Get notified about UAE latest credit card products
Get notified about UAE latest credit card products
A straight 1–5 verdict on whether a card is actually good — not whether it out-earns this month's competitors, and not whether a bank paid for a shinier badge. We check the real numbers first, then rate what 's left: what you'd genuinely earn, what it actually costs, and what the perks are worth once the marketing is stripped out.
No secret formula, no moving target. Every rating comes down to the same five angles, every time — whether the card is fee-free or comes with a four-figure annual bill.
The rate on its own, before any costs are subtracted: the real AED-equivalent return you earn on everyday spending, once points or miles are converted the way they actually redeem — not the headline number on the billboard.
What it actually costs to own and use: the fee you'd really pay after any waiver, plus what your foreign spend costs you if you travel or shop internationally.
Only perks with a real, defensible AED value count. A benefit gated behind a high spend threshold or a hard-to-book slot is worth less than one you just get.
How many parts of everyday spending the card actually rewards well — not just the one category it's marketed around.
Who can realistically get approved. We weigh this lightly on purpose — a high salary requirement makes a card exclusive, not bad.
Those five feed into one bottom line:
What those five angles add up to: what's actually left in your pocket each year once rewards and perks are counted and the fee (plus likely FX cost) is taken back out. A great rewards rate on a card with a steep fee can still net out worse than a modest rate on a free one — this is the number that settles it. The welcome bonus doesn't count here — that's a separate, one-off figure.
A card is rated only once it clears this checklist — not automatically when it enters the catalogue.
An editor checks the stored fee, minimum salary, and reward terms against the bank's own Key Fact Statement before a rating goes live. Any discrepancy gets resolved in the catalogue data first — we never rate a term we haven't confirmed.
If a bank changes a fee, a rate, or a perk we've already verified, we recheck the KFS and update the rating — the same way we'd catch it in any other review. A rating reflects the card as it stands today, not as it stood when we first wrote it up.
The starting point comes from what the numbers actually say. When something they can't capture — an awkward redemption step, a perk that's a hassle to book — genuinely changes the picture, an editor can adjust the score. Any adjustment is small, and the reason is written down on the card's own review.
Service quality, app experience, approval likelihood, credit limit, the cost of carrying a balance, or your own personal redemption and usage habits. This is a verdict on the product on paper — not on the bank, the app, or you. It also isn't a personalised read for every spending pattern: how a card actually plays out for a light spender versus a heavy one, or for one category mix versus another, is exactly what each card's own Kredit Verdict is for.
Commercial relationships never enter the picture. Cards with missing calculation rules, invitation-only or undisclosed economics, or an unresolved data discrepancy stay unrated instead of getting a guessed score. 1 card currently carries a Kredit Rating.
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