Cashback vs points vs miles: which UAE card type suits you?
The three kinds of credit card reward, how they differ, and how to pick the one that fits the way you spend and travel.
UAE credit cards pay rewards in one of three ways. In our catalogue of 115 cards from 21 banks, 29 pay cashback, 68 earn points and 18 earn miles.
Cashback
A percentage of what you spend comes back to you, usually as a credit on your statement. It’s the simplest reward to understand: 5% on AED 1,000 of dining is AED 50. The catch is usually in the limits: many cashback cards cap how much you can earn each month or need a minimum spend before anything is paid.
Suits you if you want a reward you don’t have to think about, and most of your spending is in a few everyday categories like groceries, dining and fuel.
Points
You earn points per dirham, which you redeem for vouchers, shopping, statement credit or sometimes airline miles. Many UAE points cards are tied to a retailer or group, so the points are worth most when spent there.
Suits you if you already shop a lot with the partner behind the card, and you’ll actually redeem the points rather than let them expire.
Miles
You earn airline miles, usually with one airline’s programme. They can be worth a lot when redeemed for flights or upgrades, and very little when redeemed for anything else.
Suits you if you fly the partner airline regularly and are happy to plan redemptions.
Why we don’t compare them directly
A point or a mile has no fixed dirham value. It depends on the programme and on what you redeem for. Converting them into one number would mean inventing an exchange rate, so on CardMax each reward type is ranked separately. Our calculator covers cashback cards only for the same reason.