Personal UAE bank accounts? Which one is the easiest to open?

blancmon229 said:

If someone is a resident of UAE

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blancmon229 said:

you don't have a UAE address because you don't reside there?

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What are you smoking?

blancmon229 said:

You can have a residence permit for a country and not live there. I don't see the problem.

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Residence permits mean nothing. Banks don't really care about those. Don't think your chances of opening a personal bank account in UAE are very high since you're a non-resident... Unless you deposit seven figures, in which case you can get better services elsewhere.

You can try Wio or Zand, though.

Sols said:

Residence permits mean nothing. Banks don't really care about those. Don't think your chances of opening a personal bank account in UAE are very high since you're a non-resident... Unless you deposit seven figures, in which case you can get better services elsewhere.

You can try Wio or Zand, though.

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One might wonder about your smoking preferences as well. If you have a residence permit (i.e. Emirates id) it is vastly easier to open a personal bank account in the UAE than without one, even if you dont actually physically reside in the UAE, and dont get your income from the UAE, and dont deposit any money.
I managed to open 3 personal bank accounts in the UAE in the first few weeks after getting my Emirates id, and staying at short term accommodations and with no local income. Only deposited the minimum to get a credit card at one of them. Had no problems, no rejections. For one I admit I used a contact who gave a "warm" intro, but would probably have worked without that.

And they send the cards with courier/delivery service to any local address you give them.

Cloudbanck said:

One might wonder about your smoking preferences as well.

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Only the wackiest of tobaccies.

I might be biased. Have seen several people with Emirati IDs but no genuine residence running around getting rejected by every bank, except Wio and/or Zand. Maybe it is possible, though. Each situation being unique and all that.

Sols said:

Only the wackiest of tobaccies.

I might be biased. Have seen several people with Emirati IDs but no genuine residence running around getting rejected by every bank, except Wio and/or Zand. Maybe it is possible, though. Each situation being unique and all that.

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Yeah, could depend on what type of visa one has, and other factors. I was advised for one bank that with remote worker visa, one should go to the Dubai mall branch as they are familiar with this visa, and that other branches would reject you.
The size of the foreign income, and what country it comes from, and if you are an employee or have your own business probably matters too. Guessing a large income as an employee of a well known western company helps.

Sols said:

Residence permits mean nothing. Banks don't really care about those. Don't think your chances of opening a personal bank account in UAE are very high since you're a non-resident... Unless you deposit seven figures, in which case you can get better services elsewhere.

You can try Wio or Zand, though.

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I think Zand doesn't allow registering with personal accounts, only corporate. wio is still good for personal though.

ActionMan said:

I think Zand doesn't allow registering with personal accounts, only corporate. wio is still good for personal though.

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You're right, that appears to be the case. Zand can be disregarded in this case, then.

blancmon229 said:

What proof of address did they ask for if any?
And how do you top up the minimum balance, meaning do you deposit cash upon opening, or just later on they allow you to wire in the minimum?

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No proof of address, but I had to write down a UAE address on the form. They allowed to deposit cash later for the credit card, or wire in later.

Mashreq Neo - will take you 5 minutes, all you need is their app installed on the phone, Emirates ID, no address proof (you can put your hotel address and the courier will deliver your welcome kit in 2 days containing a visa card and a check book).

blancmon229 said:

If someone is a resident of UAE and has an Emirates ID, how easy is it to open a personal bank account through the bank apps vs in person?

Do any have no mimimum deposit?

Which bank, ENBD, ADCB etc... ?

How do they mail you your debit card if you don't have a UAE address because you don't reside there?

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I found it very easy to open an account with WIO using their app. It took like 5 minutes. There's a question about your sector of employment and a salary range. They didn't ask for any proof of employment. I don't remember them asking for a proof of address either but I can be wrong (I'm a resident of Dubai). Once the account approved, you receive a virtual card which I added to my iphone wallet and started using it for payments. Then I asked for a physical card which was mailed to my address in Dubai.
WIO Bank do not have their own branches. The only way to provision your account is through transfers from other banks.
I think it's worth trying. The app will ask you to scan you Emirates ID first then go through the questions. If they ask for something you don't have then you can just cancel the process.
I don't think you're required to have and address in Dubai altogether. When I first came to Dubai a couple of years ago, I opened an account with CBD. I didn't have an address at the time, so the agent used the address of the hotel where I was staying. The CBD debit card was mailed to me and I received it at the hotel. Here in Dubai, courier companies always call you and ask you where to find you to give you your courier.

I tried literally last week with Emirates NBD, I'm with emirates ID but they asked for 6 months of transaction history of my country of residence bank, printed, stamped, tranlated and legallized. PDF version printed there won't do the trick since they want it to be stamped by the bank. So you have to fly back to your home country to print that s**t then spend thousands for translation and legalization. What complete non-sense.

That wasn't the case with ADCB but i was introduced there. Also they don't deliver anymore to hotel addresses, it has to be residential address.

Those neo banks recommended above WIO and the other, are they good for 7 figures?

PinkCat said:

Those neo banks recommended above WIO and the other, are they good for 7 figures?

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Mashreq Neo is fine.
After you account balance is over $500k they might offer you to switch to Mashreq Gold account.

blancmon229 said:

ADCB is the easiest. Go to their Ubank location in city walk, get your account opened in 20min and receive debit card + checks at the same time. No proof of address needed, not even salary certficate. Although you need to write ur salary for a current account .

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so just emirates id and passport right?
that was they asked me, but the welcome pack (card etc) was delivered like a week later though.
I went for the exelency acc though

PinkCat said:

I tried literally last week with Emirates NBD, I'm with emirates ID but they asked for 6 months of transaction history of my country of residence bank, printed, stamped, tranlated and legallized. PDF version printed there won't do the trick since they want it to be stamped by the bank. So you have to fly back to your home country to print that s**t then spend thousands for translation and legalization. What complete non-sense.

That wasn't the case with ADCB but i was introduced there. Also they don't deliver anymore to hotel addresses, it has to be residential address.

Those neo banks recommended above WIO and the other, are they good for 7 figures?

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I went 3x to the ENBD branch. With 100 pages of documents they request on paper. They didn’t want to accept bank statements from “digital” banks.

Also their app didn’t want to onboard me and even shadowbanned me.

Very bad experience for a HNWI.

Wio is pretty solid. (After they existed for some time)

Mashreq is alright.

Liv is .... (don't even bother)