Dubai banking questions

[Lugano]

So I am continuing my education of the situation in Dubai. If I were to get on with Emirates I would continue to own my home in the US (even though of course it's already on the market..... ;) ) and would have to make payments.

I would plan on sending a fair amount of my pay back to the US each month.

How easy or hard is it to do this? I have heard some banks are tougher than others to deal with locally. But most banking is done online anyway.

What's the scoop about banking and pay at EK?

When are the pilots paid each month? How are they paid? Direct deposit? Can they then turn around and transfer that into a non-UAE bank? Can the pilot choose his own bank, like UBS or Credit Suisse?

Thanks!

[tbaylx]

Alot of the guys send money everymonth for various reasons. The salary is direct deposited into a bank of your choice and almost all of them allow someway of transfering money abroad in a currency of your choice. HSBC for example you can do it online, by phone or by telex. Some choices cost you about $20 bucks others are free.

In any case its an easy process once you've set it up.

[Fluke]

Join the Emirates Pilots Club and you get 2 international transfers per month from the Mashreq bank free...:)

[Lugano]

Cool. Thanks for the answer. What else does this Emirates Pilots Club do? They talked a bit about it at the seminar I went to.

[Kamelchaser]

Whatever you do, don't use HSBC!!

I'm sure everyone has a nightmare story to tell about UAE banks, but here's mine...

After banking with HSBC for many years, and putting up with their shocking customer service, I finally realised I was losing about 4% of my money every time I transferred a large part of my salary home. Due to their massive commission, which I wasn't aware of, I was losing about 800dhs a month.

I switched to Lloyds bank after finding their commission to be about .7%..a huge saving.

Now to try to close my HSBC accounts. First attempt..my fault, I didn't cancel an overseas monthly payment so my visa card wasn't closed properly. After sorting that, with many, many phone calls, I finally got a "final final final"" credit card bill faxed to me by a "senior" supervisor, which I paid immediately online.(we're now three months into the saga).

Two months later I start getting more visa bills from HSBC for my "closed account"...now penalty payments for non-payment of nothing..think it's now up to 700 or 800dhs!!

I've ignored it..now I get up to four phone calls a day from the HSBC..when I answer..sometimes they just click off, sometimes it's elevator music, sometimes the caller just listens for my answer and doesn't say anything!! The most astonishingly childish corporate bullying I've ever experienced!!

Once I answered but didn't say anything...it must have surprised the Indian lady on the other end..as she finally said "hello?, hello?"..I caught her out and said "ahh.there is someone there!!..and she hung up.

Unbef@#k'nbeleivable.

Moral of the story...don't bank with HSBC.

PS...fantastic service from Lloyds since I joined them (disclaimer..no incentives were offered by Lloyds for this plug!)

[bus canuck]

I'm racking my brain, but I can't think of anything in life that has frustrated me more than dealing with the banks here. There are not enough of these :ugh: icons to describe how bad it is to deal with ALL the banks. I've dealt with 1/2 a dozen and none are better than others.

I don't have any answers, just be prepared for ignorant, incompetent, moronic...oh I give up...you get the idea...

[Nil defects]

Hi Kamel,

I also recently changed from Mashreq to HSBC.

Have just done my first big transfer to home country and am shocked to find it has cost me 1000 dirhams more than I expected. HSBC offer 1 free transfer home per month for EK crew and they can certainly afford to waive the 50 dirham charge when they charge such an exhorbitant rate. (Does appear to be around 4%)

Be careful to all the new guys joining. HSBC will come to your house to sign you up, but that is where the customer service ends and the rip-off begins.

Looks like I will have to go through the tortuous process off shutting HSBC accounts down and moving to Lloyds too!

For anyone who does elect to do that - step one is to get a clearance certificate from HSBC before then proceeding to HR Admin (visa services). (EK won`t pay your salary into any other bank until you have that clearance.)

Hope that saves you at least one wasted drive into town.

[Yossarian]

Be warned, HCBC is waiting like a wolf at the door for new-joiners. As a previous poster stated, they will come to your home, sign you up and then disappear. The good service ends with your signature.

Having said that, most of the banks in Dubai have shocking to non-existent service in my experience. Mashreq has been disappointing, but I have found that their online banking requires few visits to a branch, so suits me fine, coupled with 2 free international transfers a month.

I enjoy Lloyds for generally speaking being able to talk to someone who seems to know something about banking and discuss it in English without the usual Dubai comms problems.

We all have individual needs, so finding the right bank can be a real chore.

[EGGW]

Their Status account is sh1te, i am canceling this week. No one has EVER called me to enquire about my status account (some sort of vip service). When i recently enquired about a loan, the HSBC MEFCO(loan dept) lot didn't even bother to call back, muppets...
So i sent a polite letter to the head of the HSBC status and Deira branch. I got a friggin e-mail asking me to call them, i mean they have my phone numbers. So i went elsewhere for the loan.... and saved money.

I just wish that there was an easy way to shut down the account. Lloyds has tempted me, native English speaking clerks at the reception area, etc, etc..

EGGW

[Kamelchaser]

I'm pleased this issue has been raised here. I'm making it my New Year's resolution to ensure as many people as possible know about the shyte service and rip-off foreign transfer rates of HSBC..in particular for new joiners who get railroaded into joining HSBC.

Please do your bit if you don't like being ripped off..pass the word.:D

[GlueBall]

An alternative method for easy money transfer from any bank to anywhere is via debit card, which is good for $300-$500 per day. If you use multiple banks, you can send your family multiple debit cards.

[Gulf News]

In my 10 years in UAE I have yet to find a decent financial institution. They are all staffed by ignorant gofers. HSBC failed to process two standing instructions at the end of last month which nearly resulted in late payment charges had I not been monitoring the situation. Their excuse "it was Eid then Christmas so we were working on reduced staff":ugh: They will however investigate further for which they will charge an investigation fee of DHS150. ASSS Hooooooooooooles.

[nitro rig driver]

Well i have banked with HSBC both in the uk and dxb with (touch wood) no problems with my status account (which yoou pay 70 aed for a month and alllows 1 intl transfer per month for free),having read the comments above on exchange rates that they used last month was aed-£ 7.55,

Does that sound good or bad compared with others peoples exprience

[scanscanscan]

In my day in Bahrain a postal draft from The Bank of Indian Money exchange beat the big banks exchange rate and other charges hands down...on a GF salary you simply cannot afford to do business with the big banks....I avoided about BD20 per month for 24years.

[Thylakoid]

I have been banking with National of Dubai since day one here (seventeen years have passed!!).
Very few hickups, but you do get frustrated at times with their banking system and policies. They have a good online system, credit cards, and overseas tranfers.
Banked briefily with LLoyds, very good indeed.
ABN-AMRO ... very basic bank. I closed a credit card account with them, after many billing problems.
I have heard horror stories about HSBC, Mashrekh (spelling?), Dubai Bank, and even though I never used those, stay away from them.
:)

[ruserious]

NBD appears to have the best exchange rates from my experience, like all banks here they are crap, but TT exchange costs are about the best

[TangoUniform]

Lugano,

I have used HSBC since joining. Haven't had any real issues and get one free transfer every month. BUT, do not sign up when they track you down during your first day or two. If you do, you will be assigned to the branch in Deira and getting anything done at another branch is tough. I wanted a new card, went to a branch way out and they said I would have to close the account in Deira and then reopen one there. Don't know if all banks are that way. But other than that, no real issues-in fact really has been good. But I never deal with them on the phone. I can't understand them, and they can't understand me.

Online banking with them has been excellent.

Different perspectives, I guess.
TU

[CAYNINE]

Hi Lag,

Have been with Emirates Bank since joining 5 years ago and have been very happy with them. I make all my transfers back home on the net and the cost is reasonable. All my utilities, salik, telcom and even traffic infringements (stupid parking meters!) are all paid through the bill paying service. I am at the Umm Sequiem branch and have always found them to be helpful.

But never ever deal with HSBC or even worse Barclays!

[nolimitholdem]

A lot of EK pilots on the HSBC "Status" account don't realize that as an Emirates pilot you get 1 free wire transfer/month even on a regular free account. Good ol' Mamta won't mention that voluntarily since no doubt she gets a kickback on every new joiner she signs up on the Status. Saves you 70AED a month, unless you feel there is some value added elsewhere.

Having said that, I can't concur heartily enough that all of my dealings with HSBC have been about as enjoyable as poking a sharp stick in my eye. I was considering going to the EPC Mashreq deal, but from the comments here it sounds like Lloyds might be the way to go. Mainly I would like to get a better rate on the conversion when I do a wire transfer back home...are there any Lloyds customers here that are Canadian that could comment on their experiences?

[BigGeordie]

I've used HSBC for 4 years (started out with Emirates Bank but changed after 6 months). The secret to stress free banking seems to be to use the internet as much as possible. The less you have to deal with the highly trained customer service staff (not) in the branches the better. I hardly ever go into a branch- even cheques can be paid in using an automated machine, 24 hours a day.

[Nil defects]

The thing to realise with HSBC is that although they don`t charge you a telegraphic transfer fee, they do charge you an exhorbitant exchange rate.

If you calculate the exchange rate they are charging you versus the exchange rate of the day you will find it is about 4% worse. Other banks like Lloyds only add 0.7% to the exchange rate.

On 20,000 dirhams you are therefore losing over 600 dirhams in the false exchange rate that HSBC use.

[clevlandHD]

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.

[Trader]

Nolimit - I'm Cdn and opened a Lloyds acct a few months ago. Their customer service is BRILLIANT either at the branch or on the phone.

They did screw up delivering a new card to the Mirdiff branch but tried hard to rectify it - to the point that one of the managers said he would deliver it too my house so I would be less inconvienienced.

But, there are no free transfers. The fee is 70 dirhams per transfer if you do it online. The transfer is free if it goes to one of their International Offshore accounts.

I am completely happy with them!!!

[EGGW]

Try www.gcen.co.uk they are a good way of getting a "better" rate, no fees, they will transfer money where you like. They use current market rates. I have had a great experience with them, despite the lousy US$$. Go to the contacts link for the Dubai contact details

They use the UK HSBC treasury services. What to do...

EGGW

[NO LAND 3]

The only reason I'm still with HSBC is I can't be bothered changing my automatic payments etc and don't expect to be here much longer. What is really annoying about them is they think you are too stupid to notice their thieving little schemes.