Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Dubai Expat Help Forum

Hi All

I am a brand new member to this Forum - although got some great input yesterday to my plea for guidance....so thought I would try and give a little back.

Knowing what you know now - and following your own experiences in moving to Dubai, if you had a Financial Institution (Bank - Financial Services Company) that could support you in terms of products, services and information - what would have made your life/move easier?

Car/Personal Loans, Credit Cards, Insurance Products, Mortgage, Sales Finance, Loyalty Credit Cards....what would make life a little simpler for people like me that are due to move a family of 20 years to Dubai....what would remove the painful learnings and help people make a smooth transition.

I ask these questions both from a personal and professional perspective.

As always I remain gratefull for your input.

I'm not sure if you're asking this to help develop a new business idea or just for your own personal ease, I'll go with the former and you can pick out some useful points if it's just the latter.

First of all, a bank that offers decent customer service would be good. HSBC have "lost" some of my money and despite several hours on the phone nobody will take responsibility for finding it! Gits.

Having just moved here recently, there is certainly a cash crunch when you come to Dubai. I sold my house in the UK but it didn't complete til I got out here, so basically I had none of my equity to spend.

The cash problems are:
- closing out life in the UK, including paying for shipping
- Having to pay 6 months rent up-front out here (my company eventually did it but not everyone will be so lucky)
- Everybody wants a deposit for something - water, TV etc.
- Buying a car, though that's not quite as urgent as you can rent on an international license and you can only buy when you get your visa which takes some time.

With that in mind, outwith basic loans, financial services I would consider paying for would include:

- Some sort of bridging loan facility, where I could take a short term loan that I could have paid off when my equity came through
- Help/ information getting a local and offshore bank account set up before I came, makes transfering money much easier (lower charges for transfers would also be a draw)
- An offshore account that actually moves all your UK direct debits from your existing bank account to the offshore one for you (Lloyds and HSBC don't do this as far as I can see, you have to move them all yourself)
- A loyalty credit card for Emirates (think Citibank or someone does it already, would be a bigger draw if tied to a UK high street bank)

From a business perspective, I know my company complains that paying wages here is a hassle if it's across many banks so they push you to go with one bank to make the transfers easier (hence HSBC for me). If you could find a way for businesses to pay expat wages with minimum admin I'm sure it would help people make the switch too.

Thanks for the Reply - I have to say I am so impressed with the Quality of interaction on this Forum, and the amount of input people are personally prepared to give in the pursuit of helping others.

I have already mentioned this Forum to some colleagues and will continue to proactively use this resource as a information repository.

Steve,

Just a word of caution, but please, please use the search function first, if you are not able to find what you are looking for, then and only then ask.