Clockwise from top left: Ambareen Musa, founder and CEO of Souqalmal.com, The National columnist Keren Bobker, Rasheda Khatun from Financial Life Planner, and Jamel Alvi, chief credit officer of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, during a round-table panel discussion on why people are getting into excessive debt, how this situation can be resolved and where they can turn for help. Ravindranath K / The National and Marwan Alhammadi / The National
Clockwise from top left: Ambareen Musa, founder and CEO of Souqalmal.com, The National columnist Keren Bobker, Rasheda Khatun from Financial Life Planner, and Jamel Alvi, chief credit officer of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, during a round-table panel discussion on why people are getting into excessive debt, how this situation can be resolved and where they can turn for help. Ravindranath K / The National and Marwan Alhammadi / The National
Clockwise from top left: Ambareen Musa, founder and CEO of Souqalmal.com, The National columnist Keren Bobker, Rasheda Khatun from Financial Life Planner, and Jamel Alvi, chief credit officer of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, during a round-table panel discussion on why people are getting into excessive debt, how this situation can be resolved and where they can turn for help. Ravindranath K / The National and Marwan Alhammadi / The National
Clockwise from top left: Ambareen Musa, founder and CEO of Souqalmal.com, The National columnist Keren Bobker, Rasheda Khatun from Financial Life Planner, and Jamel Alvi, chief credit officer of Abu D

Money

The Debt Panel: UAE expat owes more than Dh1 million despite Dh23,500 salary

Dubai quantity surveyor earning Dh23,500 is struggling to repay over Dh1 million in debt on loans and credit cards.

  • English
  • Arabic

I am an Indian passport holder and have worked as a quantity surveyor here in Dubai since 2004. As of today, I have loans with a total outstanding of Dh510,0000 – this includes a salary transfer loan as well as non-salary transfer loans. I also have approximately Dh500,000 on various credit cards. I took out a personal loan in 2008 to invest (helped my friends) in a business and used various credit cards, non-salary transfer loans to sustain the business. Unfortunately it did not become a success and at present I have huge liabilities to be settled in various banks here in UAE. I have lost my job several times during the last six years and until now have only managed to make the minimum payments required by the banks. Now I have reached a situation where I am having difficulties coping with my monthly payments, even though I draw a decent salary of Dh23,500 and my present job looks more secured compared to earlier roles. I have no savings either here in Dubai or back home in India that I can use to settle my liabilities. I also have no intention of running away from the country without settling my liabilities and do not wish to be punished by the authorities since I am staying with my family here.

I have approached various banks to assist me by buying out all liabilities and converting it as a single salary transfer loan; I can use more than 70 per cent of my salary to cover repayments over a five/ six-year period. But all the banks have denied me due to the Central Bank regulation not to provide a loan to an expatriate more than 20 times of the monthly salary. KS, Dubai

Debt panellist 1: Rasheda Khatun Khan, a wealth and wellness planner and founder of Design Your Life

Debt panellist 2: Jamal Alvi, chief credit officer at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank

The Debt Panel brings together four financial experts: Jamal Alvi, the chief credit officer at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB); Ambareen Musa, the founder and chief executive of the comparison website Souqalmal.com; Rasheda Khatun Khan, a wealth and wellness planner and founder of Design Your Life; and Keren Bobker, The National's On Your Side columnist and an independent financial adviser with Holborn Assets in Dubai. Together they answer queries in a weekly online column to help readers better tackle their debts. If you have a question for the panel, write to pf@thenational.ae.

pf@thenational.ae

Follow us on Twitter @TheNationalPF

BankingPersonal finance