AECB Credit Score: What It Means and How to Fix Yours

If you're applying for a mortgage, car loan, or even a new credit card in the UAE and the bank just rejected you, your AECB credit score is probably the reason. Most clients I meet have never checked it. Some don't even know it exists until a loan officer slides the report across the desk.

Quick answer

The AECB credit score is a three-digit number between 300 and 900, issued by the Al Etihad Credit Bureau under Federal Law No. 6 of 2010. Banks, telcos, and landlords use it to decide whether to lend to you, rent to you, or hand you a postpaid SIM. Above 700 is healthy. Below 600 is trouble. You can pull your own report from the AECB app or website for AED 84 (with score) and you should — because errors are common and they cost you real money.

What the AECB actually is

The Al Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB) is the federal credit reference agency for the UAE. It was set up under Federal Law No. 6 of 2010 and started issuing scores commercially around 2014. [1]

Every licensed bank, finance company, and most telcos report your payment behaviour to AECB monthly. Credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, car loans, Etisalat and du postpaid plans, even some utility accounts — all of it feeds the file.

The score itself sits on a scale from 300 to 900. Lower means riskier. The bureau also produces a separate "probability of default" percentage, which is what banks actually look at internally, but the headline number is what you'll see on your report.

Honestly, most UAE residents discover their AECB credit score the hard way — when a loan gets declined.

How the score is calculated

AECB doesn't publish the exact algorithm. But the broad factors are well known and mirror international bureau models:

• Payment history — late payments, missed payments, written-off accounts. This is the biggest single driver.
• Credit utilisation — how much of your available credit card limit you're using. Stay below 30% if you can.
• Length of credit history — longer is better. Closing your oldest card hurts you.
• Credit mix — a blend of secured and unsecured products looks healthier than five credit cards and nothing else.
• Recent enquiries — every time a bank pulls your file for a new application, it leaves a footprint. Five applications in a month and you look desperate.

One thing that trips up expats specifically: bounced cheques. A returned security cheque or rental cheque shows up on your AECB file and tanks your score fast. Under Article 401 of the UAE Penal Code the criminal exposure for bounced cheques was largely decriminalised by Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2020, effective January 2022, but the credit reporting consequence didn't go anywhere. [2]

Watch out: A single bounced cheque can drop your score 50-100 points overnight. Settling the cheque later helps, but the record stays visible on your file for 24 months from the date of settlement.

How to check your AECB credit score

You have three options and they're all priced by AECB directly:

1. AECB mobile app (iOS and Android) — credit report with score, AED 84.
2. AECB website (aecb.gov.ae) — same product, same price.
3. In-person at a customer happiness centre — Abu Dhabi (Al Maryah Island) or Dubai. Slower, same fee structure.

You'll need your Emirates ID and a UAE mobile number registered against it. The report is generated in roughly five minutes once you complete the OTP and payment.

A credit report without the score is AED 31.50. Don't bother — pay the extra and get the number. [3]

You're entitled to dispute anything on the report. AECB has 30 days under its regulations to investigate and respond, and the burden sits on the reporting bank to prove the entry is accurate. In my experience, about one in four disputes I've helped clients file results in some correction — usually a settled loan still showing as active, or a closed card still showing a balance.

What's a "good" AECB credit score in practice

The bureau won't give you a single cut-off, and frankly each bank sets its own threshold. But here's what I see in practice across UAE retail lending:

• 750 and above — premium pricing, fast approval, you'll get the rate advertised on the website.
• 650 to 749 — approval likely, but expect a higher margin or a smaller limit than you asked for.
• 580 to 649 — case-by-case. Salary, employer, and length of service start to matter more than the score itself.
• Below 580 — most mainstream banks will decline outright. You're looking at finance companies with rates north of 25% APR.

Mortgages are stricter. For a Central Bank-regulated home loan most lenders want 700+, and the better rates start around 750. The Mortgage Regulations issued under Circular 31/2013 set the 80% LTV cap for expats on a first property, but your score determines whether you get the headline rate or 1.5% above it. [4]

How to fix a bad AECB credit score

There's no magic. There's just discipline applied in the right order.

Settle what's in default first. A "written-off" or "loan under legal" flag is the most toxic entry on a UAE credit file. Banks see it and stop reading. Negotiate a settlement, get a clearance letter, and confirm in writing that the bank will update AECB within 30 days.

Bring utilisation down. If your credit card limit is AED 50,000 and your balance is AED 45,000, your score is taking a daily beating. Pay it down to under AED 15,000 and watch the number move within two reporting cycles.

Don't close old accounts. I know it feels tidy. It isn't. That dusty 2017 credit card with a zero balance is anchoring your credit history length — keep it open and use it once a quarter.

Stop shopping. Every new application generates a hard enquiry. Pick one bank, prepare properly, apply once.

Wait. Negative entries don't sit on your file forever. Most paid-off defaults age off after five years. Late payments fade in influence after about 24 months if your conduct since then has been clean.

Don't pay anyone who promises to "delete" entries from your AECB file for a fee. They can't. It's not legal and it doesn't work — the bank reports the data, not AECB, and only the bank can correct it.

Costs at a glance: Credit report with score AED 84. Report only AED 31.50. Dispute filing: free. "Credit score boosting service" from a random WhatsApp number: a scam, every time.

When your credit score becomes a legal problem

Two scenarios I see often.

First, the travel ban. If a bank obtains a civil judgment for an unpaid debt, it can apply to the court for a travel ban under Article 324 of the UAE Civil Procedure Law. Your AECB file flags the default; the bank then moves to enforcement. The ban is lifted when the judgment is satisfied or a payment plan is filed and accepted. [5]

Second, employment. Some employers — particularly in financial services regulated by the DFSA (Dubai Financial Services Authority, the DIFC's financial regulator) or the FSRA in ADGM — run AECB checks as part of fit-and-proper assessments. A messy credit file won't necessarily cost you the job, but undisclosed defaults sometimes do.

If either of these is on your horizon, get advice before the bank does anything formal. Settlement leverage is dramatically better before judgment than after.

For more on related issues, see our guide to banking and consumer credit in the UAE.

Sources

[1] Al Etihad Credit Bureau — established under Federal Law No. 6 of 2010 concerning Credit Information. aecb.gov.ae

[2] Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2020 amending provisions of the Commercial Transactions Law on bounced cheques, effective 2 January 2022.

[3] AECB published fee schedule, current as of 2024. aecb.gov.ae/en/products-services

[4] UAE Central Bank Mortgage Regulations, Circular 31/2013 (Regulations Regarding Mortgage Loans).

[5] Federal Law No. 42 of 2022 on Civil Procedure, replacing the previous civil procedure regime — provisions on travel bans in debt enforcement.

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