Banking
I am banking with HSBC. Service is pathetic but after shopping around it seems to be a UAE thing...not limited to HSBC. Whatever bank you deal with, you will have horror stories.
As for tranfers, I send money (US) to Europe every month and I have the official rate (3.66Dhm/USD). But every time a 100Dhs fee is collected by CitiBank in NY! And every bank I looked at said there is no way to go around that.
BTW, some offshore banks will not deal with local bank as Mashreq so they will not accept money comming from them; check with your institution abroad before commiting with someone over here.