UAE residents struggling to meet their financial obligations are now more open to seeking help as a result of The National's Debt Panel column, a round-table discussion revealed yesterday.
During the session, The Debt Panel – One Year On, delegates discussed how the stigma surrounding personal indebtedness has eased since the launch of the advice slot 12 months ago.
The National launched the online column last May after being inundated with letters from chronic debtors seeking a solution. Since then the panellists, a line-up of four financial experts, have advised dozens of borrowers on the best way to solve their financial woes.
“We have brought it to people’s attention that it is OK to ask for help, rather than just have the shame of holding a debt,” said Keren Bobker, one of the four debt panellists and also an independent financial adviser with Holborn Assets in Dubai.
Fellow panellist Philip King, the head of retail banking in the UAE at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, said banks quite often realise a customer is in trouble before they do.
“The guy who juggles his cards might miss a payment one time, so he will get a call and that is sometimes not a comfortable process – particularly the first time,” he said. “But please, if you do get in trouble, talk to the bank. Don’t wait for them to call you. And if the bank does call you don’t necessarily see it as something you should be worried about. We can’t fix it if we don’t have a dialogue.”
He said the key to preventing people from borrowing more than they can afford is education. “If we can get the prevention right, then we stop more of these people getting into difficulties later,” said Mr King.
The panellists were joined by Ian Hodges, the senior adviser at Al Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB); Michael Routledge, the founder of savememoney.ae and Gaurav Bhalla, the founder and chief executive of Lotus Loans & Rescheduling Services.
Mr Bhalla revealed that his company, which negotiates with the banks on behalf of those who have too much debt, has dealt with about 1,000 cases since it launched last year.
On average, they have Dh400,000 of debt with an average salary of just Dh14,000 and monthly repayments of Dh23,000. The average debt burden ratio, which is the percentage of someone’s monthly income being used to repay debt, is between 140 per cent and 170 per cent. His clients took out their loans before a law was introduced to help protect people against excessive borrowing by limiting the debt burden ratio to 50 per cent.
“The unfortunate part is that a lot of our customers are not that credit savvy. We ask them simple questions like, ‘How much is your monthly commitment to the bank?’ They fall short of even being able to answer that question,” he told the round-table.
Michael Routledge, who runs the site savememoney.ae, said he is also shocked by the attitude of some of the borrowers he talks to.
“The level of understanding really is horrendous against the level of debt some of these people have.”
But Mr Hodges, from AECB, said most borrowers are not overleveraged, according to credit bureau data.
“I think these are very much the extreme cases you are dealing with,” he said. “The averages from our data are much, much lower. The vast majority of individuals are not overborrowed and do operate within the constraints of the market. But there are always those who have taken too much.”
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hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
In Full Flight: A Story of Africa and Atonement
John Heminway, Knopff
Honeymoonish
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Elie%20El%20Samaan%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENour%20Al%20Ghandour%2C%20Mahmoud%20Boushahri%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Dr Amal Khalid Alias revealed a recent case of a woman with daughters, who specifically wanted a boy.
A semen analysis of the father showed abnormal sperm so the couple required IVF.
Out of 21 eggs collected, six were unused leaving 15 suitable for IVF.
A specific procedure was used, called intracytoplasmic sperm injection where a single sperm cell is inserted into the egg.
On day three of the process, 14 embryos were biopsied for gender selection.
The next day, a pre-implantation genetic report revealed four normal male embryos, three female and seven abnormal samples.
Day five of the treatment saw two male embryos transferred to the patient.
The woman recorded a positive pregnancy test two weeks later.
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
