How to choose a credit card in the UAE
A step-by-step way to narrow down the UAE’s credit cards to the one that pays you most, based on salary, spending and fees.
With 115 cards from 21 banks in our catalogue alone, the hard part isn’t finding a card. It’s ruling most of them out. Here’s a quick way to do it.
1. Start with the salary requirement
Every UAE card lists a minimum monthly salary. Banks set it and it can’t be negotiated, so start by filtering out cards you can’t apply for. Across the cards we track, the middle value is AED 10,000 a month, and 31 cards ask for AED 5,000 or less. On our card list you can sort by minimum salary.
2. Work out where your money goes
Look at a recent statement and roughly split it into groceries, dining, fuel, travel, online shopping and everything else. The best card is the one with high rates in your top two or three categories, not the one with the highest headline number. For example, the highest dining cashback rate we track is 10% on the RAKBANK World Mastercard, but that only matters if you eat out a lot.
3. Pick a reward type
Cashback is simplest. Points and miles can be worth more if you use the partner programme. See cashback vs points vs miles.
4. Read the small print
Caps, minimum spend and excluded categories change what you actually earn. See our guide.
5. Check the fee is worth it
37 of the cards we track have no annual fee. A fee is only worth paying if the extra rewards beat it. See are annual fees worth it?
6. Confirm with the bank
Terms change. Before you apply, check the current rate, fee and eligibility on the bank’s own page. Every CardMax card page links to it.