# ADCB VS. Emirates NBD



## rahzaa

I need to know how does ADCB bank compare to NBD while living in Dubai. Obviously NBD will have more branches and ATMs but how does online banking, customer service, ease of wire transfer, hidden fees etc compare? 

I heard you cannot use ADCB debit card online. Is this standard for most banks in UAE? 

Thanks!!


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## fcjb1970

I am happy with ADCB, I find the on-line to be pretty good. The wife has NBD and I certainly don't see anything better that they offer. I do transfers to the USA directly through my ADCB account and I get basically the same exchange rates as I did using an exchange service like GCEN when bank fees are factored in. I think it is about $2 difference on my AED 18K transfer.

I don't think debit cards from any bank will work with on-line purchases, you need an actual credit card. In deciding between the two you may want to just look at which banks offers the CC you prefer (ADCB has an Etihad card, NBD an Emirates), it is much easier to get a CC from the bank you have an account at, so this might be something to consider.


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## rahzaa

fcjb1970 said:


> I am happy with ADCB, I find the on-line to be pretty good. The wife has NBD and I certainly don't see anything better that they offer. I do transfers to the USA directly through my ADCB account and I get basically the same exchange rates as I did using an exchange service like GCEN when bank fees are factored in. I think it is about $2 difference on my AED 18K transfer.
> 
> I don't think debit cards from any bank will work with on-line purchases, you need an actual credit card. In deciding between the two you may want to just look at which banks offers the CC you prefer (ADCB has an Etihad card, NBD an Emirates), it is much easier to get a CC from the bank you have an account at, so this might be something to consider.


I assume you mean Etihad and Emirates airlines. 

As ill be based in Dubai, I'll mostly need to use Emirates Airlines so an account with NBD does make sense.


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## Jumeirah Jim

I have credit cards with both but have no experience of their current accounts / savings accounts. Both cards are linked to airmiles (Etihad for ADCB/Emirates for ENBD) which soon rack up as I charge most things.

I find ENBD far more efficient to deal with, always really helpful on the phone and quick service in their branches. ADCB staff seem to try hard but are usually completely hopeless.


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## rahzaa

Jumeirah Jim said:


> I have credit cards with both but have no experience of their current accounts / savings accounts. Both cards are linked to airmiles (Etihad for ADCB/Emirates for ENBD) which soon rack up as I charge most things.
> 
> I find ENBD far more efficient to deal with, always really helpful on the phone and quick service in their branches. ADCB staff seem to try hard but are usually completely hopeless.


Yeah, I didn't think about the Airmiles connection. Thanks!


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## imac

Jumeirah Jim said:


> I have credit cards with both but have no experience of their current accounts / savings accounts. Both cards are linked to airmiles (Etihad for ADCB/Emirates for ENBD) which soon rack up as I charge most things.
> 
> I find ENBD far more efficient to deal with, always really helpful on the phone and quick service in their branches. ADCB staff seem to try hard but are usually completely hopeless.


The Skywards card does not really seem like a good deal for points, or am I reading it completely wrong? Seems less expensive than the ADCB card though...


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## fcjb1970

imac said:


> The Skywards card does not really seem like a good deal for points, or am I reading it completely wrong? Seems less expensive than the ADCB card though...


I would agree, I think the ADCB Etihad card is a better card as far as the benefits go, full Gold status and better earning. In my opinion, the NBD Emirates card only really pays off if you do a lot of business travel so you buy tickets frequently and spend internationally (so for my it works out). There are other banks that offer Emirates cards, which if you are mostly just making normal purchases I believe work out better.


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## Jumeirah Jim

ENBD has some good benefits though apart from the miles. Access to a lot of airline lounges and car breakdown cover are two perks I use and value. 

ADCB does get you gold status plus 50,000 miles (the miles alone make it a good deal) but I had to battle ADCB endlessly for 6 months to get that status. Customer service at ADCB can be DIRE.

Etihad gold still doesn't get you into the EY business lounge at AUH when in economy though (as not enough space), only at foreign airports. Plus the chance to upgrade is on miles is far lower than as EK gold because EY online auction the free business seats a few days before the flight.


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## Gavtek

I've used many online banking systems here, ENBD is lightyears ahead of everything else I've seen. You can pay your DEWA, Salik, traffic fines, Du/Etisalat bills, everything with a few clicks of the mouse.

Customer service isn't perfect, but still probably the best of a bad bunch.


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## fcjb1970

Gavtek said:


> I've used many online banking systems here, ENBD is lightyears ahead of everything else I've seen. You can pay your DEWA, Salik, traffic fines, Du/Etisalat bills, everything with a few clicks of the mouse.
> 
> Customer service isn't perfect, but still probably the best of a bad bunch.


You can do all these same things with ADCB, well not sure about traffic fines as I don't get any. I pay all bills, including my NBD credit card on-line with ADCB. Plus transfer money home at almost the exact same cost as GCEN. I honestly think it is a toss-up between the two, my customer experience has been far better at ADCB. With NBD, when I tried to change my address it required multiple phone calls and two trips to a branch office. Getting things completely sorted with NBD to get my card and all the promised benefits was a mind numbing experience. When I recently used the free chauffeur benefit it was worse than taking a cab. On the pick up the guy first called and told me to meet him in the parking lot, which I nixed so we waited for him to walk over and meet us. Then he basically did not know the difference between left and right as we told the upcoming turns he started going the other direction.


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## imac

Im going to stick with my free card from HSBC instead of shelling out 2500 per year... getting pretty much the same benefits with HSBC apart from the Etihad or Emirates miles, but I fly business class everywhere anyway, so I don't really need the lounge privileges that come with the card...

The whole upgrade voucher thing seems dodgy, I had a few with Air Canada a few years back and tried to use them, but they only typically work on full fare seats, which I noticed are usually more expensive then buying the discounted seats outright... Emirates/Etihad are probably the same... again, unless I am not doing it right...


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## Mix

rahzaa said:


> I need to know how does ADCB bank compare to NBD while living in Dubai. Obviously NBD will have more branches and ATMs but how does online banking, customer service, ease of wire transfer, hidden fees etc compare?
> 
> I heard you cannot use ADCB debit card online. Is this standard for most banks in UAE?
> 
> Thanks!!



A couple of months late replying, but in case anyone else is searching on this topic...

I switched from ENBD to ADCB last year and haven't looked back. Your mileage may vary depending on what products and services you need.

I've found the responsiveness and quality of customer service/relationship management to be much better at ADCB - they also seem to make fewer mistakes in the first place that require contact with customer service to fix.

For example, the online banking sites for ADCB and ENBD are meant to have similar functionality (electronic fund transfer, bill payment, etc.). However, I regularly used to get error messages and "service unavailable - please call us" messages on the ENBD site; by comparison the ADCB site has just worked.

Fee transparency is probably the thing I've appreciated most about switching to ADCB, compared to ENBD and the other bank I've used in Dubai (HSBC). They promote their "free banking" and even if you don't care about a few Dirhams a month savings on ATM fees etc. it does mean that they tell you very clearly up-front if something isn't free; I've never had any surprises. By contrast, ENBD seemed to think fees were something you're meant to barter over ("we're introducing a new annual charge... oh, you want to close your account - how about we make it half-price?... still not interested - how about we make it free?"), and HSBC had no idea how much their fees would be ("just check your next statement to find out").

The high number of ENBD branches was why I initially opened an account with them, but I learned that it's a bit of a red herring - if you want to visit the bank without taking time off work then you'll end up going to a main area branch or mall branch where there are lots of other banks anyway.

It is standard that you can't use debit cards for online transactions. ENBD has a specific credit card you're meant to use for online shopping - they may or may not charge an annual fee, depending on your bartering skills :smile:. ADCB basic credit cards work online and are free.


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## Kurdish

I opened an Emirates NBD account when I came to Dubai a few months ago, and the debit card that my wife and I got has a VISA logo and works for online purchases.


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## Gavtek

Kurdish said:


> I opened an Emirates NBD account when I came to Dubai a few months ago, and the debit card that my wife and I got has a VISA logo and works for online purchases.


Same, and I've never had any problems with ENBD online banking both for personal and business use.


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## Mix

That's good to know - they may have relaxed the rules when the chip & pin cards came out. I recall being annoyed about having to carry a separate card to do 'normal' transactions, even before they wanted to charge more for the privilege.


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## Stevesolar

I always see & hear ADCB adverts and think their name is a bit dyslexic!

Cheers
Steve


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## Gavtek

Mix said:


> That's good to know - they may have relaxed the rules when the chip & pin cards came out. I recall being annoyed about having to carry a separate card to do 'normal' transactions, even before they wanted to charge more for the privilege.


I've been with them over 4 years and have never had any problem using any card for online transactions. They tried to give me an "online shopper" credit card but I politely told them where they could stick it.


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## gronk

Does one have to open an account for CC in us dollar to perform online purchases? I have a debit card and would like to do online purchases. Thought my debit card in dirhams would be enough :/


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## vantage

gronk said:


> Does one have to open an account for CC in us dollar to perform online purchases? I have a debit card and would like to do online purchases. Thought my debit card in dirhams would be enough :/


A credit card is a credit card. Currency denomination is irrelevant.
Visa and MasterCard love you to make purchases in alternative currencies. It's a rich seam of additional profit....


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## Fat Bhoy Tim

Been with ADCB since 2007 and rarely had a problem with them. Their E-banking is solid and only once had a problem with it, and like the others can pay off basically anything through it.


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## blazeaway

I'm with ADCB and found them to be very easy to deal with and no problems. Their transfering money service is good with very competitive exchange rates. 

Bill payment also easy.

Only downside is the debit card can't be used online and I don't want to get a local credit card.

Customer service is also good


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## rsinner

I have just switched from HSBC to ADCB and wondering why I didnt do this much sooner. Very prompt, and everything just seems to work.

Exchange rate: For INR transfers their rates were considerably worse than what the exchange houses give.
Only minor grouse is that the SMS alerts for transactions are at the moment a bit erratic and take a few hours to come through (with HSBC it was instantaneous)


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## Budw

I am with HSBC for many years now, but not at all happy. The thing that stops me from switching to another bank is the administrative effort I become subject too, and I am not sure if the grass is really greener on the other side. The one thing that really works well with HSBC is that for a car loan, they give approval and an LPO the same day. 

A few major things that I faced with HSBC in the nearly 20 years of banking with them:

-Everything with HSBC seems chaotic, its for me a complex bank to deal with. They make too many mistakes, lack any ownership and accountability, and it takes a lot of effort from my side to get attention and a resolution to my sissues. HSBC is a bureaucratic hell! The help-desk is not helpful and not empowered at all to tackle any issue, most things they cannot resolve, you end up being told to go to a branch destroying my morning.

- One of the most impacting issue I had with HSBC is in 2011 is that they took 100aed to much from my 8500aed autoloan; it was their error and I did not agree to pat this, neither was this in any document signed for. The 100aed was related to a service charge on a free current account, a mistake from their side, and a few days later I got several threatening calls from the collection department that I was defaulting as I paid 100aed less on my loan payment (automated instruction instated by the bank themself). After I kept on explaining everything, and receiving repeated treats from the collection department to stop my account, all was resolved a week later trough the help of the loan officer that closed my loan... at least I thought that was the case. About 2 weeks later, the credit of my 2 HSBC credit cards was reduced from 135000aed, to 1500 AED!!! Reason: Non payment of my car loan; it appears the collection department still flagged my account, even-tough it was resolved. Long story short, after several weeks of many phone calls, visits and emails, nothing happened. I managed in the mean time to obtain details of their customer satisfaction department and I documented my case in great detail; my case was taken by a British lady, who apologized, gave me her direct contact details, and resolved my problem. She kept me updated regularly on the progress, but it still took 3 weeks more to get everything re-instated. I later met an HSBC manager at a party and as we where both under severe influence of many liters of beer I explained with great joy my experience, only to be told that this is nothing; it happens every day. It is internally a very complex bank. 

- I have gone now 3 times to the branch to give my own, and my wives new passport details/copy. After 6 months, I still receive the email message from HSBC that I have to update their records with my new passport details.

- Last August I got a letter from HSBC that both my credit cards are going to be replaced with a chipped credit-card. Great! But, the same letter advised the current credit cards are canceled immediately due to a process requirement to transition to a chip card; a new one would be issued in a few days. This all sounded very strange to me (canceling without my permission should not be possible), so I called the helpdesk. They told me that the new credit cards would be send within 6 weeks... then I referred to the letter saying my current cards are canceled, they told me yes sir, they will not work anymore. Sorry for the in inconvenience... No matter what I did to convince them about the impact of not having working credit cards for 6 weeks, they where completely non-receptive, and all they wanted to do is to write to the concerned department. They where just reading from a script; absolutely useless bunch of people. I was now totally geared to use my US issues cards whilst on vacation; but in the end, I found out the cards where still working, and they did till I started to use the new cards. Unbelievable how poorly HSBC communicated this. 

- A few years ago I transferred a large sum of money to my wife's account in the US via online banking. To my surprise I noticed on my phone immediately that the transaction was 3 times replicated, so the 3X the intended amount was transferred. I called directly the helpdesk, but no matter what I did, HSBC refused to stop the 2 excess transactions and take accountability. They advised me to email a complain, but that would be way to late to stop these transactions. They insisted they never heard of this problem with online banking (basically saying I did the transaction 3 x), and I should resolve it with the other party (my wife). In this case it had no impact to me other than the charges, but it shows that as customer you are victimized and nobody at the bank helps you. Later on they upgraded their system, and this was one issues that was addressed.... 

My trust in this bank has completely been scattered. Mistakes can happen, but that it takes so much effort to get someone to care, is really ridiculous. Their help desk is useless, they just read scenarios, and going a step further than the help desk is impossible. Managers are not reachable, they seem to be in a protected environment; it is very difficult to access them.

So, if I would move to ADCB, would these type of issues be history?


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## rsinner

Budw said:


> So, if I would move to ADCB, would these type of issues be history?


To use a cliched statement - there are no guarantees in life except death and taxes (err "fees" if you are in UAE).
However, my account opening experience has been very good with ADCB and they have been very responsive (which was not the case with HSBC when I opened an account with them - however, i still went ahead with them as I had HSBC accounts elsewhere). 
I was worried about the administrative hassle as well, but apart from requesting a salary letter from my employer I have not had to give them any document which I didnt have already (passport copies etc).


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## Simey

I too have had it with HSBC. 

The straw that has broken my camel's back is that last week they refused to honor one of my checks because they claim the signature didn't match the one they have on file. That seems a bit hair-trigger to me but I could live with that *IF* they had bothered to call me and (a) ask me if it was actually a valid check, and (b) warn me that they suspected my check book may have been stolen. They did neither. The first I heard was when the payee of my check called me to tell me they had been refused payment. 

As you might expect this has caused a degree of chaos in my life and my trust in HSBC is now shot. 

So which bank do people recommend? I was thinking perhaps ENBD so I can get Emirates miles. Should I look at ADCB instead? Any others?

It would be nice if the bank had decent rates to send $ to the US and occasionally UKP to the UK. Also, it would have to be OK with me being a US citizen and all the burdens that unfortunately adds to their life. That means also if it has "Melli" in its name, that probably isn't going to work.


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## NjxNA

Simey said:


> I too have had it with HSBC.
> So which bank do people recommend? I was thinking perhaps ENBD so I can get Emirates miles. Should I look at ADCB instead? Any others?


If you do it for the Miles better give a look here
Emirates Islamic last deals look good.


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## Simey

NjxNA said:


> If you do it for the Miles better give a look here
> Emirates Islamic last deals look good.


Thank you for that info. How are they for everything else though? Skywards miles are a nice bonus but the rest is essential.


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## ElCalvo

Simey said:


> I too have had it with HSBC.
> 
> The straw that has broken my camel's back is that last week they refused to honor one of my checks because they claim the signature didn't match the one they have on file. That seems a bit hair-trigger to me but I could live with that IF they had bothered to call me and (a) ask me if it was actually a valid check, and (b) warn me that they suspected my check book may have been stolen. They did neither. The first I heard was when the payee of my check called me to tell me they had been refused payment.


Had the same with ENBD. this joke cost me 2000 aed. They acknowledged their fault but did not settle it as they cannot, policy and blabla. Last great experience with this worthless bank is that it took them 4 weeks to provide me with a second debit card. The big plus of them: internet banking works smooth. 
Reason not to change: read tru the forum. It seems they all have this remarkable quality standard and dito service. ..


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## Gavtek

I had an employee of ENBD refuse to accept my signature as being signed by me when I provided her with 3 different photo ID's and personally signed it right in front of her.

Do you accept that these identifications are valid? 
Yes
Do you accept that these identifications belong to me and I am the person I say I am?
Yes
Did you watch me put my signature on that line right there?
Yes
Therefore do you accept that is my signature?
No, the loop there is slightly bigger than the one on file.


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## Simey

ElCalvo said:


> Had the same with ENBD. this joke cost me 2000 aed. They acknowledged their fault but did not settle it as they cannot, policy and blabla. Last great experience with this worthless bank is that it took them 4 weeks to provide me with a second debit card. The big plus of them: internet banking works smooth.
> Reason not to change: read tru the forum. It seems they all have this remarkable quality standard and dito service. ..


Thanks very much for the heads up. It looks like ENBD won't do either. 

HSBC has passed the point of no return with me so I will keep looking for the mythical intelligent customer focussed bank in Dubai. 

And unicorns.


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## JonGard

I've been with Emirates NBD for 18 months and I'm done with them. Still can't use Online Banking despite ridiculous amounts of calls, then the paper statements come about four weeks after the month end, when they're no use at all.

I was going to move to HSBC, but thinking again after reading this thread!


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## blazeaway

JonGard said:


> I've been with Emirates NBD for 18 months and I'm done with them. Still can't use Online Banking despite ridiculous amounts of calls, then the paper statements come about four weeks after the month end, when they're no use at all. I was going to move to HSBC, but thinking again after reading this thread!


Bank with Acdb and have Emirates credit card.

Adcb internet is much easier to use, exchange rates better. Emirates is to get silver skywards etc


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## rahzaa

Does anyone know what are the International ATM charges for either banks?


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## Malbec

rahzaa said:


> Does anyone know what are the International ATM charges for either banks?


Both banks charge the same: 20 AED per withdrawal or 6 AED in GCC countries.


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## rahzaa

Malbec said:


> Both banks charge the same: 20 AED per withdrawal or 6 AED in GCC countries.


Thank you


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## Malbec

Didn't want to create a new thread for this but local bank transfers got cheaper lately.

I remember when I sent last year my first local bank transfer in UAE from Emirates NBD to another bank in AED. I was charged AED 25 transfer fee + AED 25 Central Bank fee (UAEFTS) for OUR charges. It was insane.

Glad it got cheaper. Now Central Bank fee is just AED 1 and anything above is a bank's fee. So the same local AED bank transfer from ENBD with OUR instruction cost AED 5 now, at ADCB it's just AED 1 as they don't charge for transfers.


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## bhaskarrai

*ADCB the useless bank*

ADCB is the useless bank. i sent one TT in USD about a month ago and it has not reached to benificiary. While following up these Bas_ered people are not taking any action. Nevr deal with ADCB


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## dogmeat

ADCB sent me a text 

Exchange rate is 5.5.37 per GBP google is 5.47


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## Standanista

I've been with Emirates NBD for a year and a half and would recommend them - I've never had any hassles. I have their Skywards Visa Infinite card which earns miles for use with Emirates airline. The annual fee is pretty steep though, but it's worth it if you fly a fair bit. There's also a dnata Visa which they do for less.

Internet banking with them I've found to be very good, but for FX transfers, definitely use a third party (UAE Exchange etc) as their own rate is not competitive.

If you earn AED 40k or more a month you qualify for priority banking, which lets you queue-jump at branches.

I've no experience of ADCB so can't compare the two alas.


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## zak875

I bank with ADCB and had no problems with them in the year I have been with them, I'm a 'privilege' customer so que jump and better interest rates etc are included, the online and mobile banking is very simple to use and transfers go through to my UK account in a couple of days. Also plenty of branches. 

I recently applied for the NBD infinite rewards card which has an interest rate of 1.49% but they sent me the skywards infinite instead which is 3.09% I wasn't happy about this so raised a complaint will see the outcome.


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