Hi all,

I am moving to the UAE in the near future, and will be needing to open an account for my salary to be paid in to. From what I can see, Noor bank has some form of current account that awards s small amount of Skywards points with some debit card payments and savings, but I wasn't sure if there are any others.

There was a combined savings and current account at another bank (maybe ENBD?) but it needed an income of over 150K AED per month, which is a bit outside my current monthly salary... also I see lots of complaints about some kind of recent ENDB outage that affected people as well.

Thanks!

Open account at FAB with your normal debit card you can got star points, which you can convert to skywards or Etihad or cash back ..

Good luck

Banking services are not so efficient or tech enabled in UAE (don't know Germany) but have made decent progress in terms of digital and mobile in last few years. I used ENBD and - aside from the recent outage during a system upgrade - is pretty solid with wide branch and atm coverage. Good app on which you can do the vast majority of your banking transactions, and offers soft token and Face ID. It's well connected with all the local services (utilities, phone, speeding tickets (!) etc) for easy online payments. Look into the "Priority Banking" option, which is a step up from the basic accounts.

Some colleagues use HSBC which quite a few expats like for its multi-country offerings but has mixed reviews on local offerings and complaints about service (like paying your HSBC CC from your HSBC bank account isn't instantaneous).

For Credit Cards with Skywards points, would shop around for best intro offers (people usually end up with Citi or ENBD credit cards). Could also be one way to get EK status if interested.

Why don't you want to use a credit card? Credit cards have a lot more benefits than debit cards and debit cards are not a good idea anyway - take it from .

ENBD is annoying but I use them and so do most people I know - our complaints bring us together - but overall it's pretty good. Most of the complaints about ENBD apply to all banks in the UAE. My main complaint is: ridiculous double charging of exchange rate when depositing/withdrawing foreign currencies into your foreign currency account (applies to all UAE banks) and the HORRENDOUS automated phone answering robot "Eva".

If you were to open up to the idea of using a credit card instead, I would recommend the Marriott Bonvoy card - it's a lot more versatile than the rest with a decent sign-up bonus. I used the ENBD Skywards Visa Signature card for a year, racked up like 120-130K miles and blew it all on one flight. With the Marriott Bonvoy Card, I have had it for 10 months, racked up 460K points (equivalent to 188K miles) and can use it for many more flights, on many different carriers. I also have the ADIB Skywards Visa Signature card which gave me Silver status immediately, home check-in and 60K bonus miles, but I hate their banking system.

Also, unless your company provides you with guaranteed EK tickets, or you prefer to pay a premium, you might fly EK a lot less once you are based out of UAE than you might think because EK flights originating from UAE are pretty expensive compared to the competition. Our company has an office in Singapore also so whenever we fly from from Dubai, SQ has the best price for J and whenever someone flies from Singapore, EK has the best price for J. So our colleagues in Singapore fly EK all the time, we almost never fly EK.

100% agree .. SPG card was excellent at the beginning but now not that much but it's not that bad .. my favorite now is DIb skywards card.

​​​​​​Any way there is also Amex that give you many binifits and skywards its a credit card but if you want you can use it as a debit card ..
just open it with AED 21000 and your good to go

I have that also and used it for 6 months (mostly to get 40,000 TK miles) otherwise all its benefits are more or less the same as the Marriott Bonvoy card except that it's not accepted everywhere so it's quite annoying to keep asking "Do you accept American Express?". Once I got my 700 AED credit last month for the annual fee, I cancelled it - still waiting for my 21,000 AED.

What do you mean you can use it as a debit card? Sure you can always increase/reduce the limit (90% of your cash margin) but it's got a 3% or 100 AED (whichever is more) fee for cash withdrawals...

Since there is no constant need for cash in UAE, I keep like 1,000 AED in my checking account, the rest all in savings (1-2%/yr interest rate, paid monthly).

HSBC sucks - they have basically abandoned their customers...

Citi is pretty good (ThankYou points to any airline) but they still won't give anyone in my company a credit card because we are "not listed" in their UAE system, despite having an account with Citi in other countries with hundreds of millions in revenue.

He/she wants somewhere to put their wages and earn Skywards points.

OP said "payments and savings" but in any case, it's obvious you can't just earn money without spending (relatively) heavily in the UAE. In any case, all the debit cards give you points only when you spend anyway.

The title of the post specifically mentions not Credit Card...

​​​​I mean you can open it without documents you just need AED 21000 and passport copy ( no need for salary or working certificate etc )
you well keep mentaning your 21000 to avoid fees its like opining normal account but in your Amex account for some people it's headic free and fast process .

The platinum in Dirham is the best one ..in my case if you spend 40000 they well wave the 400 fees .
The good thing it's flexible you can transfer to any program usually in my case Bonvoy and Skywards.

Ah yeah - in that case if the salary does not allow for the Bonvoy card, or the Skywards cards, absolutely correct. However, I am guessing OP will definitely qualify for at least one of those cards and, it's probably easier, and financially wiser, to just get the salary certificate rather than lock-up 21,000 AED cash when moving to a new country. If the company pays the salary into Emirates NBD, then you don't even need a salary certificate.

My problem with AMEX was that most places don't accept it so having just an AMEX is not enough here, need a back-up plan.

Which account/card would be this I know someone who is looking for something similar. TIA

​​​​​​Search for amex mena in Google for more information when talking to them ask them for the platinum card in Dirham don't go with other card it's the best in my opinion !
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If you want call Khalid +971501755696 or Husam +971569199339

Khalid is head of black cards, Husam also can help you both are great to deal with ..

Note: before applying find someone with amex card to refer you both well got bounce points if I'm not wrong 10k, if you can't find someone PM me ..

Good luck ..

Of course you need a Visa or MasterCard here not every body well accept Amex in UAE, to be honest i use it wile traveling specially in UK and USA the rate is better than Visa and MasterCard ..

big shopping mall restaurant well accept it plus ​its my PayPal main card so every online website well accept it, for me it's enough every year got around 150k to 200k points .
enough for upgrade to business to any destination or 3 free nights at category 7 at Bonvoy .

My advice is not to cancel any credit card just keep it in your wallet even if you don't use it fees is very small and you may use it one day !!

by the way Amex after 3-4 years well increase your limit without asking my limit was 25k now it's around 60k




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