How to cancel a credit card in the UAE and get a clearance letter

To cancel a credit card in the UAE, pay the full balance, ask the bank in writing to close the account and request a clearance or no-liability letter. Under Central Bank rules, the card should be frozen once you ask and, if nothing is owed, the bank must close it within 45 calendar days with written confirmation. A credit card no-liability letter costs at most AED 50 before VAT.

Key takeaways

• Clear the full balance, including transactions posted after the statement and any instalment plans, before you ask for closure.
• If nothing is owed, the bank must close the card within 45 calendar days and confirm in writing; the card should be frozen as soon as you ask.
• A credit card liability or no-liability letter costs at most AED 50 before VAT, and there is no closing fee once the account is 6 months old.
• Ask for any security cheque back, then check your AECB report to confirm the card shows as closed.

The rules come from the Central Bank’s Consumer Protection Standards and fee table, so the method is the same whichever licensed bank issued your card. More card topics are in our credit card guides.

Before you ask: bring the balance to zero

The 45-day closure deadline applies only when nothing is owed on the card, so clear the whole balance, not just the last statement. If a balance is still outstanding 45 calendar days after your request, the account cannot be closed: the bank must send you a written notice and may follow its normal collection procedures.

Pending transactions and the last statement

Your statement shows the balance on the statement date. Purchases, fees and interest that post later are not on it yet. Before you ask for closure:

• ask the bank for the full outstanding amount on the day you pay, including interest and fees charged since the statement;
• if the card ends up with a credit balance, ask for it to be paid to your bank account;
• check the rewards terms for what happens to unused points on closure, and redeem them first if they would be lost.

Instalment plans and recurring payments

An instalment plan booked on the card, often sold as an easy payment plan, is still debt on the card account, and the remaining instalments must be paid before it can close. Ask for each plan’s settlement amount and check its terms for any early settlement charge.

Then move everything that charges the card automatically: subscriptions, telecom and utility bills, insurance premiums and cards saved in digital wallets. The card should be frozen once you ask for closure, so a payment still pointing at it is likely to be declined.

How to request closure

Ask in writing through a channel that leaves a record, and keep the bank’s written acknowledgement. From that point the Central Bank’s rules set what the bank must do and how fast.

Ask in writing and keep the reference

Use the bank’s app, online banking, an email to its official service address or a signed form at a branch. If you call, ask for a reference number and written confirmation. In one request, name the card (the last four digits are usually enough), ask for the account to be closed, and ask for written confirmation of the closure, a no-liability letter and the return of any security cheque.

The bank may make you an offer to stay. Any retention offer must be in writing, and unless you withdraw your request, the bank must still close the account within the set time.

What the bank must do, and by when

The bank must acknowledge your request in writing within 2 complete business days, explain its closure process and not pressure you to withdraw. While the closure is pending, it cannot charge unauthorised fees.

Time to close a credit card account

45 days

A bank must close a credit card account within 45 calendar days of the request and confirm it in writing, unless a balance is still outstanding; the card should be frozen once closure is requested.

Clearance, no-liability and liability letters

The closure confirmation shows the account is closed. A separate letter shows what you owe, or that you owe nothing, and that is what another lender or an official body usually asks to see.

What each letter confirms

Names vary, and the Central Bank’s own fee table uses several: liability letter, no-liability letter or certificate, release letter, clearance letter. Read what the letter says, not its title. If your bank offers a release letter, ask whether it confirms that the account is closed and nothing is owed.

What the letter should state

The bank writes the letter, so there is no template to fill in. Check that the bank’s version shows:

• the bank’s name, the date of issue and a signature or stamp;
• your full name, with your Emirates ID or passport number;
• the card account, by account number or the card’s last four digits, including any supplementary cards;
• that the account is closed, with the closure date;
• that nothing is outstanding and you have no further liability on the account;
• if the bank held a security cheque, that it was returned or cancelled.

What it costs

Closing the card should cost nothing once the account has been open for 6 months, and the letter fee is capped.

No closing fee or penalty after

6 months

A licensed institution must not charge a closing fee or penalty when a consumer asks to close an account that has been open for 6 months or more.

Maximum fee for a card liability or no-liability letter

AED 50

A liability or no-liability letter for a credit card costs at most AED 50.

The AED 50 cap is stated before UAE VAT, which is added on top, and it is a maximum, so a bank can charge less. The fee table has no separate line for a credit card clearance letter; if your bank charges a different amount for one, ask which item in its schedule of charges applies.

Worked example

Closing a card with a balance and an instalment plan still running

The amounts are illustrations.

1. Statement balance: AED 650.
2. Instalment plan: 6 remaining instalments of AED 400, so 6 × AED 400 = AED 2,400.
3. Total to clear before the bank can close the account: AED 650 + AED 2,400 = AED 3,050, plus anything posted after the statement and any early settlement charge in the plan’s terms.
4. Closing fee: none, assuming the account has been open for 6 months or more.
5. No-liability letter: at most AED 50, plus VAT.

This cardholder clears AED 3,050, then pays no more than AED 50 plus VAT for the letter.

Get your security cheque back

If you gave the bank a cheque when the card was issued, ask for it back in your closure request, and do not treat the card as finished until you have it or written confirmation that it was cancelled.

Lenders may take only post-dated cheques that cover the instalments, worth no more than 120% of the loan or debit balance. Signed blank cheques are prohibited, and the lender must give you stamped photocopies of every cheque it holds.

Return of post-dated cheques after early payoff

7 business days

When a loan or financing is paid off early, the institution must return the remaining post-dated cheques to the consumer within 7 complete business days of the payoff.

That deadline is written for loans paid off early and does not name credit cards. For a card, ask for the cheque in writing once nothing is owed, attach the stamped photocopy if you have it and keep the bank’s reply. What the law says about a security cheque that is presented or bounces is covered in bounced cheques in the UAE.

Does cancelling a card affect your credit score?

It can, and not always in the same direction. The Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB) says a score change should not automatically be put down to a single credit facility or event, but it names the factors, and closing a card touches two of them.

• Credit utilisation. The bureau lists how much of your credit limits you use as a factor. Closing a card removes its limit, so if you carry balances on other cards, the share of your remaining limits in use goes up.
• Credit history. Length of credit history is also a factor. A closed card does not vanish: the report covers the last 36 months of payment history on each active or closed facility.

That is the usual answer to “why is it bad to cancel a credit card”. The other side is the bureau’s Income Utilisation Ratio (IUR), shown in your credit report. It counts 5% of the limit of every active credit card as a monthly payment, even if you never use the card, and the bureau says a lower IUR means more room to borrow.

Worked example

An unused card in the Income Utilisation Ratio

The card limit and income are illustrations.

1. Card limit: AED 20,000. The IUR counts 5% of it: AED 20,000 × 5% = AED 1,000 a month.
2. Last reported income: AED 16,000 a month.
3. AED 1,000 ÷ AED 16,000 = 0.0625.

This unused card adds 6.25 percentage points to the IUR; closing it removes them.

If you plan to apply for another card later, our guide to credit card eligibility explains what banks look at.

Check your AECB report after closure

Once the bank confirms the closure in writing, check your AECB report and make sure the card shows as closed with nothing outstanding. If it does not, you have two routes, and you should send the closure confirmation and no-liability letter with either:

• The bank. When you ask it to correct data it reported, it must check the request and, if a correction is needed, report it to the bureau within 7 complete business days of your notice.
• The bureau. Etihad Credit Bureau passes data correction requests to the bank that reported the data, and its FAQ says information providers must respond within 10 working days.

Cancelling before you leave the UAE

Start early: closure can take up to 45 calendar days, and you will want the closure confirmation, the no-liability letter and any security cheque in hand before you go. A card left open can keep collecting fees and recurring charges after you leave. For loans, other cards and unpaid balances, see leaving the UAE with debt.

If the bank delays or keeps charging

Complain to the bank in writing first, then escalate if it does not fix the problem. Charges after your closure request are worth challenging, because no unauthorised fees can be charged while the closure is pending. The bank must acknowledge a written complaint within 2 complete business days.

Bank's final response to a complaint

30 business days

A licensed institution must send its final written response to a complaint, with detailed reasons, within 30 complete business days of receiving it, or another limit the Central Bank sets.

Quote your closure request reference and the dates in the complaint. If the final response does not settle it, you can take the complaint to Sanadak, the independent ombudsman unit the Central Bank set up for complaints about licensed financial institutions and insurers. See how to complain to the bank and Sanadak, and your rights as a borrower for the wider rules.