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The Financial Landscape
Establishing Your Financial Standing
Relationships with Banks
Customers must be transparent with their banks to ensure a healthy relationship and avoid any financial or legal issues. Financial transactions in banks are regulated by local and international entities to ensure proper practices. All banking operations are confidential and audited from multiple departments inside the bank and from the external regulators. Bank relationships are long by nature and should be managed carefully. To build a healthy relationship with the bank, it is important to:
- Always update personal information and records
- Keep bank information safe
- Follow bank guidelines related to security measures on accounts and cards
- Review financial statements and report any unusual transactions to the bank
- Read product specifications carefully
- Leave enough balance in your account to pay liabilities and fees
- Immediately report for stolen cards or suspicious actions on the accounts
- Keep the accounts active to avoid these becoming dormant
- Close any bank accounts or cards that you do not need
- Ask the bank representative for any advice or support
Credit Score
Credit scores are obtained at Al Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB). Credit scores are used by banks to assess credit card and loan applications.
A credit score is a three-digit number that predicts the likelihood of an individual or a company to miss payments in the next 12 months. The score ranges from 300 to 900 and the higher your score the lower the level of risk.
There are typically four ranges of credit scores from Bad to Excellent:
- 300 to 619: Bad credit score
- 620 to 679: Fair credit score
- 680 to 730: Good credit score
- 731 and above: Excellent credit score
Your credit score is important as it affects how you are viewed by lenders and your ability to borrow money for a personal loan or mortgage or credit card. It can even affect your ability to get mobile phone contracts, monthly car insurance and other financial products. The higher your credit score, the better chance you have of being able to borrow and to borrow at better rates (interest fees and charges). If your credit score is low, your application may be rejected by the lender or approved with higher fees and charges.
Tips for improving your credit score
You can take steps to improve your credit score but note that it is a process that takes time:
- Make payments on time
- Avoid bounced cheques
- Reduce the number of credit cards and loans you have
- Make sure the details on your credit report are correct and report any mistakes
- Reduce outstanding debt balances
- Limit loan applications as each application appears on your credit record and may negatively impact your credit score, particularly if you are declined a loan. If you are refused credit, you should wait for some months before applying again
For more information visit https://aecb.gov.ae.
Payment Types
As a consumer of goods and services, you are likely to make payments on a regular basis. Examples of day-to-day payments for goods and services include groceries, petrol, and entertainment. The choice of payment method usually depends on:
- How convenient the payer finds different methods
- Which methods the seller accepts
- How quickly the transaction can be completed
- How safe the method is perceived to be
Cheques
A cheque is a payment mechanism that enables an account holder to instruct their provider to pay a specific amount of money to a specific person or organisation. Providers give current account holders preprinted cheque books (unless the account holder has a basic bank account) to complete with their payment instructions. Cheques are often used to pay money to friends or family, or to pay bills from tradespeople such as painters and decorators.
The advantages of cheques are that they are a secure way of paying money (they can only be paid into an account with the same name as the person / organisation specified on the cheque). They are also easy to carry and to use.
People or organisations that accept cheques cannot be certain that they will receive the money until six business days after the cheque has been deposited in their bank account. Providers cannot honour cheques (that is, make the payment specified on the cheque) if the person who wrote the cheque does not have enough money in their current account to pay the transaction. In these circumstances the provider marks the cheque ‘unpaid’ and sends it back to the person who was expecting to receive the payment (the payee). This is known as the cheque ‘bouncing’. If you write a cheque and don’t have enough money in your account to cover the payment, you may be fined by your bank.
Debit Cards
Debit cards allow account holders to access cash from their accounts and to pay for goods in stores, over the internet, by telephone and by post. They work like electronic cheques because the payment is taken directly from the account. Unlike cheques, however, the payment is made immediately.
Making payments Abroad
Debit cards can be used in stores, hotels, restaurants, etc, that display the logo of the card company, such as Visa or MasterCard. The transactions will be made in the local currency and the provider will use an exchange rate to translate this amount into pounds. Cardholders may be charged a fee for using their debit cards abroad. Debit cards can also be used in ATMs to withdraw cash in the local currency.
Hidden charges: It is important to keep potential hidden charges in mind, these include:
- If you shop online or by phone, the price you see advertised is not always the total cost
- Before you confirm your order, you need to know any costs you may have to pay
- Look carefully at the total price- is the item still the bargain it seemed to be?
- Foreign Exchange fees/charges
New ways to pay
Technology is leading to innovative new ways to pay. An example is a mobile wallet. A mobile wallet stores your payment card (debit or credit card) information on your smartphone for example, which you can then use to make purchases online or in stores that can accept that form of payment. Mobile wallets often have security features that makes it more secure than having a physical payment card. You can get a mobile wallet on an app or use a built in wallet like Apple Wallet which integrates with it payment service Apple Pay to make payments. Using a mobile wallet can be safe and convenient but you should be aware of any fees or terms and conditions to use them.
Anything cash can do, Payit does it better
Payit is the UAE’s first all-in-one digital wallet. Powered by First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) Payit was created with a vision to help the UAE evolve to a cashless society.
