# Salary for credit card applications



## sm105 (Jan 9, 2014)

Having recently received my residence visa and set up a bank account, I am now being deluged by offers for local credit cards. However, I find that most decent credit cards here have ridiculously high income requirements (AED 10000+) that I do not qualify for.

On my offer letter, my basic salary is given as AED 8000 but that constitutes less than 20% of my actual remunerations. In addition to this, I also receive a Housing Allowance, a Transport Allowance, a Food Allowance, a Telephone Allowance and an "Other Allowance". Some of these are paid monthly with the salary, some are paid up front annually by the company (eg. housing) and some are simply paid directly by the company to the vendor (eg. Telephone).

When I talk to the bank folks they say that they can only base credit card applications on my basic salary (viz. AED 8000), so I do not qualify for any of the Gold/Platinum/Signature/Ultimate/Infinite cards that have decent rewards and associated benefits programs.

Ironically, some of the staff that report to me here are on "all-inclusive" packages of 10-12k and they are eligible for higher category cards than I am even though their actual package is less than half of mine!

Is there any workaround for this or am I doomed to using a debit card or non-rewards card for AED transactions? Sorry for sounding snobbish, but I've been used to using premium cards like Visa Infinite and Amex Platinum elsewhere in the world, so this is a big slice of humble pie to swallow!


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## Windsweptdragon (Aug 12, 2012)

The first letter I got from my employer gave my basic salary only, bank asked for another letter which gave total salary so I could get a better card. Not sure how much help that is, as you've said your bank only accepts basic? Maybe look at changing bank to one that accepts total package?

I'm with HSBC, however, I don't use credit card with them anymore as air miles weren't great.


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## arabianhorse (Nov 13, 2013)

wow, thats so unfair


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## sm105 (Jan 9, 2014)

Long story short, our HR person spoke to our account liaison at EmiratesNBD and they will be giving me a Platinum Card with first year free and no security cheques. Can't complain about that.


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## arabianhorse (Nov 13, 2013)

Yay. Happy days.


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