PayperWIZ

Best credit cards in United Arab Emirates, by what they actually pay

Every card in the United Arab Emirates catalogue, ranked by what it genuinely returns on each kind of spending — after the monthly cap, and after the minimum spend some cards require before any bonus rate applies.

141 cards · catalogue v101 · 115 of 141 read from the issuer's own terms

The best rate here with nothing attached to it

Emirates Islamic Emarati pays 2.50% on everything else with no monthly cap and no minimum spend to unlock it — which is rarer, and worth more over a year, than most of the larger numbers in the table below.

The 115 United Arab Emirates cards read off the issuer

Every rate on this page came from somewhere. These ones came from the bank's own published terms, read by a person on the date shown, with the cap and the minimum spend that the comparison tables leave out. Each has its own page.

1 United Arab Emirates card whose issuer will not say

These were read too, and the bank's own page for each of them publishes no rate you are actually paid — only a best case, written as "up to". Any percentage quoted for them, on this page or anywhere else, came from a third party. They are listed because a rate nobody will stand behind is worth knowing about before you apply, not after.

Every category in United Arab Emirates

In the order people spend, not biggest number first. The highest rate on a card is routinely the one that means least, so what limits it is shown beside it.

Best published return per category in United Arab Emirates, from 141 cards. The headline rate is one that covers the whole category; where a bigger rate covers only part of it, that is shown underneath with what it covers.
Spending onBest returnCard
groceries10.00%RAKBANK WorldcheckedRAKBANK · AED 997.50 a yearat most AED 300 back a month; needs AED 10,000 a month on the card first
dining10.00%or 50.00% (refreshments and snacks), with Ajman LIFE Platinum CashbackRAKBANK WorldcheckedRAKBANK · AED 997.50 a yearat most AED 300 back a month; needs AED 10,000 a month on the card first
fuel15.00%FAB ADNOC RewardscheckedFirst Abu Dhabi Bank · AED 300 a yearat most AED 150 back a month; needs AED 3,000 a month on the card first
supermarkets5.00%or 10.00% (Shukran brand stores), with Shukran ADCBFAB CashbackcheckedFirst Abu Dhabi Bank · AED 300 a yearat most AED 150 back a month; needs AED 3,000 a month on the card first
online and delivery10.00%or 50.00% (video streaming subscriptions), with RAKBANK TitaniumSharjah Islamic CashbackcheckedSharjah Islamic Bank · AED 199 a yearat most AED 300 back a month
travel12.30%FAB TravelcheckedFirst Abu Dhabi Bank · AED 1,575 a year
phone and internet4.00%or 8.00% (Etisalat channels, Smiles app and elGrocer spends), with CBD Smiles SignatureDIB Consumer Cashback PlatinumcheckedDubai Islamic Bank · AED 249 a yearat most AED 150 back a month; needs AED 4,000 a month on the card first
entertainment50.00%RAKBANK TitaniumcheckedRAKBANK · AED 0 a yearat most AED 100 back a month; needs AED 2,000 a month on the card first
pharmacy2.00%or 7.00% (spas, salons and gyms), with ADCB Emirati IslamicWio Credit CardcheckedWio Bank · AED 0 a yearat most AED 2,500 back a month
education4.00%or 10.05% (school bus canteen uniform), with FAB GEMS WorldADIB CashbackcheckedADIB · AED 103.95 a yearat most AED 300 back a month
government4.00%or 10.00% (RTA Transport Payments), with Emirates Islamic RTA CardADIB CashbackcheckedADIB · AED 103.95 a yearat most AED 100 back a month
rent and property2.00%Wio Credit CardcheckedWio Bank · AED 0 a yearat most AED 2,500 back a month
everything else2.50%or 10.00% (AED mobile wallet POS, total monthly spend 15,000+), with Standard Chartered Platinum XEmirates Islamic EmaraticheckedEmirates Islamic · AED 0 a year
How these were worked out. 115 of the 141 cards here have been read against the issuer's own terms line by line and are marked checked in the tables below. The rest come from each issuer's published material and have not been checked that way. Every rate is converted to what the card actually returns — points and miles are valued at the redemption rate the programme publishes, using the rate anyone can take rather than the best one available after a transfer. Where a card's programme publishes no redemption value, the card is left off this page rather than listed at a number that would be a guess. Caps and minimum monthly spends are shown because they are usually what decides whether a headline rate is real.

This is a table. Your wallet is a decision.

PayperWIZ holds the cards you actually own and names the right one at the till — after the cap you have already used this month, and after the foreign-currency fee. It works offline and needs no bank connection.

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Other markets

The same working, for the other countries in the catalogue.