Revealed: Top 5 UAE bank products of 2014

Do you know which bank charges the lowest interest rate for car finance? Or the ones that charge a less than 4 per cent interest rate on mortgages? Are you aware of the bank that offers up to Dh3 million in personal loans? Or the one that offers zero annual charges, an under 3 per cent interest rate and miles on its credit cards?

Even if you’re inundated with frequent phone calls from bank reps marketing their latest promotional offers and ‘lowest’ interest rates, we all know how difficult it can be to identify the best ones that suit your needs when you’re actually in the market for one.

To make that chore a little easier, SouqAlMal.com, one of the region’s leading comparison websites for consumer products, has come up with a list of top 5 banking products for the first quarter of this year.

In the price comparison website’s list of the UAE’s top five most popular banking products for the first quarter of 2014, ADIB was revealed as the leading bank for personal loans, credit cards and mortgages. In the car loans category, however, it was Al Hilal Bank that secured the popularity vote for its New Vehicle Finance option.

This is the third list of its kind released by Souqalmal.com, which publishes the results as a mechanism to create greater transparency in the nation’s personal finance market.

The team at Souqalmal.com compiles the quarterly list from the top fi¬ve most-viewed banking products across four categories: Credit cards, personal loans, home loans and car loans. Products only make the list if they receive the most views from visitors to the website.

Ambareen Musa, founder and CEO of Souqalmal.com, said: “It is our third list of its kind that we are publishing and the first for 2014. The list has been extremely popular in the past and we now have a live feed of most popular banking products on our homepage based on the last month data. It is a fantastic tool for banks to know how their products stack up against their competitors and very useful for consumers who require some starting point in their search for the right product.”

For this quarter, three banks made the list for the first time including Union National Bank, which secured fourth position in the loans category for its Expatriate Loan and fi¬fth place in the credit card segment for its Titanium offering for those earning over Dh8,000.

The other two new entries are National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), which secured third position for its zero annual fee Platinum Visa Card and Noor Bank, which was awarded the fifth spot in the personal finance segment for its Personal Finance For Expats product for those earning over Dh5,000.

In the credit cards category this year, it was ADIB’s Etihad Guest Visa Platinum Card, which rewards users with Etihad air miles, that took the lead in the credit cards category.

Etihad was also the attraction for the second placed card in this category – the Etihad Guest Above Platinum Card – from Abu Dhabi Commerical Bank (ADCB), which offers similar airmiles’ rewards. Both demand a minimum salary of Dh15,000, however while ADCB does not demand the Dh2,000 annual fee its rival does, it demands a higher rate of 3.09 per cent compared to ADIB’s 2.83 per cent.

In the personal loans category, the top 5 banks were ADIB, Citibank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Union National Bank and Noor Bank most demanding a minimum salary of Dh5,000.

And for home finance, variable rate financing seemed to be most common among the Top 5. ADIB secured the 1st position with its Home Finance for Expats product that offered a variable reducing rate of 4.49 per cent for those earning over Dh15,000. Abu Dhabi Finance’s Fixed Home Loan for Dubai properties made it to the top 5 this quarter with a reducing rate of 4.49 per cent followed by Al Hilal Bank home finance product.

In the car finance category, it was Al Hilal Bank that came out on top, attracting the most views for its New Vehicle Finance offering that comes with a 3.61 per cent reducing rate.

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