Due to our field of work, we know all the insights about bank accounts in the UAE. Our clients have accounts opened in different UAE banks and we know pros and cons of nearly half of the banks operating in our region – we know about their charges, about their functionalities and how our clients struggled to open a bank account in each one of those. When I was hearing those stories, all I could do is to nod along as I opened our bank account quite some time ago (before the political scene turned for us Russians). But just a few weeks ago my dear bank – Commercial Bank of Dubai – decided to raise a minimum balance to a whooping 150 ths AED and asking Bespoke Accounting to “exit our relationship” if we don’t maintain that limit (well, of course we don’t maintain – why would we for a zero interest rate???). Maybe that was just a reason….anyways…like a good business owner I had to urgently start looking for another bank account as you know, a business is not really a business without a bank account. Suddenly I could totally relate to all those stories our clients were sharing!
And so my (luckily) short journey began:
- Rakbank – never returned my calls or emails;
- ENBD in reply to my application called me asking whether I could maintain a limit of 50 ths AED, after positive reply never got back;
- FAB – declined.
Time was ticking (as we need to pay salaries through WPS, get paid for our work…well, you know it all). That’s when I discovered E20 and Wio – two amazing mobile-only banks that were just what we needed. And just after 3 days I had a debit card and a cheque book of each bank in my hands.
E20 is a “spin off” of ENBD. It is a fully digital and mobile only bank.
Pros:
- account was open in super fast 3 working days (including the delivery of the card and the cheque book)
- no minimum balance
- local transfers are AED 0
Cons:
- no WPS functionality
- no option to download a bank statement (or account activity) in Excel or CSV – you have to contact the bank and then they send it in PDF (however they are about to launch an update which would allow that)
- AED129 per month
- currently no online (desktop) browser, only mobile app
- first cheque book comes only with 10 pages (meaning that if you have 12 monthly rent cheques, you will already over run those pages)
Due to these cons I closed my freshly opened E20 account (took me less than a minute to do that).
Wio is a “spin off” of FAB. It is just amazing, and here is why:
Pros:
- WPS functionality is present and it cost 0 AED for the 1st file
- super easy to download a bank statement in Excel / CSV / PDF
- local transfers cost 0 AED
- first cheque book comes with 25 pages
- interface is really fun
- support is great
- easy to add a team member with limited access
Cons:
I haven’t found any cons yet…
So, if you’re in the market for a new bank account in the UAE, I highly recommend checking out Wio. Trust me, as an accountant who’s been through the process myself, it’s a real lifesaver.