
Dubai Islamic Bank
Emirates Islamic Bank
Emirate NBD
RAKBANK

Across these 6 banks there are currently a total of 14 different Emirates Skywards credit cards offered. These are broadly categorised based on the minimum income required to be eligible for each credit card, the features and benefits offered, annual fees charged and so on.

Income Eligibility

The monthly minimum income requirement for Emirates Skywards credit cards are as below:

Credit Card	Minimum Salary
Dubai Islamic Emirates Skywards Platinum Credit Card	AED 5,000
Citi Emirates World Card	AED 12,000
Emirates Islamic Skywards Signature Credit Card	AED 12,000
ADIB Emirates Skywards World Card	AED 15,000
Dubai Islamic Emirates Skywards Signature Credit Card	AED 15,000
Emirates NBD Skywards Signature Credit Card	AED 15,000
Citi Emirates Ultimate	AED 18,000
RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Mastercard Credit Card	AED 20,000
ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Card	AED 25,000
Emirates Islamic Skywards Black Credit Card	AED 25,000
Emirates Islamic Skywards Infinite Credit Card	AED 25,000
Emirates NBD Skywards Infinite Credit Card	AED 30,000
Dubai Islamic Emirates Skywards Infinite Credit Card	AED 35,000
Citi Emirates Ultima Card	AED 36,750

As can be seen from the table above, there is an Emirates Skywards credit card option available for customers with income segments starting from as low as AED 5,000, which incidentally is also the minimum monthly salary required as per UAE Central bank regulations for a credit card.

Which is “The Best Emirates Skywards credit card” in the UAE?

While many readers would want to scroll directly to this section to find out the ‘winner’, the reality as is often the case, is that among the multitude of options available there is no single “Best Emirates Skywards credit card” for everyone. Different Emirates Skywards credit cards offer different benefits. In the sections below we will help you identify which one is the “the best Skywards credit card for you” based on your specific needs, spend patterns and priorities as an individual.

Best “PREMIUM” Emirates Skywards Credit cards

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card

Emirates Islamic Skywards Black Credit Card

Citibank Emirates Ultima credit card

RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Mastercard Credit Card

Best Emirates Skywards Credit Cards to EARN SKYWARDS MILES FROM REGULAR SPENDS

Emirates Islamic Skywards Black Credit Card

Emirates Skywards Dubai Islamic Bank Infinite Credit Card

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card

Citibank Emirates Ultima credit card

Emirates NBD Skywards Infinite Credit Card

Best Emirates Skywards Credit Cards for BONUS SKYWARDS MILES

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card

Emirates NBD Skywards Infinite Credit Card

Emirates Skywards Dubai Islamic Bank Infinite Credit Card

Best Emirates Skywards Credit Cards for BEST JOINING OFFERS

Citibank Emirates Ultima credit card

Citibank Emirates Ultimate credit card

Citibank Emirates World credit card

Best Emirates Skywards Credit Cards for EMIRATES SKYWARDS MEMBERSHIP TIERS

Emirates Islamic Skywards Black Credit Card

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Credit Card

RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Mastercard Credit Card

Best for COMPLIMENTARY EMIRATES AIRLINES HOME CHECK-IN SERVICES:

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Credit Card

Best for HEALTH & FITNESS BENEFITS:

Dubai Islamic Skywards Infinite Credit Card

Best for EMIRATES SKYWARDS MILES PURCHASE DISCOUNTS

RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card

Best for CINEMA OFFERS & DISCOUNTS

Citibank Emirate Ultima credit card

Citibank Emirates Ultimate credit card

Citibank Emirates World credit card

Best for COMPLIMENTARY AIRPORT DROPS & TRANSFERS

RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Mastercard Credit Card

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card & ADIB Emirates Skywards World Credit Card

Emirates Islamic Skywards Black Credit Card

Emirates NBD Skywards Infinite Credit Card

Best to EARN EMIRATES SKYWARDS TIER MILES

Emirates Islamic Skywards Black credit card & Emirates Islamic Skywards Infinite credit card

RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Mastercard Credit Card

Best “PREMIUM” Emirates Skywards Credit cards

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card

The ADIB Emirates Skywards credit card is arguably the best premium Skywards credit card available not just for the range of benefits it offers but also being the most competitive in several key aspects. This card offers very generous Emirates Skywards miles for spends at Emirates Airlines, for international spends as well as for domestic retail spends in the UAE. In addition to the excellent Skywards miles rewards offered, this card also offers:

3 Emirates Skywards miles per USD of spend at Emirates Airlines, up to 2 & 1.5 Skywards miles per USD for international and domestic spends respectively
Fast track to Skywards Gold tier membership for BOTH the primary as well as a supplementary card holder
Complimentary Emirates Skywards Silver Tier membership
Up to 120,000 Bonus Emirates Skywards miles (highest amongst all credit cards)
Complimentary Emirates home check-in services (only credit card to offer this benefit)
Complimentary airport transfers across UAE (up to 4 per year)
Complimentary valet parking benefits at Dubai & Abu Dhabi
Unlimited complimentary airport lounge access for each cardholder plus a guest
Highest category of Mastercard credit cards – ‘Mastercard World Elite’ benefits & offers

Minimum Salary requirement: AED 25,000

Annual Membership Fee: AED 4,500

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Citibank Emirates Ultima credit card

The Citibank Ultima credit card is an exclusive premium credit card offering from Citi which is well known to be one of the leading credit card issuers in the world. Among other benefits this card offers the card holder the unique opportunity to hold a metal credit card. The Citibank Emirates Ultima credit card offers an extremely well-rounded feature set of good Skywards miles rewards across most categories, an excellent joining offer for customers applying online, and many other significant benefits including:

5 Emirates Skywards miles per USD of spend at Emirates Airlines, up to 1.5 & 1 Skywards mile(s) per USD for international and domestic spends respectively
Complimentary Emirates Skywards Silver Tier membership
AED 2,000 statement credit for online applications
Credit card is made of metal (only one among all Skywards credit cards)
Complimentary cinema offers at both VOX & Reel cinemas
Unlimited complimentary airport lounge access for each cardholder plus a guest
Highest category of Mastercard credit cards – ‘Mastercard World Elite’ benefits & offers

Minimum Salary requirement: AED 36,750

Annual Membership Fee: AED 3,000

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Emirates Islamic Skywards Black Credit Card

The Emirates Islamic Skywards Black Credit Card offers premium features comparable with any other Skywards credit card offered by any bank in the UAE currently. It has the distinction of offering the highest Skywards miles earn rates across all Skywards credit cards in the UAE and also offers a host of excellent benefits including:

5 Emirates Skywards mile per USD of spend at Emirates Airlines, up to 2 & 1.5 Skywards miles per USD for international and domestic spends respectively
Complimentary Emirates Skywards Silver Tier membership
Fast track to Skywards Gold tier membership for BOTH the primary as well as a supplementary card holder
Complimentary airport transfers across UAE (up to 4 per year)
Complimentary valet parking benefits at Dubai & Abu Dhabi
Unlimited complimentary airport lounge access for each cardholder plus a guest
Highest category of Visa credit cards – ‘Visa Infinite’ benefits & offers including purchase protection, travel insurance & medical cover and so on
25% discount on purchase of Emirates Skywards miles
Option to earn 1 Skywards Tier mile for every 4 Skywards miles earned

Minimum Salary requirement: AED 25,000

Annual Membership Fee: AED 4,200

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Mastercard Credit Card

The RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Mastercard is a premium credit card offering from RAKBANK that offers several unique benefits to card holders including:

Opportunity to earn Skywards miles across all spend categories with a unique tier-based rewards system
Complimentary Emirates Skywards Silver Tier membership
Fast track to Skywards Gold tier membership by maintaining an AED 500,000 deposit in an Emirates Islamic Skywards Savings account
Complimentary airport transfers across UAE and in India (up to 6 per year)
Unlimited complimentary airport lounge access for each cardholder plus a guest
Complimentary cinema offers at VOX cinemas (50% off for up to 4 tickets each month)
15% discount on purchase of Emirates Skywards miles
Option to earn 1 Skywards Tier mile for every 4 Skywards miles earned
Highest category of Mastercard credit cards – ‘Mastercard World Elite’ benefits & offers
Complimentary Discovery Black membership
Free petrol delivery via CAFU

Minimum Salary requirement: AED 20,000

Annual Membership Fee: AED 1,499

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Best credit cards to “EARN SKYWARDS MILES FROM REGULAR SPENDS”:

This is perhaps the most important feature to be considered for any Emirates Skywards co-branded credit card as the main purpose for a cardholder is to maximize the Skywards miles earned during regular purchases made using their credit card.

This is also an aspect where there are significant differences in earning rates and eligibility requirements between the different Emirates Skywards credit card options available. Readers are advised to review these conditions carefully before arriving at a decision on which card is best suited to their specific spend patterns.

Please note that the best credit cards identified in this category tend to be ‘premium’ credit cards as they understandably have the best rewards as well as features and benefits that the bank can offer. As such, these credit cards are likely to have higher annual membership fees. However, the benefits offered by these credit cards most often can easily justify the annual fees charged. This is especially true if the cardholder takes advantage of the specific features and benefits on offer – another reason to ensure they apply for credit cards most suited to their specific needs.

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card

The ADIB Emirates Skywards credit card is arguably the best premium Skywards credit card available not just for the range of benefits it offers but also being the most competitive in several key aspects. This card offers very generous Emirates Skywards miles for spends at Emirates Airlines, for international spends as well as for domestic retail spends in the UAE. This credit card would easily have been the only choice for earning miles but for the fact that it offers lower miles earning rates on several categories.

The ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card awards miles per USD (equivalent) spent on the credit card as below:

3 Skywards miles for purchases made at Emirates online or at Emirates sales offices
2 Skyward miles for purchases made in foreign currencies
5 Skyward miles for all other local purchases
25 Skywards miles for these categories – supermarkets, government transactions, utilities, education, petrol stations, real estate, public transportation, Salik and charities.

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Emirates Islamic Skywards Black Credit Card

The Emirates Islamic Skywards Black Credit Card has the distinction of offering the highest Skywards miles earn rates across all Skywards credit cards in the UAE on spends at Emirates airlines and on international spends and domestic spends offers almost as many Skywards miles as the ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite credit card. While it appears that all categories are covered under these 3 segments, there are certain categories of spends where this credit card offers much lower earn rates.

The Emirates Skywards Dubai Islamic Bank Infinite Credit Card awards miles per USD (equivalent) spent on the credit card as below:

5 Skywards miles for purchases made at Emirates online or at Emirates sales offices
2 Skyward miles for purchases made in foreign currencies
1.5 Skyward miles for all other local purchases
15 Skywards miles for spends on these categories – supermarkets, government services, utilities, education, petrol stations, real estate, insurance, car dealership, telecommunications, and quick service restaurants

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Emirates Skywards Dubai Islamic Bank Infinite Credit Card

The Emirates Skywards Dubai Islamic Bank Infinite Credit Card is arguably the best credit card to maximise Emirates Skywards miles earnings as it offers an excellent combination of high earn rates on specific categories as well as no excluded spend categories. This is indeed a rarity as almost all other Emirates Skywards credit cards have restrictions on some segments of spend (such as groceries, utilities and so on) that have a lower earning rate.

The Emirates Skywards Dubai Islamic Bank Infinite Credit Card awards miles per USD (equivalent) spent on the credit card as below:

2 Skywards miles for purchases made at Emirates online or at Emirates sales offices
5 Skyward miles for purchases made in foreign currencies
1 Skyward mile for all other local purchases
A cap of AED 25,000 on government spends per statement (which we believe is quite generous!)

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Citibank Emirates Ultima credit card

The Citibank Ultima credit card offers an attractive combination of a high earn rate along with minimal spend category restrictions. This credit card offers an even better earning rate on purchases made at Emirates as compared to the DIB Skywards Infinite above, however, it also pays a lower earnings rate on two specific categories and awards no miles on a few categories.

Emirates Skywards miles earned per USD (equivalent) spent on the card:

5 Skywards miles for purchases made at Emirates online or at Emirates sales offices
5 Skyward miles for purchases made in foreign currencies
1 Skyward mile for all other local purchases
Spends at groceries/supermarkets and related to real estate will earn 0.5 Skywards miles per USD of spend.
Spends on government services, utilities, and telecommunications do not earn any Skywards miles.

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Emirates NBD Skywards Infinite Credit Card

The Emirates NBD Skywards Infinite Credit Card is also a good option for earning Skywards Miles on regular purchases. However, this card has a few categories on which earning rates are much lower than the base rate.

Emirates Skywards miles earned per USD (equivalent) spent on the card:

5 Skywards miles for purchases made at Emirates online or at Emirates sales offices
5 Skyward miles for purchases made in foreign currencies
1 Skyward mile for all other local purchases
2 Skywards miles for spends at duty free, online food delivery and car booking apps
25 Skywards miles for domestic purchases relating to groceries, supermarkets, insurance, car dealership and quick service restaurants
1 Skywards miles for domestic purchases relating to government services, utilities, education, petrol stations, real estate, transit and telecommunication

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Best for “BONUS SKWARDS MILES”:

Several credit cards award “bonus” Emirates Skywards miles based on specific criteria, such as a minimum spend levels achieved on the credit card within a specific time period. In this category, there can be varying opinions on which is the “best” option as some cards award higher total maximum bonus miles but at the same time require higher spend levels and over shorter time periods as well. The “best” option here would be determined by the individual’s specific spend patterns.

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card

Cardholders will be awarded a total of 120,000 bonus Emirates Skywards miles with this credit card which is the maximum offered by any Emirates Skywards credit card in the UAE. 50,000 welcome bonus miles are offered on payment of the membership fee, and another 70,000 Skywards miles are awarded if a total spend of AED 140,000 is met within the first 6 months of card issuance.

This credit card was chosen the winner as it has the best combination of the total bonus miles awarded and the overall minimum spend requirement over a period of 6 months. In addition, there are no specific spend category restrictions.

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Emirates NBD Skywards Infinite Credit Card

The Emirates NBD Skywards Infinite credit card offers the next best Skywards bonus miles after the ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite credit card. Cardholders can earn up to 100,000 bonus Emirates Skywards miles:

35,000 “Welcome Joining Miles” on payment of the joining fee
40,000 additional “spend based miles” if cumulative retail spend of USD 25,000 is achieved within 3 months
“Annual miles”: 25,000 miles will be credited if USD 7,500 is spent at Emirates (online or at sales offices) within the first 12 months

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Emirates Skywards Dubai Islamic Bank Infinite Credit Card

This credit card offers cardholders 75,000 bonus Skywards miles but requires a balance transfer of at least AED 50,000 to earn 25,000 of the total miles. Earn up to 75,000 bonus Emirates Skywards miles:

25,000 miles on card activation
25,000 miles if spend of USD 20,000 is achieved in the first 4 statements
25,000 on balance transfer (minimum balance transfer of AED 50,000)

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Best for “JOINING OFFERS”:

While it is usually not advisable to apply for a credit only to take advantage of a specific joining offer by the bank, it is worthwhile considering the joining offers in addition to all other benefits and features offered by the credit card.

Citibank Emirates Ultima credit card

Customers that apply online can get AED 2,000 back as a statement credit if a minimum retail spend of AED 25,000 is made within 90 days of the credit card being approved.

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Citibank Emirates Ultimate credit card

Customers that apply online on Citibank UAE can get AED 800 as a statement credit if a minimum retail spend of AED 20,000 is made within 90 days of the credit card being approved.

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Citibank Emirates World credit card

Customers that apply online on Citibank UAE can get AED 400 as a statement credit if a minimum retail spend of AED 10,000 is made within 90 days of the credit card being approved.

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Best for “EMIRATES SKYWARDS MEMBERSHIP TIERS”:

As most readers are probably aware the Emirates Skywards Miles programme offers different “Tiers” of membership – Blue, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Each of these tiers offer different benefits to members, with the type and number of benefits increasing in that order – starting with Blue and ending with Platinum which offers the maximum benefits.

An important feature offered by some Emirates Skywards co-branded credit cards is automatic membership for the cardholder into a higher tier of the Emirates Skywards programme simply by virtue of having the credit card. This saves cardholders from having to ‘earn’ the minimum tie” miles required to be eligible for the specific tier level, obtained normally through purchase of tickets on Emirates airlines.

In this aspect as well, there are a few differences in the options available among the various Emirates Skywards credit cards. Most of these credit cards offer direct membership to the Silver Tier for the primary cardholder. A few credit cards also provide supplementary card holders the opportunity to enjoy Silver status, subject to a few conditions being met. However, only 3 credit cards offer cardholders the option to upgrade to the Gold Tier Skywards membership. This can be considered to be a significant perk of having the card by people who value the Gold membership tier in the Emirates Skywards program.

Emirates Islamic Skywards Black Credit Card

The Emirates Islamic Skywards Black Credit Card offers card holders the opportunity to fast track to Emirates Skywards Gold tier membership by simply spending AED 5,500 at Emirates Airlines within 12 months from the card issuance date. This credit card also offers one supplementary card holder the option to get Gold tier membership status by spending AED 5,500 at Emirates Airlines and payment of an annual membership fee of AED 4,000. This is the quickest option to gain Emirates Skywards Gold tier membership amongst all Skywards credit cards offered in the UAE.

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card & ADIB Emirates Skywards World Credit Card

Both Emirates Skywards credit cards offered by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) offer cardholders Skywards Silver Tier membership as a basic feature of the card. However, in addition they both also offer cardholders the option to upgrade their Silver Skywards membership tier to the Gold tier if specific spend based criteria are met. Additionally, both these cards also offer the supplementary cardholder with the opportunity to upgrade to Gold tier status.

With the ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite credit card cardholders can get Skywards Gold Tier membership by simply spending AED 5,500 at Emirates airlines within 12 months. For the supplementary card holder, a spend of AED 200,000 (+ AED 5,500 at Emirates Airlines) within the first 12 months is required to get fast tracked to Emirates Skywards Gold Tier membership status.
For the ADIB Emirates Skywards World credit card the primary cardholder can get Gold tier membership with a total spend of AED 150,000 and spend of AED 5,500 on Emirates within 12 months
For the supplementary cardholder: total spend of AED 300,000 and spend of AED 5,500 on Emirates within 12 months

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Mastercard Credit Card

The RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Mastercard offers cardholders Silver tier membership as a default offering. Additionally, it also offers the opportunity to fast-track to Skywards Gold tier membership based on the below criteria being met:

Minimum spend of AED 5,500 at Emirates
On maintenance of an average quarterly balance of AED 500,000 in the customer’s RAKBANK savings account

This credit card also offers supplementary cardholders the option to enroll in the Skywards Silver Tier membership at a fee of AED 900 per year.

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

The below Emirates Skywards credit cards all offer the primary cardholder complimentary Skywards Silver Tier membership as a benefit:

Citibank Emirates Ultima credit card
Dubai Islamic Emirates Skywards Infinite credit card
Emirates Islamic Skywards Infinite credit card
Emirates NBD Skywards Infinite credit card

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Best for “ASSOCIATION FEATURES AND BENEFITS”:

Credit card associations refer to organizations that set common transaction terms for merchants, issuing banks and acquiring banks. The associations we are referring to in our context here are Visa and Mastercard. All the Emirates Skywards credit cards issued in the UAE are either associated with Visa or Mastercard.

The relevance of this for a cardholder is that there are specific benefits and features offered by these associations to the cardholder by virtue of the partnership between the bank and the association. Similar to the different tier levels available in the Emirates Skywards miles programme, both Visa and Mastercard offer different “tiers” or levels of benefits for different credit card types.

Please note that these association features are offered in partnership with the banks and are for the most part a standard offering for the specific credit card type across all banks. Examples of these include VIP airport lounge access, travel insurance cover, car rental offers and so on. Please note that the type of benefits offered vary significantly between Visa and Mastercard.

These (Visa/Mastercard) features must not be confused with specific features offered by banks directly to their cardholders which are not part of the Visa or Mastercard benefits. Examples of such bank-specific features include complimentary valet parking, cinema tickets, airport transfer offers and so on.

Customers are advised to review closely all the features offered for each credit card to understand all the benefits available before arriving at the best credit suited to them.

Below is a categorization of the available Emirates Skywards options based on their Visa or Mastercard credit card association type:

Mastercard

Mastercard World Elite:

This is the top-of-the-line tier of credit card benefits offered by Mastercard and are available in the following credit cards:

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite credit card
Citibank Emirates Ultimate credit card
RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Mastercard credit card

Mastercard World:

This is the second highest tier of credit card benefits offered by Mastercard and are available in the following credit cards:

ADIB Emirates Skywards World credit card
Citibank Emirates World credit card

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Visa

Visa Infinite:

This is the top-of-the-line tier of credit card benefits offered by Visa and are available in the following credit cards:

Citibank Emirates Ultima credit card
Emirates Islamic Skywards Black credit card
Dubai Islamic Emirates Skywards Infinite credit card
Emirates Islamic Skywards Infinite credit card
Emirates NBD Skywards Infinite credit card

Visa Signature:

This is the second highest tier of credit card benefits offered by Visa and are available in the following credit cards:

Dubai Islamic Emirates Skywards Signature credit card
Emirates Islamic Skywards Signature credit card
Emirates NBD Skywards Signature credit card

Visa Platinum:

This is the third highest tier of credit card benefits offered by Visa and are available in the following credit cards:

Dubai Islamic Emirates Platinum credit card

All relevant features of this credit card, along with side-by-side comparisons can be seen at: www.soulwallet.com

Unique benefits available through various Emirates Skywards credit cards:

Complimentary Airport Transfers

RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card
- Enjoy chauffeured airport pick-up or drop off service complimentary 6 times each year in the UAE or avail of this service a maximum of 3 times in India (Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Delhi – within city limits).

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card & ADIB Emirates Skywards World Credit Card
- 4 complimentary per year anywhere in the UAE. Value of rides capped at AED 150 in Dubai and Sharjah and AED 350 in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and other Emirates
Emirates Islamic Skywards Black credit card
- Take advantage of up to 4 complimentary airport transfers per calendar year to or from Dubai airport.

Emirates NBD Skywards Infinite Credit Card
- Up to 4 complimentary airport transfers per calendar year in UAE. Only transfers within city limits, i.e. no intra-city transfers.

Cinema Discounts & Offers

Citibank Emirate Ultima credit card, Citibank Emirates Ultimate credit card & Citibank Emirates World credit card
- Enjoy up to 4 “Buy-1-Get-1” complimentary movie tickets with VOX Cinemas each month on any day of the week.
- Up to 2 “Buy-1-Get-1” complimentary movie tickets plus 20% off food & beverage with REEL cinemas each month on any day of the week.
- (Please note both the above benefits are available only for bookings made on the Primary credit card)
RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card
- 50% off at VOX cinemas at all times, up to 4 times each month
Emirates Islamic Skywards Infinite credit card, Emirates Islamic Skywards Signature credit card
- Enjoy up to 3 “Buy-1-Get-1” complimentary movie tickets at REEL Cinemas each month on any day of the week.
- (Please note both the above benefits require a minimum spend of AED 3,000 per month)

Complimentary Emirates home check-in:

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card – 4 times per year for passengers traveling from Dubai.
ADIB Emirates Skywards World Credit Card – 2 times per year for passengers traveling from Dubai.

Health & Fitness Benefits:

Dubai Islamic Skywards Infinite Credit Card
- complimentary access to the Emirates Towers health club (and swimming pool) at any time, any day of the week.

Discounts on Emirates Skywards Miles

RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card
- 15% discount on buying Skywards miles for self or as a gift (minimum purchase of 2,000 miles required)

Earn Emirates Skywards Tier Miles

Emirates Islamic Skywards Black credit card, Emirates Islamic Skywards Infinite credit card & Emirates Islamic Skywards Signature credit card
- Earn 1 Skywards Tier Mile for every 4 Emirates Skywards
RAKBANK Emirates Skywards World Elite Credit Card
- 15% discount on buying Skywards miles for self or as a gift (minimum purchase of 2,000 miles required)

We hope this article has been useful in giving you a better understanding of the various Emirates Skywards miles credit card options available in the UAE. While we have highlighted the best options for specific benefits offered by these credit cards we highly recommend that you review all the features in detail before deciding which is the best credit card for you. After all, the process of identifying the best option and applying for a credit card is not something undertaken regularly and therefore getting it right will not only help you maximise potential saves but will also help you enjoy the unique benefits most relevant to your individual preferences.

Detailed features and benefits along with side-by-side comparisons of all these credit cards and more can be found at www.soulwallet.com.

UAE specific investment options

Posted on January 12, 2022January 12, 2022 by admin

UAE specific investment options

Investing your savings provides financial security to present and future for you and your family.. It helps you grow your wealth, generate inflation-beating returns, and helps create regular income. Investing some amount from your savings allows you to put your money in vehicles that have the potential to earn back strong rates of return and help you save for retirement.

The laws and transactions in the UAE are straightforward and encouraged by a business-friendly, well regulated financial environment. As one of the world’s fastest and freest economies, UAE has a global minded business culture with a stable and investor friendly global market. The ever-growing economy of the UAE offers a multitude of choices when it comes to investing.

Investment in the UAE is growing at an incredible rate with an expanding range of asset classes to choose from. Amongst the multitude of choices, investors are welcomed to invest in stock exchange trading, bonds, real estate purchase, private pension schemes, funds, gold, and deposit accounts. Along with Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah, and Sharjah are also attractive fonts for investments.

Benefits of investing in UAE

Having a global mindset and a liberal business environment, UAE is an excellent place to invest to grow your finances. The tax-free zones and various investment opportunities provide a dynamic financial sphere for investors to make the most of their money.

Economic stability and conducive business environment
Strategic location
Strong financial reserves and large sovereign wealth funds along with sustained government spending.
Freedom from tax
Growing tourism, thus growing economy
UAE ranks among the leading countries in the world in 100 global development indicators
Investors don’t need a residency visa to invest
UAE is a major player in the international trade networks
UAE allows 100% foreign ownership
Buying properties worth more than AED 500,000 means you become eligible for a residency visa as well

The world-class capabilities, services, legal frameworks, government aid, infrastructure, and resources available help international investors, entrepreneurs, professional talents, and start-ups to invest in the UAE market making it a very promising market, which has shown steady growth and development for several years in a row.

Investing in UAE

Whether you’re a an Emirati, or an expat residing in the UAE, the journey to invest and gain financial independence inevitably starts by learning how to invest money in the UAE. With the availability of multiple vehicles for investments and options, it can get challenging and confusing. You can invest your money as a lump sum or as a Regular savings plan/Systematic Investment Plan (SIP).

In lumpsum investments, you can optimize your savings to grow wealth or create a passive income. In regular monthly investments, you can accumulate capital and grow wealth for important long-term financial goals, for example for retirement.

Some of the most popular investments tools in the UAE are:

Stocks
Bonds
Mutual funds
ETFs
REITs
Real estate
Bank deposits
Pension plans
Cryptocurrency
Gold

Investing plan

In order to avoid the errors, an investor can make while investing it is essential to have an investing plan. The plan helps the investor in avoiding mistakes or following and trusting different sources blindly.

Some of the errors an investor can make are:

Stock investing in individual companies instead of diversified portfolios
Investing based on other’s advice without conducting research
Following the trends blindly even if it doesn’t match your goals
Being locked into insurance or saving plans for a long time.
An over-focus on real estate instead of stock market assets

Therefore, before starting your investments, you need to create an easily actionable investment plan to guide you in your wealth-making decisions.

The first step is to understand your current situation and create an outline for your existing assets to understand where you stand currently.
Create a list of all the debt you owe. For example, mortgage, business loans, credit cards, car, or property loans, etc.
Next, create a clear investment goal for yourself and answer the question of why you want to invest. It could be for financial independence, growing your wealth, retirement, or capital for your business ideas.
Once the investment goals are defined, they are converted into clear objectives.
These objectives will further help you in deciding what type of investment you would like to carry out and what options are available for the best possible outcome.
Once you have an objective it also becomes easier to create a budget and decide how much you want to invest.
Financial planners often recommend the budgeting practice of following the 50:30:20 rule. In this plan, you allocate to spend 50% of your income on essentials, 30% on discretionary spending, and save/invest the remaining 20%.
Doing so helps to build the habit of spending less than you earn and you will enjoy the benefit of compounding.
Financial planners also advise on starting an emergency fund before investing.
An emergency fund is money set aside to cater for unplanned and unexpected expenses resulting from job loss, medical crisis, natural disasters, unexpected repairs, etc.

Factors to consider when investing in the UAE

Before investing an investor would need to consider various factors that would come into play for investing in the UAE market. It is advisable to seek clarity and financial help to invest smarter and to make the most out of your investments in accordance with your goals and objectives. Some of the factors to consider are:

The investment opportunities available to a foreigner or resident expat
The stability of the regulations around foreign investment in the UAE
The levels of protection available to foreign investors in the UAE
The incentives provided for foreign investment in various sectors
The aid and encouragement available from the UAE government
The exchange rates of home currency and the currency of UAE
The incentives provided by banks and financial institutions

Soulwallet provides services that would help customers make the most of a wide range of personal finance solutions, from credit card cards, to personal loans, Islamic credit cards, mortgage loans, bank accounts and a lot more.

Types of investments

The UAE is one of the world’s easiest places to invest or conduct business in. With government encouragement, economic expansions, and a diverse private sector, investors can invest in different types of investments. Residents as well as expats and non-residents can start trading on the UAE Stock Exchange with minimal paperwork. Getting a business license to set up a local business to trade locally or internationally is also a relatively quick and easy process with many of them offering 100% foreign ownership. The real estate market is ever growing and in demand thus providing benefits to many foreign investors who reap the profits. Private pension schemes, mutual funds, gold, and other asset classes are also popular investing options there.

Some of the types of investments an investor can make are:

Property investment in the UAEReal Estate is a growing and in demand sector in the UAE with more and more expats investing in property in places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi for more than two decades. With the help of government incentives, straightforward paperwork, and tighter regulations limiting property speculation, real estate is creating a stable as well as an affordable market for investing.

Business investments in the UAE
UAE government is welcoming expats and non-resident foreigners to set up a business in the UAE. With incentives like 100% ownership (i.e., no local partner is required) in a free zone, where incentives such as no taxes, no restrictions on business, employment, or a trade offer an exciting opportunity for investors. Expats can also set up an onshore company.

Investing in stocks and shares in the UAE
Investing in the United Arab Emirates stock market is quite easy and straightforward. An investor would need to open a trading account with a broker registered with one of the exchanges in Dubai or Abu Dhabi and an Investor Number to trade. Dubai has two stock exchanges: Dubai Financial Market and NASDAQ Dubai. NASDAQ lists both domestic and international companies. It offers trading in REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and equity derivatives (futures and options).

Investing in Mutual funds
Mutual funds are one of the best investment options that can be considered by investors who wish to invest a smaller amount. They offer a good long term investment option with reduced exposure to risks. Mutual funds also offer a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) where an investor can invest a certain amount monthly for a short period of time. financial institutions like ADCB, CBD, Mashreq, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered offer mutual funds.

Deposit accounts and e-saver accounts investments in UAE
These accounts designed specifically for banks to provide higher returns to the customers. Deposit accounts range from fixed deposits of 1-24 months with higher interest rates. E-saver accounts are offered by banks such as Emirates NBD, HSBC, Mashreq. Saving accounts are offered by ADCB.

What is an Investment Bank?

An investment bank is a financial intermediary that provides and performs a variety of services for its customers. Some of the services provided by an investment bank are underwriting and providing financial advisory, brokerage services for their clients and acting as an intermediary between the investing public and securities issuers.

Some of the most popular and revered names in the UAE are:

Emirates Investment Bank
Noor Capital
HSBC Financial Services
Rasmala
SHUAA Capital
Allied Investment Partners
Citibank UAE
Commercial Bank of Dubai

Investment Guide for Expats in Dubai

Along with residents and locals, a large number of expats and non-residents are investing in the UAE, more specifically in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. With a vast number of tools available for investors to invest in, there are a lot of risks to consider before investing. Expats would need to consider a few points in mind before investing in a foreign market.

The currency risk: There is a currency risk involved while investing and investors should keep a check on their home country currency as well and invest accordingly in USD or AED to avoid loss or decline in profits.
ETF: Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) is one of the most popular options that is considered by expats to invest in. ETFs are listed on the stock exchange and can be very cost effective for traders as they do not expose the trader directly to underlying assets.
Offshore investment: Places like Dubai have a number of financial institutions that provide services for offshore investment planning. For an expat, this is an attractive opportunity as holding a portfolio of investments outside their home country can help mitigate their risk. The financial planners will advise you on how to diversify your portfolio in a healthy and safe manner with stocks, bonds, individual trusts, mutual funds, unit trusts, etc.

The economy and the financial world of the UAE have evolved significantly over a few decades. With attractive incentives and government aid, the market in the UAE is growing more and more desirable. Residents, as well as expats, are using the markets to maximize their wealth to live a financially healthy life. Rather than keeping and saving the money only in the bank, people are choosing to understand the market and make their dormant money earn more money for themselves.

UAE is an oasis of the economic, financial, and political market on a global scale. The government’s ambitious development goals for the country offer a degree of certainty for investors and markets to keep investing in the UAE markets. With proven growth and handsome returns, many expats and non-residents are getting more and more confident and comfortable about investing in the UAE.

Soulwallet offers, well-researched, unbiased content along with unique tools that helps you make well informed financial decisions.

The editorial team at Soulwallet is committed to accurate and relevant content intended to assist our readers while making personal finance decisions. We are glad to get feedback on the article and make necessary corrections if required. You can email the editorial team at support@soulwallet.com. Our editorial advice, recommendations and product assessments are not influenced by business partners

Buy Now, Pay Later” here to stay | Credit Card schemes - Soulwallet

See it, like it, want it? – “Buy Now, Pay Later” here to stay.

Posted on December 6, 2021December 14, 2021 by admin

What is “Buy now, pay later”?

If you have been hearing the term “BNPL” quite often in the recent days and have been wondering what it is it all about, this article is for you.

Why pay upfront when you have an option to spread the purchase over a few instalments, and without interest? Sounds like an absolute no-brainer, isn’t it?

“Buy Now and Pay Later” is a type of “Point-of-Sale” financing, which is growing in popularity exponentially, especially among millennials. BNPL is a form of unsecured lending in small ticket sizes that allows consumers to make purchases and pay for them later through a few interest-free instalments. Borrowers can utilize these short-term credit schemes on purchases both online and offline even without any credit checks. A first-time buyer will have to complete KYC formalities on the provider’s platform. BNPL providers use analytics to get insights on buyers’ purchase behaviour and determine their credit worthiness. Typically, this option targets millennials offering them easy access to credit for small-ticket purchases.

Why is there so much of buzz around BPNL in recent times?

BNPL has been consistently gaining traction and is radically changing payment behaviour in e-commerce sales over the last few years globally. Consumers are quite excited with this service which is evident from its rapid adoption. They clearly envisage BNPL as a convenient and easy solution. It is no wonder that we hear investments and acquisitions happening in this space every day. Below are a few BNPL investments which made news recently.

India based “Simpl” raises $40 million
Switzerland based “ZoodPay” raises #38 million in their latest round
Australia’s “Openpay” raises $271.4 million
Mexico based “Alpazo” raises $27 million
UAE based Taby raises $50 million in its series B round

While BNPL companies are surging on with valuations even higher than 50+ revenue multiples, many are yet to be profitable in global markets. This once again drives the point that BNPL companies are after customer acquisition, simple as that!

Interestingly, there are global payment solution providers such as PayPal and Square who have integrated this offering as part of their existing solutions. Stand-alone BNPL players will require to up their game in wooing customers with rewards and freebees in the future…just like traditional credit cards.

While there are several views around the pros and cons of BNPL, one thing we are sure of is that these fintech solutions are certainly going to eat into the spend and revenues of traditional banks credit products. Point of Sale financing is growing at a much faster rate than any other unsecured lending products (source Federal Reserve, TransUnion, Mckinsey Finance consumer pools).

How do BNPL services make money?

BNPL companies incur costs in the form of interchange, network fees, issuer processing fees and credit losses. These elements squeeze their margins constantly. It is pivotal for these organizations to explore revenue opportunities in the form of affiliate marketing etc.,

BNPL services make money from both retailers and consumers. Retailers pay BPNL a percentage of 2 to 8% of the purchasing amount if the customer uses the BNPL facility. While the retailers can realize a 20 to 30% increase in conversions and average ticket size.

Consumers pay BNPL through late fees which range from AED 10 and are capped around 25% of the purchase order on the higher side in most cases.

How does “Buy now, pay later” work?

Buy now, pay later arrangements are point-of-sale instalment loans that allow consumers to make purchases and pay for them at a future date. One needs to sign up with a BNPL facility provider who will make the payment to the merchant while the purchase is being made.

Make a purchase at a participating retailer store (online or offline) and choose “Buy Now Pay Later” at checkout.
The store seeks approval from the BNBP provider within seconds
Consumers typically make an upfront payment toward the purchase, then pay the remainder off in a predetermined number of instalments.
Remaining amounts are paid off in interest- free instalments
Payments can be made via bank transfers, credit cards, debit cards or checks automatically.

Does BNPL affect your credit score?

Most of the BNPL solutions approve a transaction based on a “soft” check or a bureau score-based check. This may not impact your credit score.

What are the eligibility criteria for BNPL schemes in the UAE?

UAE resident with a valid Emirates ID
At least 18 years of age
Hold a valid UAE mobile number and email id
Must have a payment option either a debit or a credit card

BNPL players in the UAE

Name	Taby	Spotti	Postpay	Tamara
Solution	BNPL partnered with Telr payment gateway as well	BNPL	BNPL	BNPL
Eligibility	UAE Resident 18 years and above Valid Emirates ID Valid Phone number Valid Credit or Debit Card	UAE Resident 18 years and above Valid Emirates ID Valid Phone number Valid Credit or Debit Card	UAE Resident 18 years and above Valid Emirates ID Valid Phone number Valid Credit or Debit Card	UAE Resident 18 years and above Valid Emirates ID Valid Phone number Valid Credit or Debit Card
Instalments	4	4	3	3
Upfront	25% of none if payment in 14 days	25%	25%	1/3rd of purchase value
Late fees	AED 15 on day one after payment due date and AED 30 after 2 weeks of payment due date	AED 20 with a maximum of two late fees per order.	AED25 the first time AED30 if not settled within 10 days after the Due Date.	25 AED on the first day of delay, then it will increase every 15 days by the same amount.
Late Fees Cap	AED 105	25% of total order or AED 40 whichever is lower	25% of total order	AED 150 or 25% of order value or whichever is lower
Payments	Visa or Master	All major debit and credit cards.	Mastercard and Visa debit and credit cards.	Visa, Mastercard, or even ApplePay and Amex
Reward	Shoppers create an account on tabby's website or app to earn up to 20% cashback, after making purchases at tabby's partner retailers. Shoppers may then choose to withdraw the cash they have earned or settle upcoming payments on tabby	NA	NA	NA

Conclusion:

BNPL has disrupted the payments industry and has created an impact on credit card companies. Retailers cannot shy away from this new reality and if they do, they will be missing the opportunity BNPL brings in. Retailers must also be aware that customers who are accustomed to BNPL services will look out for retailers with similar service offerings.

While credit cards do carry a much stronger value proposition in the form of loyalty rewards, product features and global acceptance, BNPL services will evolve in the future with such functionalities and create better stickiness with customers.

In conclusion, BNPL is certainly an appealing proposition for consumers. However, one must exercise caution and must not go overboard.

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Best Cashback Credit Cards in May 2022

Posted on November 17, 2021May 18, 2022 by admin

Cashback credit cards are quite popular among credit card customers in the UAE. It is not easy for one to compare and identify which card offers the highest cashback on specific categories. The purpose of this article is to help customers get an overview of popular cashback credit cards available in the UAE.

Soulwallet’s analysts have done the heavy lifting to review all popular credit cards available in the UAE and provide relevant and useful information which can help you understand the key differences between each card and help one make a better-informed decision while signing up for a credit card.

What is a cashback credit card?

Cashback credit cards are credit cards that offer customers a benefit of earning back a percentage of his or her spend on the card through a direct cash back credit. For example, if a card offers you cashback of 5% on all supermarket spends and you use this card in a supermarket for AED 1,000 in a particular month, the bank will give you a credit of AED 50 (5% of AED 1,000) in your next credit card statement. This means that you have effectively saved AED 50 and your supermarket spend only actually cost you AED 950. Cashback credit cards can be very useful in helping you maximize your savings by simply using your credit card.

You must always be aware of the specific conditions associated with the cash back credit card. Almost all cash back credit cards have very specific conditions on what type of purchases allow you to earn cash back credits. These could be based on categories such as grocery or supermarket purchases, fuel purchases, retail purchase, dining and restaurant purchases and so on. In addition to the specific category of spend almost all cash back credit cards will have limits on how much cash back you can earn. This could be based on a maximum spend per category type, for example, cash back credit on grocery purchases could be capped at grocery spends of AED 3,000 per month. In such a scenario, if the cash back percentage was 5% then the maximum amount you can save each month on grocery spends would be AED 150 (5% of AED 3,000).

Certain banks could also set minimum spend requirements to be eligible to earn cash back credits. Usually, this is based on minimum spends on a specific category of purchases or on the overall total spend on the credit card for the month. For example, a bank could specify that cash back credits can be earned if a minimum spend of AED 1,000 is reached during the month.

The form of cash back given to you can also vary. Some credit cards offer you direct statement credits for the value of cashback earned. These can then be considered as good as a cash payment. Some cashback credit cards offer gift vouchers at specific stores or malls for the value of cashback earned. Some banks may require customers to contact them to redeem cashback miles while others may simply credit the cashback earned to customers without any request having to be placed (automatic cashback).

As you can see, there are a lot of aspects to keep in mind in trying to ascertain the most suitable cashback credit card for you. Having a sound understanding of the cashback conditions of any credit card and your specific spend patterns will help you make an informed decision on the cashback credit card to choose for you. However, since there are more than 200 credit cards in the UAE market and a lot of them offering some form of cashback, it is almost impossible for one to understand which card is most suitable to them. Therefore, a cash back simulator as provided by SoulWallet can be invaluable in saving you the trouble of hours of research in identifying the right credit card for you.

FAB Cashback Credit Card, Mashreq Cashback Credit Card and Rakbank Titanium Credit card are available for customers earning a fixed salary of AED 5000 per month.

Bank	Card Name	Joining offer	Annual Fee	Sal required
Citi	Citi Cashback	AED 500 Cashback as joining bonus	0	8000
FAB	FAB Cashback	AED 300 Welcome bonus	AED 315	5000
Mashreq	Mashreq Cashback	AED 500 Joining bonus (AED 100 for existing card holders)	0	5000
Rakbank	Rakbank Titanium	None	0	5000
CBD	CBD Super Saver Credit Card	None	1st year free 2nd year AMF AED 420	8000
HSBC	Cashback Credit Card	AED 300 cashback gets you started	1st year free AED 313.95 with VAT from second year	10000
Dubai First	Cashback Credit Card	AED 250 bonus cashback Complimentary 1 year Amazon	AED 400	10000
Emirates Islamic	Cashback Plus Credit Card	None	0	12000
Standard Chartered Bank	Cashback Credit Card	None	1st year free AED 525 from 2nd year	8000

Best for “International” transactions

Citibank Cashback Credit Cards has the best cashback rate of 3% unlimited on international transactions. This is followed by FAB Cashback Credit Card and Mashreq Cashback Credit Card at 2%.

Bank	Citi	FAB	Mashreq	Rakbank	CBD	HSBC	Dubai First	Emirates Islamic	Standard Chartered Bank
Card Name	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Titanium	Super Saver Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Plus Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card
International spend	3%	2%	2%	1% for <15K 2% for >15K Spend Max Cap AED1500	1% on AED 2 spend	1%	1%	NA	2%

Best for “Groceries / Supermarket” related transactions

Fab cashback credit card offers 5% on this category however with a cap of AED 500 in a month. HSBC Cashback credit card offers 3% on this category but with a cap of AED 200 a month. These cards do not have a minimum spend requirement for earning the cashback on these categories.

Bank	Citi	FAB	Mashreq	Rakbank	CBD	HSBC	Dubai First	Emirates Islamic	Standard Chartered Bank
Card Name	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Titanium	Super Saver Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Plus Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card
Groceries / supermarket	2%	5% - MC AED 500	1%	5% - AED 150 and MS 1500	MS >3<10K 3% 75 MS <20K 5% 100 MS >20K 10% 150	3% MC 200	5%	MS >3<10K 3%	1%

MS: Minimum Spend : This is the minimum spend required to earn cashback in this category

MC: Maximum Cap: This is the maximum cashback one could earn in this category

Best for “Fuel” related transactions

FAB Cashback credit card offers 5% on this category with a maximum cap of AED 250 a month. HSBC offers 10% however on a maximum cap of AED 100 a month.

Bank	Citi	FAB	Mashreq	Rakbank	CBD	HSBC	Dubai First	Emirates Islamic	Standard Chartered Bank
Card Name	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Titanium	Super Saver Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Plus Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card
Fuel	1%	5% - MC AED 250	0.33%	0.25%	1% on AED 2 spend	10% MC 100	1%	NA	1%

Best for “Utility” (Electricity, water) transactions

FAB cashback credit card clearly the best on this category with a 5% cashback and a maximum cap of AED 250

Bank	Citi	FAB	Mashreq	Rakbank	CBD	HSBC	Dubai First	Emirates Islamic	Standard Chartered Bank
Card Name	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Titanium	Super Saver Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Plus Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card
Utilities	1%	5% - MC AED 250	0.33%	0.25%	MS >3<10K 3% 75 MS <20K 5% 100 MS >20K 10% 150	1%	1%	NA	1%

Best for “Online” transactions

Dubai First Cashback card is a clear winner on this category. With no caps and no spend requirement this card offers 5% which is the best among all competitors.

Bank	Citi	FAB	Mashreq	Rakbank	CBD	HSBC	Dubai First	Emirates Islamic	Standard Chartered Bank
Card Name	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Titanium	Super Saver Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Plus Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card
Online	1%	1%	1%	1% for <15K 2% for >15K Spend Max Cap AED1500	1% on AED 2 spend	1%	5%	NA	1%

Best for “Dining” transactions

Mashreq cashback card offers 5% on this category followed by which can go up to 2%, however with a spend requirement to be met. Emirates Islamic Offers up to 5, however with a cap of AED 200. EIB requires AED 3000 of minimum spend for cashback. ADIB Edge card offers 10% cashback on dining. Since it is a reward point card we have not included the same in the comparison.

Bank	Citi	FAB	Mashreq	Rakbank	CBD	HSBC	Dubai First	Emirates Islamic	Standard Chartered Bank
Card Name	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Titanium	Super Saver Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card	Cashback Plus Credit Card	Cashback Credit Card
Dining	1%	1%	5%	1% for <15K 2% for >15K Spend Max Cap AED1500	1% on AED 2 spend	1%	1%	MS >3<10K 3%	1%

Best for other categories

Bank	Card Name	Telecom	Govt	Cinema	Education	Transport
Citi	Cashback Credit Card	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%
FAB	Cashback Credit Card	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%
Mashreq	Cashback Credit Card	0.33%	0.33%	1%	1%	1%
Rakbank	Titanium	0.25%	0.25%	50% - AED 70 MS 5000	0.25%	0.25%
CBD	Super Saver Credit Card	MS >3<10K 3% AED 75 MS <20K 5% AED 100 MS >20K 10% AED 150	1% on AED 2 spend	1% on AED 2 spend	MS >3<10K 3% AED 75 MS >20K 10% AED 150 MS >20K 10% AED 150	MS >3<10K 3% AED 75 MS <20K 5% AED 100
HSBC	Cashback Credit Card	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%
Dubai First	Cashback Credit Card	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%
Emirates Islamic	Cashback Plus Credit Card	MS >3<10K 3% MS <17.5K 5% MS >17.5K 10% MC 200 per category	NA	NA	MS >3<10K 3% MS <17.5K 5% MS >17.5K 10% MC 200 per category	NA
Standard Chartered Bank	Cashback Credit Card	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%

Few important points to consider on the below cards

CBD Supersaver Card

Maximum cap of AED 3000 across all categories.
Spend based earning of rewards per category.
Maximum cashback of AED 600 across 4 BEST categories.
Minimum spend of AED 3K required

Rakbank Titanium Credit Card

All domestic and international transactions under the category of Charities, Government Services, Bill Payments, Schools, Education, Transits, Transport, Telecommunication, Real Estate, Petrol/Gas stations, Health & Beauty, Club Membership, Computer Services, Automobiles & Vehicles and Insurance Services will earn 0.25% cashback for every AED 1 spent.

all domestic and international transactions under the category of Charities, Government Services, Bill Payments, Schools, Education, Transits, Transport, Telecommunication, Real Estate, Petrol/Gas stations, will earn 0.25% cashback for every AED 1 spent.

Emirates Islamic Cashback Plus Credit Card

A minimum spend of AED 3000 is required for earning cashback.

FAB Cashback Credit Card

Telecom excluded in utilities category
Caps for Groceries, Fuel and Utilities and no caps on other categories.

Above review is based on analysis done during the month of February 2021. The product features such as category rates, caps, spend requirement, AMF or joining offers can change. Readers are requested to validate the specifics with the banks at the time of application.

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What are the Eligibility Criteria for Personal Loan in the UAE for Expats?

Posted on November 9, 2021November 9, 2021 by admin

Nestled in the southeast corner of the Arabian Peninsula, the UAE is an ever-growing country. Since the 1960s, the Emirates have experienced significant economic growth and have quickly become one of the richest nations in the world. The UAE is a melting pot of cultures, with around 85% of the entire population consisting of expatriates. Many come to the UAE seeking new opportunities and growth. Thus, the UAE has a large and vibrant community of expats and with many professional opportunities available to expatriates, it is one of the best destinations to live and grow in.

Understanding your money management options as an expat living in the UAE can be tricky and confusing. It is important to know which options are right for you to open and operate your bank account and ensuring your family’s home and belongings. With the rise in the cost of living in the UAE, it may sometimes become difficult to save funds for a rainy day, which can further lead to a financial crisis during emergencies. You can opt for a personal loan from banks for financial aid. However, to get a Personal loan in the UAE for expats, you have to be eligible as per the requirements of the banks. The eligibility criteria usually differ from bank to bank and are based on the applicant’s profile.

Banks in UAE offer two types of personal loans to expats:

Personal Loan Without Salary Transfer: Personal loan in UAE without salary transfer provides the loan applicant to apply for a personal loan without having to transfer their salary into a particular bank account. Citibank, FAB or some banks offering loans without salary transfer.

Personal Loan With Salary Transfer: Personal loan in UAE with salary transfer rewards the loan applicant to maintain an account with the bank by transferring their salary into it every month. ENBD, Mashreq, FAB and Citibank are some popular salary transfer loans in the market.

The loan with salary transfers offers an attractive interest rate as compared to the ones without a salary transfer. In general, a personal loan without a salary transfer is opted by those who either do not have their company listed by the banks for a salary transfer loan or for those who are looking for a second loan.

The eligibility requirements for a Personal Loan in the UAE for expats are:

Minimum Income: Banks in UAE have different requirements for the minimum monthly income of expats for personal loans. While the minimum requirement is AED 5000 fixed salary per month, most of the banks have their entry level criteria ranging from AED 7000 per month. The higher the income the better are the options.
Employment Status & Listed Company: This applies to salaried individuals. While some banks give approval with company listings, some banks in UAE require expats to be employed in their listed companies. Listed companies are those which have been categorized or scrutinized by the banks as companies eligible for such a Salary transfer loan for its staff. The listing is basically done on the company credibility such as years in business, number of employees, setup, and other factors.
Salary Transfer: Some banks in UAE require salary transfers for personal loan approval.
Age: The maximum age of applicants is 60 and the minimum age is 21 for applying for a personal loan in UAE for expats.
Proof of Residency: Almost every bank offers loans for expats, but it is difficult to find a bank that can offer personal loans for non-resident expat. Expats can apply for personal loans that can provide residency proof by providing a passport with a valid visa and documents supporting proof of residency.
Credit history: Customers applying for personal loans in UAE should have a good credit score with a good credit history. A good credit report shows that the applicant is eligible to repay the loan. Applicants with high credit score can get preferential interest rates from banks. Minimum Credit Score (Al Etihad Credit Bureau Score) starts from 651. The better the score the lower the interest rate in general.
Employment and Income Proof: This can be shown by presenting a salary slip and documents supporting your employment status. Certain banks also require the applicant to have a specified experience in their job to qualify, in such a case the joining letter would also have to be submitted to the bank
Bank statements: Depending on the banks, the applicant would have to submit their bank statements ranging between the last three to six months.
Loans for Self-employed Customers: Some of the banks such as RAKbank, ADCB and DIB provide loans to self-employed customers. The criteria usually are the years in business, nature of the business and the Average Annual Turnover.

Along with the eligibility criteria, applicants also need to present official documents to the banks for getting a personal loan.

For Identification of the Expats:

Copy and Original Emirates Identity Card
Resident Visa proof
Address proof (for example utility bill)
Security Cheque (Undated)

For salaried expats:

Salary transfer letter or salary certificate
Bank statement of the previous 3 months

For Self-employed Expats:

Power of attorney
Memorandum of Association
Trade license
Bank statement of the previous 6 months

The interest rate for personal finance varies for expats and differs across different banks. They are based on two options.

Reducing the rate of interest: The reducing rate of interest starts at a certain percentage but declines every year.
The flat rate: The flat rate of interest is decided at the beginning by the bank and is consistent and cannot be reduced on a yearly basis.

Some of the best consumer loan providers in the UAE for expats are:

List of Banks	Maximum Finance Amount	Minimum Monthly Salary Required
Emirates Islamic Personal Finance	Up to 2 million AED	AED 5000
Ajman Bank Goods Murabaha	Up to 1 million AED	AED 6500
ADIB Personal Finance	Up to 1 million AED	AED 8000
CBD Personal Loan	Up to 750,000 AED	AED 8000
Emirates NBD Personal Loan Without Salary Transfer	Up to 500,000 AED	AED 10,000
Mashreq Personal Loan for Expats	Up to 1 million AED	AED 7000 (for applicants from the approved list) AED 10,000 (for applicants of the unapproved companies)
RAKBANK Personal Loan for Expats	NA	AED 5000

Tips for Getting Your Application for a Personal Loan Approved:

In order to ensure that the application does not get rejected, applicants should keep certain tips in mind

Ensure that the applicant meets the eligibility criteria that has been stated by the bank. If the applicant fails to meet any of the eligibility criteria, the request will be denied.
Ensure that the applicant has a good credit score to let the banks know the risk associated with providing the applicant the loan.
Ensure that the applicant would be able to payback the loan factoring your monthly salary and expenditures.
Most banks in the UAE give upto 4 years for repayment.
Sending out multiple applicants would damage the chances of getting a personal loan.

The process to apply for a loan has become simple and easy to help and encourage expats in gaining a personal loan in the UAE. However, applying for a personal loan does not confirm the loan approval. Expats will have to qualify certain eligibility criteria to be approved and financed.

The well-researched, solidly structured, unbiased content along with unique tools at SoulWallet helps you make well informed financial decisions for your personal and business transactions. In the process, SoulWallet helps you identify the options that will let you save money and enjoy the best perks.

SoulWallet grants their users services that would help them make the most of a wide range of personal finance solutions, from credit card reward cards in the UAE, to personal loans, to Islamic credit cards, to air miles credit card application and a lot more.

The Biggest Advantages of Using an EMI Calculator before Applying For Your Personal Loans in UAE

Posted on November 9, 2021November 9, 2021 by admin

Personal loan is a type of unsecured loan that helps you meet your current financial needs. While availing for a personal loan you don’t require collateral or a need to pledge any security, and personal loans are also generally quickly disbursed. Personal loans can serve as a solution for managing a number of your needs, such as, expenses for higher education, medical emergency, holidays, wedding celebrations, to expand one’s business, and other needs.

Over the years due to instant financial availability and easy accessibility, personal loans have become tremendously popular amongst professionals as well as for personal finance. However, just like any other loan, you must repay it accordance to the agreed terms with the bank from where the loan was borrowed from. Some of the most important factors that you need to consider before availing a personal loan are the interest rates, repayment capacity, and the tenure of the loan.

Calculating personal loan EMI manually or making do with speculations could be inefficient or more often that result in an incorrect value. Hence it is preferable to opt for the personal loan EMI calculator to consider your suitability to take out a personal loan before applying for one.

What is a Personal Loan EMI Calculator?

Whenever you take up a personal loan, you have to pay back to the bank the principal amount along with the interest amount that is calculated every month. EMI stands for Equated Monthly Instalment. A personal loan EMI Calculator is a tool that helps you to evaluate and calculate the amount that has to be paid every month for your personal loan.

It is advisable to check the amount with an EMI calculator before applying for a personal loan as you would be aware of the monthly amount that you need to repay during your tenure. This in turn would help you determining how a personal loan might affect your monthly expenses and lifestyle and help you understand and manage your monthly financial goals.

Calculating the EMI for your personal loan is an incredibly simple process. See how much you can save by choosing right Personal Loan with the help of SoulWallet’s Personal Loan EMI Calculator.

How Does the Personal Loan EMI Calculator Work?

EMI calculator is a simple and very easy to use tool that does the calculations for you to calculate your loan. The personal loan EMI is based on some parameters such as the amount borrowed and the interest rate that is applicable based on your loan tenure. The first thing you enter is the principal amount that you wish to take out through your personal loan. Next, you put in the duration of your loan, which is the period of time you’d be allowed to repay your personal loan. And finally, the calculator needs to take into account the interest rate being charged, which is a percentage of the principal amount you have to repay.

After you put in all the required information, the personal loan EMI calculator would calculate and provide you with the EMI amount. The tool is available anytime and without any costs for you to choose a loan best suitable for you.

Factors affecting Your EMI Amount

Some of the factors that can affect your EMI amount are:

Loan amount – The higher amount of loan you borrow the high would be the monthly instalment. In this, the interest rate and tenure remain constant.
Interest rate – If your interest rate is high then you need to pay a high amount of monthly instalment.
Tenure – If the tenure is for long period the monthly instalment would be low, but this would lead to a high amount of interest rate as compared to a shorter tenure of the loan.

Benefits of a Personal Loan EMI Calculator

It is advisable that you use a personal loan EMI calculator before you apply for a personal loan.

Some of the key benefits that one would experience with this calculator are:

Fit in the EMI with necessary changes in the monthly budget: When you calculate the personal loan EMI, you know the fixed amount that you would have to pay every month till the end of the loan tenure. This would help you decide and budget your monthly expenditure throughout the loan tenure with ease.

Make decisions by changing the factors affecting the EMI: The loan amount, along with the monthly interest rate, and tenure play a very significant role in determining your EMI. The EMI is directly proportional to the loan amount and interest rate and is inversely proportional to the tenure of the loan. Hence, if you choose a longer tenure, then the monthly instalments would be small. The EMI calculator would help you differentiate different loan amounts with their tenures and interest rates. Thus, making it easy and convenient for you to decide the amount of loan that would suite your lifestyle and finances.

Ensure a healthy credit rating: When you have calculated the EMI before taking up the personal loan, you are completely prepared to manage your finances for repaying the loan in the given time. Which would result in you not missing out on the EMIs, and thus avoid a poor credit rating for you.

Saves time and provide accurate results: It takes a lot of time, efforts, and complicated calculations to calculate EMI’s manually. All these calculations are performed within seconds with the personal loan EMI calculator, thus saving you lot of time. Also, the chances of errors when the calculations are done manually are eradicated and you would be getting accurate results.

Easy to use and access: The Personal loan EMI calculator is available online on SoulWallet and it is pretty easy to use. All you need to do is enter the principal amount of the loan, interest rate, and the tenure of the loan to get the value of monthly instalments that you would have to pay. This makes it very easy for the users to calculate the monthly instalment from any place and at any time.

There are plenty of advantages of using an EMI Calculator before applying for your Personal Loans in UAE. The use of an EMI calculator helps your eligibility to avail a personal loan and repayment capabilities and ensures your financial wellbeing. SoulWallet helps you See how much you can save by choosing right Personal Loan with the help of Personal Loan EMI Calculator for you to have an easy and hassle-free experience.

The well-researched, solidly structured, unbiased content along with unique tools at SoulWallet help you make well informed financial decisions for your personal and business transactions. In the process, SoulWallet helps you identify the options that will let you save money and enjoy the best perks.