Northerner2008

Hi, the Mrs and I are moving out to Dubai next month.

I have a quick question if people can help me with please...

Once on the ground and the residency visa is through I am needing to get myself a car sorted out. I am taking a bit of cash out with me but not enough to get a reasonable motor.

The question I have is what are the well know UK banks such as Barclays / HSBC / Lloyds like? Are they as reputable as back home? I am currently a Barclays customer here in the UK.

Is it easier to get a loan from the bank to buy a car? From reading previous posts it appears that the car dealers can be quite ruthless (as they can be back here) by getting you legged up to all sorts of charges that you don't know about.

Who would recommend on getting a loan back here on a decent rate and taking the money out there for the car purchase purpose?

Just could do with knowing what folks' thoughts are?

Many Thanks,

axlenoyl

All the points you ask are in fact covered in the forum if you do a search but in essence what people say are there is certainly a HSBC and Lloyds and Barclays but they in essence are not linked to the UK banks.They also seem to say get your loan from the UK and take your money across plus you get more Dhs to the pound than tother way round, also lots of info on cost of living etc. Good luck

Northerner2008

Thanks for this, I did a little more research after the post and found just that. Cheers.

nottmbantam

I had similar questions re moving to Riyadh for buying a car. Didn't know who much you wanted to spend, but I found this website. Riyadh has more cars for sale than the Dubai version but might give you an idea of prices and what you can get for your money?

Good luck.

http://www.expatriates.com/classifieds/dub/forsale/

axlenoyl

Where are you from, what are you going to Dubai to do, Do you have a job or looking, my partner leaves on 13th Feb to start work on 16th, I hopefully follow in March, although looking at some salaries in nursing I am doubting my sanity and may well leave him too it.

Eeyore

What you gain in doing that, don't you lose in converting dirhams to pounds to pay the loan back in the UK each month?

axlenoyl

More than likely but if you have to pay it back anyway, and it will obviously take time to sort out bank accounts and loans etc at a reasonable commercial rate.What my partner is doing is transferring 1 lump sum each month to pay existing outgoings here in the Uk, I believe he has checked and gets 2 free transfers a month but obviously there is the exchange rate to think off.
Cant you sleep?

Norm_uk

Lloyds ARE linked to their offshore banking and UK banking branches - I've delt with them professionally for about a year now and none of my clients have complained yet!

HSBC here don't have the same standard of service here, as for Barclays they have not been here long so it's too early to say.

You'll be wasting money buying a car up front. Better to hire until you can get a loan securing a new car, which shouldn't be too expensive. Besides if you have a car loan and have to leave after six months you just sell it and move on. Paying for it upfront then selling after six months usually means taking a loss as few cars appreciate with age.

PM me if you want more info.

N.

Norm_uk

I might be able to save your partner money on those monthly transfers...have a good currency exchange service we use which works out very nicely.

N.