UAE Credit Score (AECB): How It Works and How to Raise It

Every UAE bank checks your Al Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB) record before approving a credit card, loan or mortgage. The AECB is the federal credit bureau. It collects repayment data from banks and finance companies, and also from telecom and utility providers, and turns it into a score between 300 and 900. Higher is better. Knowing what goes into that number tells you exactly what to fix before you apply.

What's on your AECB report

Your report lists every credit product you've held in the UAE and how you've repaid it:

• Credit cards: limits, balances and whether you paid on time
• Personal loans, car loans and mortgages
• Phone and internet contracts, and some utility accounts
• Bounced cheques
• Credit enquiries, meaning each time a lender checked your report because you applied

Your score is a summary of this report. Banks see both, and each bank sets its own cut-off for each product. There's no single score that guarantees approval. As a rough guide, scores in the 700s and above are generally treated as good, and scores in the 500s or lower make most applications difficult.

What moves your score

Payment history matters most. A missed payment stays on your report, and its effect fades only as you build months of on-time payments after it.

The telecom and utility row catches out a lot of people. An unpaid final phone or electricity bill after moving home can show up on your report even if you've never missed a card payment.

How to check your score

You can get your own report and score through the AECB app or website, for a small fee. Checking your own report doesn't affect your score. Only lenders' checks on your applications count as enquiries.

Check it:

• Before applying for a mortgage, car loan or premium card
• A few months after a missed payment, to see how it's recovering
• If an application is declined without a clear reason
• Before you leave the UAE, to confirm every account shows as closed and settled

If something on the report is wrong, such as a loan that isn't yours or a closed account shown as open, you can raise a dispute with the AECB through the same app.

Your score and your Debt Burden Ratio (DBR)

Your score isn't the only test. Under Central Bank rules, your total monthly debt repayments can't exceed 50% of your salary. Banks count 5% of every credit card's limit as a monthly repayment, even if the balance is zero.

Here's an example on a AED 15,000 salary:

With an excellent score, a new loan with repayments above AED 1,700 a month would still be declined. Cancelling a card you don't use, or lowering its limit, frees up room. Run your own numbers in the DBR calculator.

How to raise your score

• Set up automatic payments from your salary account for at least the minimum on every card, so you never miss a due date.
• Pay down card balances to well under 30% of the limit. If you're carrying debt, the credit card payoff calculator shows how quickly extra payments clear it and how much interest they save.
• Apply for one thing at a time, with a few months between applications.
• Keep your oldest card open if it has no annual fee. Close newer, unused cards first.
• Settle final bills when you switch telecom providers or move out of a flat.

Starting from zero

New residents have no UAE history, and credit history from abroad usually doesn't carry over. A thin file isn't the same as a bad one, though. Most people build one by:

• Opening a salary account
• Taking an entry-level card from the same bank
• Using it for a few regular bills and paying it off in full

Six to twelve months of that is usually enough to qualify for mainstream cards and loans. Start with credit cards for a AED 5,000 salary, and read how to build credit history in the UAE for a month-by-month plan.