With this figure in mind, it’s little wonder the number of loans taken out by UAE residents in the first quarter of 2015 increased by 6.5 percent from the same time period in 2014, and according to National Bank of Abu Dhabi, consumers took out a total of AED 1.3 trillion in personal loans from March 2014 – March 2015.
The survey conducted by compareit4me also found 42.6 percent of respondents have taken out personal loans. Thus reflecting further just how great the need is for consumers to gain quick access to large sums of money to deal with the burden of rising costs of living in a region where you have to fund starting a new life away from your home country, and keeping up with an often fast paced, high flying life at that.
UAE banks are, however, continuing to offer more and more support to help reduce debt. Adding to their portfolio of products to provide more consolidation options.
Banks including, Emirates NBD, NBAD, ADIB and Mashreq offer consumers the chance to consolidate their debt into one loan – meaning they make only one manageable monthly payment, as opposed to numerous. Mashreq, for example, are among those offering zero percent interest for the first three months if a customer transfers an outstanding balance from other bank cards.
Jon Richards, CEO, said: “Public holidays always see an increase in spending…this highlights the importance of debt consolidation as an alternative to struggling with multiple monthly payments.”
With an increasing amount of UAE banks offering competitive rates on consolidation loans and credit cards, the amount of residents struggling to deal with debt could drastically decrease.
