A personal loan in the UAE can run for at most 48 months, can total at most 20 times your salary or total income, and the monthly deduction cannot exceed half of your salary, according to u.ae citing the Central Bank of the UAE rulebook. Before lending, the bank must give you a Key Facts Statement, verify your income and check your Al Etihad Credit Bureau record. After you sign, the Central Bank’s standards give you a cooling-off period of 5 complete business days.
What limits apply to a personal loan in the UAE?
u.ae lists the Central Bank limits for personal loans in one place. Banks and finance companies must make sure each of them is respected:
| Rule | Limit |
|---|---|
| Size of the loan | No more than 20 times your salary or total income |
| Repayment period | No more than 48 months |
| Monthly deduction | No more than half of your salary |
| If repayment runs to retirement age | The loan is rescheduled so the deduction is no more than 30 per cent of your income or pension |
| Post-dated cheques | Only enough to cover the instalments, with a total value of no more than 120 per cent of the loan or the debit balance |
| Interest calculation | Declared by the lender and calculated on the reducing balance, on an annual basis |
These limits are for personal loans only. Car loans are a separate product on u.ae, secured by a mortgage over the car, capped at 80 per cent of the vehicle’s value and repayable over up to 60 months.
Who can borrow and which documents do lenders ask for?
u.ae says a personal loan may be secured by your salary and end-of-service gratuity, or by any regular income from a well-defined source. It does not publish a minimum salary or a residency condition, so those are set by each lender and are not an official UAE rule.
What the Central Bank’s Consumer Protection Standards do fix is how the lender proves your income. The lender must verify it where reasonably possible and must not rely only on your own declaration. You also sign a confirmation of your income and your existing liabilities. For identity and employment papers, the u.ae banking page lists the documents used to open a bank account: Emirates ID, residence visa, passport or family book, and a salary certificate or employment letter. The full checklist for a loan is the lender’s own, so ask for it before you apply.
How does the Etihad Credit Bureau report affect an application?
The Standards require the lender to verify your details with the Credit Information Agency, which is Al Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB), and to examine your credit record before it grants credit. u.ae describes the report as a summary of your obligations and bills for the past 3 years plus your last reported salary. It contains your credit score, an income utilisation ratio, 36 months of payment history, your credit contracts and any court obligations.
You can read the same report yourself: sign in with UAE PASS on the AECB website or app, choose Credit report or Credit score, pay online and receive a PDF instantly. Our guide to the UAE credit score range and how to check it covers the score, and two reports explain newer entries on the file: micro-loans now appearing on credit reports and CashNow data in credit reports.
What must the bank tell you before you sign?
The Standards require these items before any credit is granted:
- A copy of the offer and the Key Facts Statement, a plain-language summary of the loan’s key features and risks.
- The annual percentage rate and a clear warning about late payment fees and early settlement fees.
- The consequences of not paying: a negative credit bureau rating, collection measures involving collateral, collection fees and claims on guarantees, and legal action through the courts.
- A dated, signed affordability summary, with a copy to you, and a test of whether you could still pay if rates rise. If that test shows the debt burden limit would be exceeded, you receive a written summary and sign an acknowledgement.
- Information in English and Arabic, under the Central Bank’s Consumer Protection Regulation.
What can you still do after signing?
You have two protections in the first two weeks:
- Cooling-off period: the lender must tell you about a cooling-off period of 5 complete business days after signing. By the 6th business day you must reject or negotiate, or the contract stands. If you withdraw, fees are refunded net of the lender’s disclosed, reasonable direct costs.
- Payout deadline: unless you agreed otherwise, the funds must reach you within 10 complete business days of signing. If the lender delays, you may cancel without cost or penalty.
How do repayment and early settlement work?
Interest runs on the reducing balance, and lenders may not charge interest on accrued interest. If you settle in full early, the lender may not charge future unearned interest. If you pay part early, interest is adjusted in proportion to the principal that remains. The fee itself is capped by the Central Bank in a separate fee annexure, so the figure that applies to you is the one printed in your Key Facts Statement and fee schedule.
Once a loan is cleared, the lender must return any remaining post-dated cheques within 7 complete business days, and must issue a letter of no liability within 7 complete business days of your request. You can also move a loan to another bank or finance company in the UAE: the current lender must allow the transfer without undue delay and may charge an early settlement fee as prescribed by the Central Bank. For how rate changes reach existing loans, see our explainer on the UAE base rate and what it means for loans.
What are your rights and where do you complain?
The Central Bank rules bar lenders from marketing loans by direct telephone contact, from applying undue pressure in sales, from abusive or unreasonable contract terms and from coercive pressure when collecting repayments. They also bar signed blank cheques.
The complaint route has three steps. First raise the problem with branch staff or the contact centre. Then file a formal complaint with the bank’s complaints unit. If it stays unresolved, the Central Bank’s Consumer Protection Department and Sanadak, the independent complaints unit set up by the Central Bank, take over. u.ae says Sanadak is free of charge and may reject a complaint if you did not first complain to the institution or did not wait 15 calendar days after doing so.
What happens if you cannot keep up with repayments?
The Consumer Protection Regulation requires lenders to identify borrowers who are struggling to service a debt, to name a credit counsellor on request and to tell delinquent borrowers which counsellors are available. Contact the lender before an instalment is missed, because the consequences the lender had to warn you about at signing are a negative credit bureau rating, collection measures, collection fees and court action.
For people who cannot repay at all, u.ae describes Federal Decree-Law No. 19 of 2019 on Insolvency, which lets individuals reschedule debts and under which a court-appointed expert prepares a plan to settle debts within three years. Our guide to restructuring UAE loans and your rights explains how to ask a bank for credit counselling, and the UAE travel ban check by emirate shows which service to use to see whether a hold exists on your name.
Where to go next
- UAE credit score (AECB): range, what affects it and how to check
- UAE debt help: restructuring your loans and your rights
- UAE salary deductions: what employers can deduct and limits
- UAE gratuity deductions: what employers and banks can take
- Micro-loans on UAE credit reports
- UAE travel ban check by emirate
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