littlejimmy

Or what? :scared:

Ta.

MJC

YES


Too easy

Vimto

Our office fax machine must chuck out at least 4 free credit card offers a day from different local banks requiring minimal documentation, you dont even have to bank with them for them to offer a minimum of 2 x monthly salary. One young (24) girl in my office has 4 credit cards with a total limit of 40,000 on a salary of 6,000 and she just signed 48 post dated checks for her new car. The Banks here are encouraging consumer debt with no collateral.

Fairydust

Yes but I'm sure we have all read the consequences if payments are not met/cheques honoured :scared:

MJC

I know what you're suggesting FD, but maybe not correct....

Bouncing cheques
If you bounce a cheque you are set for prison. Not so. According to legal sources, the law has changed. If an accused pays what he owes before – or even after – judgement he can escape jail.

From 7 - or should that read 6days

Welivehere

The numbers mentioned on the radio today was 24kAED in debt for each person in the UAE. That's a scarey number.

Liljimmy - Check the interest rates though they can be nasty.... And also be aware that if you let them c/c co's over here will charge an annual subscription. I think they try for about 400AED per card.

Autonomy

Yup.

From what I can see - credit card interest is about 28% - they quote per month here to make it look small! And most of them charge a yearly fee too.

Car loans are very easy as they are secured.

Unsecured are only easy if you work for a "listed" or "approved" company. If your company has less than 50 people then it will not be an approved company. You also have to be paid by direct bank transfer - quite often to an account with the bank you have taken the loan from.

sassy

Too easy................. :scared:
RAK band don't change annual fee and give cash back............. HSBC charge huge yearly fee and massive interest.....

Car Loans are dead cheap

Eeyore

A friend of mine back in the UK has just had to enter one of those Independent Voluntary Agreement things to sort out his credit problems - he owes the equivalent of over AED 420,000, just on credit cards.

Puts AED 24,000 in perspective, dunnit?

But it's true that many people in Dubai are in debt up to their eyeballs... there was an article in 7 Days last year that explained how many Western expats come to Dubai escape debts at home, only to run up similar debts here...

They do throw money at you here. When I first arrived, fresh off the plane, I was stunned when the HSBC said I could borrow AED 60K immediately, rising to 250K once I'd passed the probation period at my company.

littlejimmy

Was that literally the minute you arrived there? Don't you need a residence visa first?

How long does the residence visa take to come through, out of interest?

Autonomy

A hell of a lot longer if you don't bring out you fully notorised and stamped education certificates...

Can depend on how good your PRO is...

Zannie

(Managed to post this under the missus' login...)

That was about two days after I arrived. Banks will open an account for you (and lend you money) if your residence visa is being processed; this usually means that you have to give them a letter signed and stamped by your company's PRO, indicating that you're a genuine employee etc. I went for the medical test first thing in the morning, then went immediately to the HSBC to open my account.

I had mine a week after arriving, but Media City is a free zone and hence bound by much less red tape when it comes to that sort of thing - plus it was my company's policy to expedite that sort of thing and it had a good PRO.

I didn't have to provide any education certificates, which was handy, since I don't have a degree (dropped out of uni to get a job!) and don't have the faintest idea where my O and A-level certificates are. Again, that's where working in a free zone has its advantages.

W10

The great con they have here is 'reducing balance', which in my limited knowledge appears to be similar to the way mortgages are calculated in Europe.

That is - you pay most of the interest up front (as in during the first 24 payments in a 48 payment loan)

I understand why they do it, with the potential for people defaulting and leaving the country. But a stricter acceptance criteria would also help!!

I have a small car loan (Dh45,000) and pay about Dh950 a month, of which interest currently makes up roughly Dh400 I think.

The lesson there of course, is not to let the car dealer sort out out the finance.

Jeeper

Another question on the lines of credit cards...Anyone got one of them 'Manhatten' Credit Cards from Standard Chartered?

I get a 900dhs discount if I pay for my diving course with one of them so if anyone wants to put it on their card I will go halves in the savings...

Who's in?

Obviously I will give you the cash for the payment itself as well....

littlejimmy

It's not proving as easy as has been suggested.

My company have been very good in helping me with the rent and the deposit, etc., but now I have to furnish the place, and then there's the DEWA deposit and the school fees and the.... :scared:

I've got a spanking new bank account with a famous bank (think 4 letters, used to have a Griffin in their logo), but with the princely sum of 0.00 Dirhams in it. They said it's a premium account, and I can have this and that, a massive overdrafy, gold cards, car loans, yadda yadda, but then they turned round and said they won't give me any credit until I get my residency, and that could take a while because I didn't get my certs thingied by the doo-dah or whatever and.....

So, I'm having to go back to my company cap in hand, for more advances.

Whinge, whinge, whinge!