Dh3 million
Visa’s “impossible deals” initiative during this year’s Dubai Shopping Festival delivered Dh3 million worth of savings for its cardholders. The global payments provider said a record 125,000 signed up for the promotion with 425 winners rewarded with deals on mobile phones, watches, jewellery, gold and cars. While 10 shoppers drove home an Infiniti QX50 worth Dh181,000 for just Dh25,000, a total of 200 cardholders had iPhone 7s delivered to their door for just Dh600.
Residents apply multiple times for finance
UAE residents were forced to apply for multiple loans to secure personal finance last year. While 1.6 per cent fewer people actually applied for personal loans in 2016 compared to the previous years, according to the financial comparison website compareit4me, those who did apply had to make numerous applications to actually get a loan — something illustrated by the 10.26 per cent increase in the number of applications.
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“It needed a few quarters of good performance for them to warm up and get more interested. This is what is happening now.”
Michael Bolliger, the head of emerging-market asset allocation at UBS Wealth Management on its clients’ interest in increasing their emerging-market holdings after last year’s rally.
ADIB launches Snapchat channel
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank announced a new Snapchat channel this week, in a bid to better connect with its customers and the wider community. The channel will act as an online platform for customers to engage with the bank and also share its news and promotions.
US credit card thieves move online
The use of stolen card data to pay for merchandise on US websites in mobile apps and via call centres surged 40 per cent last year, according to a report from Javelin Strategy & Research released on Wednesday. That is forcing merchants to spend billions on online fraud protection in an effort to detect when a crook is using someone else’s card number.
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