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Your Money Matters
The Financial Landscape
Let’s look at the financial landscape along with your relationships with banks, your credit score, your rights as a consumer, sources of financial information, and avoiding scams and fraud. We will highlight:
You and banks
Your credit score
Rights, responsibilities and consumer protection
Financial Information
Scams and fraud
This video will include:
- Build a healthy relationship with your bank.
- Know your credit score and why it is important for you.
- Understand rights, responsibilities and consumer protection available to you as a consumer of financial products.
- Sources of financial information.
- Taking care to avoid scams and fraud.
Have you ever wondered?
What is a credit score and why should I care about it?
What are sources of financial information to help me make better decisions?
How can I protect myself against scams and fraud?
Our Relationships with Banks
Customers must be transparent with their banks to ensure a healthy relationship and avoid any financial or legal issues. Financial transactions in banks are regulated by local and international entities to ensure proper practices. All banking operations are confidential and audited.
Tips for a better banking relationship
Credit Score – Why is this so important?
Credit scores are obtained at Al Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB). Credit scores are used by banks to assess credit card and loan applications.
A credit score is a three-digit number that predicts the likelihood of an individual or a company to miss payments in the next 12 months. The score ranges from 300 to 900 and the higher your score the lower the level of risk.
There are typically four ranges of credit scores from Bad to Excellent:
- 300 to 619: Bad credit score
- 620 to 679: Fair credit score
- 680 to 730: Good credit score
- 731 and above: Excellent credit score
Your credit score is very important. It can have an impact on so many things in our daily lives. It affects how you are viewed by lenders and your ability to borrow money for a personal loan or mortgage or credit card. It can even affect your ability to get mobile phone contracts, monthly car insurance and other financial products. The higher your credit score, the better chance you have of being able to borrow and to borrow at better rates (interest fees and charges). If your credit score is low, your application may be rejected by the lender or approved with higher fees and charges.
Read more about how to improve your credit score
Here’s what you can do to keep a high credit score:
- Make payments on time.
- Don’t bounce cheques.
- Reduce how many credit cards and loans you have.
- Make sure the details on your credit report are correct and report any mistakes.
- Reduce outstanding debt balances.
- Limit loan applications as each application appears on your credit record and may negatively impact your credit score, particularly if you are declined a loan. If you are refused credit, you should wait for some months before applying again.
For more information visit https://aecb.gov.ae
Payment Methods – How to pay every day
We’re all consumers of goods and services, and we make payments on a regular basis. Examples of day-to-day payments for goods and services include groceries, petrol, and entertainment. The choice of payment method usually depends on:
- How convenient the payer finds different methods.
- Which methods the seller accepts.
- How quickly the transaction can be completed.
- How safe the method is perceived to be.
Types of Payments
| Cheques | Debit Cards | Making Payments Abroad |
|---|---|---|
| A cheque is a secure payment mechanism that enables an account holder to instruct their provider to pay a specific amount of money to a specific person or organisation via preprinted cheque books. | Debit cards allow account holders to access cash from their accounts and to pay for goods in stores, over the internet, by telephone and by post. They work like electronic cheques because the payment is immediately taken directly from the account. | Debit cards can be used abroad to pay or withdraw cash from ATMs and can be used in stores, hotels, restaurants, etc, that display the logo of the card company, such as Visa or MasterCard. |
Take note of hidden charges!
It is important to keep potential hidden charges in mind, these include:
- If you shop online or by phone, the price you see advertised is not always the total cost.
- Before you confirm your order, you need to know any costs you may have to pay.
- Look carefully at the total price- is the item still the bargain it seemed to be?
- Foreign Exchange fees/charges.
New ways to pay – payment methods of the future
Technology is introducing innovative new ways to pay. An example is a mobile wallet, like Apple Wallet with the Apple Pay service. A mobile wallet stores your payment card (debit or credit card) information on your smartphone for example, which you can then use to make purchases online or in stores that can accept that form of payment. Mobile wallets often have security features that makes it more secure than having a physical payment card.
Anything cash can do, Payit does it better
Payit is the UAE’s first all-in-one digital wallet. Powered by First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) Payit was created with a vision to help the UAE evolve to a cashless society.
payit – Digital Wallet | First Abu Dhabi Bank – UAE (bankfab.com)
Important information required for consumers of financial services
The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) has established a regulatory framework to protect consumers from financial misconduct. This framework includes the Consumer Protection Regulation (CPR) and the Consumer Protection Standards (CPS).
All licensed financial institutions governed by the UAE’s Central Bank must adhere to the CPR and CPS when handling consumer data.
In addition, The Consumer Protection Department of the CBUAE works to protect consumers through education, policymaking, compliance monitoring, and tracking the resolution of complaints. Consumers, defined as individuals and/or sole proprietorship SMEs, can submit a complaint through the Central Bank of the UAE’s complaint management system once they have raised the matter with their bank or provider and if the matter remains unresolved.
For more information visit the CBUAE Consumer pages: CBUAE | Consumer (centralbank.ae)
The Central Bank of the UAE requires the information given by financial services providers to be fair and not misleading and to highlight any special risks.
Most providers have signed up to codes of practice which require that their marketing literature and the terms and conditions in their contracts are in plain language, so that everyone can understand what they are agreeing to do and whether the product is suitable for them.
Providers must give prospective customers clear, relevant information that is not misleading and highlights any special risks. This applies even if the customer has decided to buy a product on their own initiative and without asking for advice. If the product information is misleading, the provider might have to compensate the customer later if they buy after being misled by the literature.
There are several ways in which people can obtain information direct from providers.
How to know more? Here’s where to find some financial information
Bank branch
You can go into the branch of a bank and pick up leaflets and brochures on the product or service you want; you can also use this to ‘shop around’ for similar products offered by different providers.
Marketing brochures and phone
Providers, and especially large banks and credit card companies, send out marketing literature through email and carry out telephone marketing. This can be a good way to alert you to a new product but never give any personal or financial details over the phone.
Provider websites
All providers have websites, which not only give information on the wide range of products offered under various headings but also allow prospective customers to buy and manage the products online. Websites are regulated in the same way as printed marketing materials and the information they give must be clear and accurate.
Television and radio
Many providers use TV and radio to advertise their products and their brands. They do not give a lot of information and are intended mainly to build awareness.
Bank Customer Service Representative/Relationship Manager
A prospective customer can arrange an interview to discuss their financial needs with a member of staff of a bank, either at the branch or by asking for a phone meeting, as they can be expected to have good and accurate knowledge of the products offered.
Newspaper
Most of the UAE’s national newspapers have a personal finance/money section in both their paper versions and their online websites. They contain a selection of current stories on personal financial products and warnings against problems and scams.
Price comparison websites
Price comparison websites have been developed to enable customers to compare financial products more easily and thus to make informed choices. They contain ‘best buy’ tables and quotation tools.
Family and peers
An obvious source of advice, but not always a reliable one. However, the relative or friend giving the advice may not necessarily have good (if any) knowledge of financial products. A situation in which a person would need to consult a relative or a friend is if they are buying a financial product jointly.
Fraud and Security
We put your peace of mind first. At FAB, protecting our customers from fraud is a key priority and we take pride in our stellar record of doing so.
We are always working to keep you safe by adopting global best practices in all we do. Rest assured that as our digital channels become more prevalent, they are matched in levels of security.
Get tips on how to keep your money secure from fraud by visiting our fraud page – Fraud and Security | First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) – UAE (bankfab.com)