5 of the best credit cards in the UAE

If you’re looking for a new credit card, you’ve got to be careful. Many cards are very difficult to get approved for, and others seem to have new fees and unexpected costs everywhere you turn. Fortunately, the UAE has a number of excellent credit cards available which offer relatively easy approval, attractive terms, low fees, and outstanding benefits.

FAB Cashback Credit Card

Bankfab’s FAB Cashback Credit Card is an excellent Mastercard option thanks to its generous cash back program. The card offers 5% cashback on supermarket, fuel and utilities, 2% cashback on foreign currency spend, and 1% cashback on all other retail spend. The card does require a minimum monthly salary of AED 5,000, but it’s easy to get started with this card thanks to a simple online application. There’s also a great welcome bonus currently available. All you need to do is make one retail transaction within 30 days of getting the card and you’ll receive a bonus of 300 AED cashback.¹

Emirates NBD Cards

Emirates NBD offer a selection of cards you can trust and get amazing rewards from. These include the Emirates NBD Mastercard Platinum, the Emirates NBD Duo Credit Card, the Emirates NBD Skywards Infinite Credit Card and the Emirates NBD go4it Platinum Card as well as a number of others. Each card is perfectly geared to specific financial profiles and you will find great advantages of each, with yearly fees ranging from AED 199 to AED 1,500. The fees are very reasonable when you look at all the benefits you will receive on each card from travel insurance and rewards points to hefty discounts and air miles.²

Mashreq Cashback Visa Card

Mashreq’s Cashback Visa Credit Card is another great option to consider. This card offers 5% cashback on domestic dining spend, 2% cashback on international spend, and 1% cashback on all other domestic spend. They’re offering a great welcome bonus of double the usual cashback rate for the first three months, and 0% interest on retail purchases for the first 6 months. There’s no annual fee to use this card either and it includes travel insurance at no additional cost.³

ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Mastercard

The ADIB Emirates Skywards World Elite Mastercard is perfect for those who do a lot of air travel, offering 50,000 Skywards rewards miles when you first use the card and 70,000 bonus miles if you spend AED 140,000 on the card in the first six months. The card also provides numerous travel benefits including free games of golf at several golf clubs, concierge services, travel insurance, and complimentary airport lounge access. The card also includes one year of free Amazon Prime membership but comes with an annual fee of AED 4500. With a fully integrated app and excellent customer service, this card is a good all-around option worth considering.⁴

ADCB TouchPoints Gold Visa

The ADCB TouchPoints Gold Visa is a quality choice with a number of great benefits. Whenever you spend AED 1 on this card, you earn 0.5 TouchPoints, which can be redeemed for airline tickets, shopping vouchers, bill payments, and more. For each month you spend at least AED 5,000, you’ll earn a 5,000 TouchPoint bonus as well. There’s also a Mastercard equivalent of this card known as the ADCB TouchPoints Titanium Mastercard. Both the Visa and the Mastercard have no annual fee and offer buy one get one free tickets at VOX Cinemas.⁵

Finding the Right Card

All of the above options are excellent choices, but sometimes it can be hard to know exactly what to apply for. A little bit of extra research can go a long way, and by evaluating a few different options carefully and comparing the pros and cons of each you’ll be able to make sure that you ultimately choose the best card for your individual situation.