How to check your AECB credit score and credit report

To check your Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB) credit score and report, buy them in the bureau’s own app or on its website, or in the DubaiNow or TAMM app after you log in with UAE PASS. The score alone costs AED 10.50. The full report, which includes the score, costs AED 84 including VAT. The bureau says both arrive within 8 hours.

Key takeaways

• The Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB) sells your score and report through its own app and website, and through the DubaiNow and TAMM apps with UAE PASS.
• The score alone costs AED 10.50; the full report costs AED 84 including VAT and already includes the score.
• The report shows 36 months of payment history on every active or closed facility, plus any returned cheques.
• Correcting wrong data is free for a report bought in the last 30 days, and lenders must fix errors they reported within 7 business days of becoming aware of them.

You do not need to send the bureau anything to have a file. Banks, finance companies, telecom and utility providers, courts and other information providers report to it directly under Federal Law No. 6 of 2010 on Credit Information, as amended in 2020, so checking means buying a copy of what is already there. For the wider picture, start with our credit score guides or the glossary entry for the Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB).

How to check your AECB credit score, step by step

Choose a channel, log in, pick the score or the full report, pay, and open it when it arrives. The bureau names four channels for individuals: its own app, its web portal, and the DubaiNow and TAMM government apps, where you log in with UAE PASS.

In the Etihad Credit Bureau app or on its website

1. Download the Etihad Credit Bureau app from the App Store or Google Play, or open the bureau’s web portal at etihadbureau.ae.
2. Log in with UAE PASS (the UAE Government portal gives this as the first step for both) and keep your Emirates ID to hand.
3. Choose the credit score on its own or the full credit report.
4. Pay the price shown: AED 10.50 for the score or AED 84 including VAT for the report.
5. Open the result when it arrives.

The bureau says you view a report in the app’s dashboard or on its website, depending on where you bought it.

In DubaiNow or TAMM with UAE PASS

DubaiNow is the Dubai government’s services app and TAMM is Abu Dhabi’s. The bureau’s FAQ says both let you log in with UAE PASS, view your credit score and download your full credit report.

1. Open DubaiNow or TAMM and log in with UAE PASS.
2. Find the Etihad Credit Bureau credit report service.
3. Choose the score or the report, pay, and download the result.

The bureau describes this route as a way to view your score instantly. For any purchase, its stated delivery time is the one below.

Delivery time

Within 8 hours

A purchased credit report or score is delivered within 8 hours.

If you are outside the UAE

You can still get your report from abroad. The bureau says people living outside the UAE can use its mobile app options with their Emirates ID ready, or schedule a virtual appointment with its customer happiness team and have the Emirates ID available during the appointment.

Reports and scores are fully digital, and the bureau does not add stamps or signatures, so there is no paper copy to collect.

Score only or full report: which one to buy

Buy the score if you only want the number. Buy the full report if you want to see what sits behind it: every account, 36 months of payment history, returned cheques and the factors driving your score. The report costs more but already includes the score, so you never need to buy both at the same time.

Credit score on its own

AED 10.50

An individual credit score from the Etihad Credit Bureau costs AED 10.50.

Full credit report, score included

AED 84

A personal credit report from the Etihad Credit Bureau costs AED 84 including VAT, and includes the credit score.

This comparison follows the table on the bureau’s credit score page, with delivery times from its FAQ:

What the score tells you

The score is one number that the bureau describes as a grade of your overall creditworthiness: it reflects your credit history and your ability to pay your loans and other financial obligations. Under its current model, Credit Score 3i, people with an established history get a Mature Score from 300 to 850, and people with limited history, such as newcomers to the UAE, may get a New-to-Credit Score from 300 to 650. If you have no credit facilities or services at all, the bureau says your report shows your personal information only. What those numbers mean is covered in what a good AECB score is.

The score alone does not tell you why it is high or low. The bureau also says lenders make their own decisions under their own policies and may weigh the score together with other information, so the number on its own does not tell you whether an application will be approved.

What the full report adds

The report is the record behind the score, account by account. This section lists what it contains; our guide to reading your AECB credit report walks through each section in turn.

Payment history on the report

36 months

The personal credit report covers the last 36 months of payment history on each active or closed credit facility and service, plus any returned cheques.

According to the bureau, the report includes:

• your personal information and your last reported salary;
• your loans and credit cards, with card limits and usage, balances and monthly payment patterns;
• any defaults, overdue amounts and returned cheques;
• your payment history with telecom operators and water and electricity providers;
• court-ordered financial obligations and other records from courts and government entities;
• the credit enquiries on your file;
• the key factors affecting your score, with the bureau’s recommendations;
• your Income Utilisation Ratio (IUR).

Each facility shows a 24-month colour grid: green for a payment made on or before the due date, yellow for a payment up to 90 days late, and red for one more than 90 days late. Joint facilities appear on the report of each borrower, and guarantor details appear against each facility.

The IUR is the bureau’s own measure of how much of your last reported income goes to monthly payments. It adds up your loan instalments, last month’s telecom and utility bills, and 5% of the credit limit of every active credit card, so a card you rarely use still counts. It is a bureau metric, not the Central Bank’s debt burden ratio rule, and it comes with the report at no extra cost.

Buy now, pay later contracts also appear on the report, with the number of contracts, the outstanding balance, the status and the remaining instalments. Under the current score model they do not affect the score, but organisations that review your report may take them into account. More on how buy now, pay later shows on your report.

Can you check your credit score for free?

Not from the bureau. The Etihad Credit Bureau charges for both the score and the report, and says its prices follow a product and price list approved by the UAE Cabinet. The free part comes after you buy: correcting wrong data costs nothing for any report bought in the last 30 days.

Three points follow from that:

• The cheapest way to see your number is the score on its own, at AED 10.50.
• The report has no paid extras. The score, the score factors and the Income Utilisation Ratio are all inside the AED 84 report; the bureau says you do not need to buy the IUR separately.
• Corrections are free but time-limited. The 30 days count from when you bought the report, so read it as soon as it arrives.

Does checking your own score lower it?

The bureau’s public pages do not answer this question directly. What the bureau does publish is the list of factors behind the individual score, and one of them is your recent activity in applying for new credit.

What the bureau says shapes your score

6 factors

The bureau lists six factors that influence the individual score: how much of your credit limits you use, recent use of loans and cards, recent applications for new credit, how consistently you pay on time, history of late or overdue payments, and your record of honoured and returned cheques.

The full report has a credit enquiries section, so you can see which enquiries are recorded on your file. The bureau adds that a change in your score should not automatically be put down to a single credit facility or event, because the score combines information across your whole credit profile.

When it is worth checking

Check before you apply for credit, after you close an account and before you leave the UAE. These are the moments when a wrong or out-of-date entry costs you most, and when there is still time to fix it.

Before you apply for a card, loan or mortgage

The bureau says knowing your score helps you plan loan and credit applications, and that reviewing your report regularly lets you correct inaccuracies. Check a few weeks before you apply rather than the day before: a correction goes through the bank or company that reported the data, and the bureau says the report should be updated within 10 working days.

Lenders also look at how much of your income is already committed to repayments. You can work that out before you apply.

Worked example

A card application planned in three months

The plan and its timing are illustrations; the prices are the bureau’s.

Route A: buy the score now, then the report if the number looks low.

1. Score now: AED 10.50.
2. Report later, to see why: AED 84.
3. Total: AED 10.50 + AED 84 = AED 94.50.

Route B: buy the full report now. It includes the score.

4. Total: AED 84.
5. Difference: AED 94.50 minus AED 84 = AED 10.50 in favour of Route B, and the account-level history you would need for a correction is there from the first day.

If the report shows an error:

6. Request the correction within 30 days of buying the report: AED 0.
7. The bureau says the report should be updated within 10 working days. To see the corrected file before you apply, buy a second report: AED 84 + AED 84 = AED 168 in total.

If you are likely to need the report anyway, buying it first costs AED 84 instead of AED 94.50 and leaves time within the three months to fix an error.

After you close a card or settle a loan

Check that the account now shows as closed or settled. A card that still shows as active, for example, keeps counting towards your Income Utilisation Ratio at 5% of its limit. Before you cancel a card, read closing a credit card properly.

Settling does not erase history. The bureau says defaults, missed payments and bounced cheques stay on the report for up to 5 years, even after the amount is settled. What you can correct is wrong or out-of-date data, not late payments that were reported accurately. What does help over time is covered in how to improve your AECB credit score.

Before you leave the UAE

A lender or other information provider can report a “Left Country” status if it believes you have left the UAE, whether or not anything is overdue. Checking the report before you go shows which facilities are still open with each provider. If a “Left Country” flag is wrong, you can dispute it through the bureau’s data correction service. For loans and cards you still owe on, see leaving the UAE with debt.

What to do if something on your report is wrong

Ask the bureau to correct it. The bureau does not change the data itself: it passes your request to the bank or company that reported it.

Correcting your report

Free

Data correction is free for any credit report bought in the last 30 days; the bureau passes the request to the information provider, and the report should be updated within 10 working days.

1. Open your report and select “Correct my data”.
2. Fill in the request form, attach a copy of your Emirates ID and add any documents that support your request.
3. If the errors come from different banks or companies, send a separate request for each one.
4. Watch for the bureau’s email: it writes to you when the data is updated. If nothing has changed after 10 working days, reply to the email you received when you made the request.
5. If the information provider rejects the correction, call 800-BUREAU (800-287328) to register a data correction dispute. The bureau accepts a dispute only after a rejection.

Missing accounts can be raised too. The bureau’s FAQ says that for a missing facility, such as a credit card, you can start by giving the bank name and the type of facility.

The lender has its own deadline under Central Bank rules, counted from when it becomes aware of an error.

Lender's deadline to fix reported errors

7 business days

A licensed institution must correct errors in the data it reported to the credit bureau within 7 complete business days of becoming aware of them.

You can also go to the lender directly. Under the same Central Bank standards, when you ask a licensed institution to correct data it reported, it must acknowledge the request and check it, and if a correction is needed it must report it to the bureau within 7 business days of hearing from you. For complaints about how a bank has handled your request, see how to complain about a bank and escalate to Sanadak.

Business owners: the company report is separate

A company has its own credit report and score at the bureau, separate from the personal reports of its owners, and it is applied for through a different process. The company report costs AED 157.50 including VAT, and the AECB company credit report guide explains how to get it and what it shows.