DLS-Dubai.com (Fred) - Reviews

[Fred]

It seems @Kol019201 doesn't want/care to answer this question for some reasons...

@Fred maybe you could help answering it in details assuming you provided the service? (let's take the example of cashing out US$500K crypto)

Total costs transparency is a legitimate question, and as you can see not only me is interested to know, for anyone who tries with difficulty to assess if the UAE structure/solution worths the move moneywise.
Comprehensive costs answer will be much appreciated.

Yes I can imagine that he simply doesn't care because it's not his business and still he is the one client that invited me for lunch in the DIFC to say thank you because the setup brings to him so much more value then what it costs and even answers from time to time PM's about our service.

He is no peanut counter and maybe the question is just bs in his eyes - who knows.

Back to your initial question - keep it 1%. So if you made 100s of 1000s of % like the most guys the last year's - nothing of a concern and somewhere between major exchange fees and a very competitive OTC desk charging 2-3% min.

 

[signaltop]

Hey all.

Thought I’d share my experience with Fred & DLS Dubai.

I’m a EU passport holder.

My goals were as follows:
* Get Dubai residency
* Get personal and business bank accounts in Dubai
* Set up a working crypto offramp

Here’s how it all went:

Before arriving in Dubai, Fred & team incorporated my freezone corp. (You need that company so you can issue yourself a residency permit.)

After arriving in Dubai, step 1 was to get the residency card. After a health checkup and taking fingerprints, I received my residency within a few business days. Fred provided a driver to pick me up and drive me wherever I needed to go.

Once I had my residency card, it was time to get a personal bank account. Fred introduced me to a banker and I met him. Bank account was approved within a few days, but it took about ~2 weeks to get the ATM and debit cards shipped to my address.

Meanwhile, the application process for my freezone company’s business bank account was initiated.

Business accounts for freezone companies can be quite hard to get. I met a number of people in Dubai who tried to set up business bank accounts for freezone companies by themselves and got rejected.

Fred’s service guarantees you’ll get a business bank account.

Many people leave Dubai once they get their personal bank account, while waiting to get approved for the business account. My understanding is that getting approved for the business account takes anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.

I ended up staying in Dubai as I liked it a lot, and there was still Covid travel restrictions in some parts of the world.

It took 3 months to get approved for my business bank account, which I believe is longer than usual. My understanding is that there was an IT infrastructure change at the bank which resulted in everyone who applied around the same time as me to get delayed by few months.

Another friend of mine who also went with DLS. They recently applied ago for his business account, and got approved within 1 month.

Once I was approved for business banking, I met the banker in person, signed some papers and was good to go within 10 mins. Account was opened within a day after the meeting.

With regards to crypto offramp, Fred suggested a OTC provider which has worked flawlessly.

The timeline was a bit slower than expected, but at the end Fred delivered everything he promised.

I also sent dozens of questions to Fred, and he patiently answered all of them.

As someone who’s banked in other places like Hong Kong, I wasn’t too surprised that there were delays related to bank account opening. It's not always straightforward in this day and age.

Overall, I couldn’t be happier with my Dubai residency + banking setup, and would highly recommend DLS Dubai.

 

[JosephLL]

What is the domain (business activity)

Hey all.

Thought I’d share my experience with Fred & DLS Dubai.

I’m a EU passport holder.

My goals were as follows:
* Get Dubai residency
* Get personal and business bank accounts in Dubai
* Set up a working crypto offramp

Here’s how it all went:

Before arriving in Dubai, Fred & team incorporated my freezone corp. (You need that company so you can issue yourself a residency permit.)

After arriving in Dubai, step 1 was to get the residency card. After a health checkup and taking fingerprints, I received my residency within a few business days. Fred provided a driver to pick me up and drive me wherever I needed to go.

Once I had my residency card, it was time to get a personal bank account. Fred introduced me to a banker and I met him. Bank account was approved within a few days, but it took about ~2 weeks to get the ATM and debit cards shipped to my address.

Meanwhile, the application process for my freezone company’s business bank account was initiated.

Business accounts for freezone companies can be quite hard to get. I met a number of people in Dubai who tried to set up business bank accounts for freezone companies by themselves and got rejected.

Fred’s service guarantees you’ll get a business bank account.

Many people leave Dubai once they get their personal bank account, while waiting to get approved for the business account. My understanding is that getting approved for the business account takes anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.

I ended up staying in Dubai as I liked it a lot, and there was still Covid travel restrictions in some parts of the world.

It took 3 months to get approved for my business bank account, which I believe is longer than usual. My understanding is that there was an IT infrastructure change at the bank which resulted in everyone who applied around the same time as me to get delayed by few months.

Another friend of mine who also went with DLS. They recently applied ago for his business account, and got approved within 1 month.

Once I was approved for business banking, I met the banker in person, signed some papers and was good to go within 10 mins. Account was opened within a day after the meeting.

With regards to crypto offramp, Fred suggested a OTC provider which has worked flawlessly.

The timeline was a bit slower than expected, but at the end Fred delivered everything he promised.

I also sent dozens of questions to Fred, and he patiently answered all of them.

As someone who’s banked in other places like Hong Kong, I wasn’t too surprised that there were delays related to bank account opening. It's not always straightforward in this day and age.

Overall, I couldn’t be happier with my Dubai residency + banking setup, and would highly recommend DLS Dubai.

What is the domain (area of activity) of the registered freezone comp and is your biography aligned to that area of work? Was that the topic during compliance check and how much experience would be enough for the bank ? Does the company have an address and what are the yearly expenses for keeping one? Thanks.

 

[signaltop]

What is the domain (area of activity) of the registered freezone comp and is your biography aligned to that area of work?
IT services, matches my background. However nobody at the bank where my business account was opened verified my background (other than requesting a CV).


Was that the topic during compliance check and how much experience would be enough for the bank ?

The only compliance check I went through (if you can call it that) was answering some basic questions during my personal bank account meeting. "What's your business, how much do you make?"

Fred helped with my application for business bank account, and there were no compliance questions or interview. Just signing a piece of paper and small talk for 5 mins with the banker.

As long as you use common sense and don't mention cryptocurrencies to any bank I don't think you'll have issues if you go with Fred.

Does the company have an address and what are the yearly expenses for keeping one? Thanks.
Yes, the company has an address in the freezone. The address is provided by DLS.
I'm not 100% sure right now what the yearly expenses are, best to ask Fred.

 

[Fred]

What is the domain (area of activity) of the registered freezone comp and is your biography aligned to that area of work?
IT services, matches my background. However nobody at the bank where my business account was opened verified my background (other than requesting a CV).


Was that the topic during compliance check and how much experience would be enough for the bank ?

The only compliance check I went through (if you can call it that) was answering some basic questions during my personal bank account meeting. "What's your business, how much do you make?"

Fred helped with my application for business bank account, and there were no compliance questions or interview. Just signing a piece of paper and small talk for 5 mins with the banker.

As long as you use common sense and don't mention cryptocurrencies to any bank I don't think you'll have issues if you go with Fred.

Does the company have an address and what are the yearly expenses for keeping one? Thanks.
Yes, the company has an address in the freezone. The address is provided by DLS.
I'm not 100% sure right now what the yearly expenses are, best to ask Fred.

Need to add here we run the whole compliance for the client so you have zero work and 0% chance to mess it up.

Only thing you need to do is walking to a Branch and showing a pulse and signature when we are done with our work.

@signaltop thanks for the honest review have to add you were a very smooth client and you just did let us do our job - the best thing a client can do is just having the attitude "well I paid for the service so I let Fred and the team manage everything and just relax".

 

[signaltop]

Thanks Fred, great working with you!

 

[lostguy]

People should leave a feeback for Fred that would increase his trustscore!

 

[Millhouse]

I'm reposting my review as it seems to have been deleted. I used the services of Fred this year.

Back in May 2021, I engaged InZone to open a company and bank account. They didn't listen to me, put the wrong activity on the license and opened in an unbankable freezone (RAK). After 6 months of trying with them I gave up and found Fred. I'm a UAE resident of 15 years but now live outside the country for most of the time. Fred gave it to me straight told me what is and what is not possible, what banks I have a shot with and where to form the company. I engaged Fred early Dec - at the time I had a residence visa sponsored by another employer. The overall process went like this:

* Engage Fred in early Dec 2021
* Company formed in under a week (this is fairly standard if you have a decent provider - by contrast Inzone took 6 weeks).
* As I already had a visa, I couldn't start the next one until my first was cancelled. I had that cancelled in late December and left the country for Christmas
* Early Jan, I flew back and Fred issued the visa. This was all done in 4 days... he even went out of his way to get this sorted quickly and I had my new visa stuck in my passport at the airport at 11pm as I was leaving the country.
* We filed the bank stuff remotely. Application went in early Jan.
* Honestly nothing happened for 3 months with the bank applications... this is largely normal, the banks are terrible and were going through system changes and compliance. Fred updated me of the delays and explained them. Once they sorted out the systems, old applications processed like clockwork and Fred showed each one before me in the queue getting approved.
* Mine wasn't approved for some reason, we complained to the bank and was pulled aside for KYC issues. I have no KYC issues and they were looking at the wrong profile... this is what you are dealing with in the UAE. I had to fly back to sort that out but it was done.
* Eventually, mine got cleared and the bank account was opened (April or May 2022). I flew back a month later just to sign the welcome pack and sort the online banking. All in a happy DLS customer.

When it looked like things were going wrong Fred started to look at other options for me, including banks with tighter substance requirements and he worked on sorting an Ejari for me (essentially a rental contract). Thankfully none of this was needed in the end. Fred offered to waive all fees but I agreed to keep trying. I'm connected with the banking sector in the UAE and separately tried to open two accounts at the same time things were delayed for me... where I got to with my applications: (1) completely failed despite having relationship managers on success fees, ultimatly they needed a personal Ejari as well as a corporate one (I could only provide the latter). (2) the second opened, but at the cost of a huge time commitment with relationship managers... think dinners, walks in bur dubai, mentoring, chai at 11pm etc. I still need to go back to activate the online banking on that one.

I don't have an office, or any real substance in UAE. Just one employee who is really just a freelancer I pay.

Fred delivered on what he said and it was (1) cheaper than the Inzone screw up [which also cost me to close the company], and (2) much less time consuming than what I could do myself even using extensive connections into the "Desi" banking network.

The bank account Fred opened is clearing US payments from the US in hours and I have successfully sent money from the account to UAE, Poland, Sweden and Italy. The payments clear in 24 hours usually. So far I've only tested it up to around $15K transactions but no issues so far.

Summary for the travel
1/ Trip in to get a visa - budget 6-9 days. I did mine in 4 as no biometrics needed.
2/ Trip to open the bank account - budget around 1 day if you are just opening.... or more (say 10) if you plan to wait for card delivery
3/ if you need a debit card, this will be local delivery only. As you will be waiting for the post to arrive, I would budget 3-4 days and you order the card before you leave. I'm currently going to post my EID to an employee and see if can convince the courier to deliver it. I'm confident.

 

[signaltop]

Looks like my review was accidentally deleted. Here it is again:

I’m EU passport holder.

My goals were as follows:
* Get Dubai residency
* Set up Dubai freezone company
* Get personal and business bank accounts in Dubai
* Set up a working crypto offramp

Here’s how it all went:

Before arriving in Dubai, Fred & team incorporated my freezone corp. (You need that company so you can issue yourself a residency permit.)

After arriving in Dubai, step 1 was to get the residency card. After a health checkup and taking fingerprints, I received my residency within a few business days. Fred provided a driver to pick me up and drive me wherever I needed to go.

Once I had my residency card, it was time to get a personal bank account. Fred introduced me to a banker and I met him. Bank account was approved within a few days, but it took about ~2 weeks to get ATM and debit cards shipped to my address.

Meanwhile, the application process for my freezone company’s business bank account was initiated.

Business accounts for freezone companies can be quite hard to get. I met a number of people in Dubai who tried to set up business bank accounts for freezone companies by themselves and got rejected.

Fred’s service guarantees you’ll get a business bank account.

While technically you might not need a bank account for your freezone company, it’s a very useful thing to have. For example, if you move larger amounts of money around, there’ll be less issues or questions with business bank accounts than with personal accounts.

—
Anyways, many people leave Dubai once they get their personal bank account, while waiting to get approved for the business account. My understanding is that getting approved for the business account takes anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.

I ended up staying in Dubai as I liked it a lot, and there was still Covid travel restrictions in some parts of the world.

It took 3 months to get approved for my business bank account, which is longer than usual. My understanding is that there was an IT infrastructure change at the bank which resulted in everyone who applied around the same time as me to get delayed by few months.

Another friend of mine who also went with DLS Dubai applied 2 months ago for his business account, and got approved after a few weeks.

Once you’re approved for business banking, you meet the banker in person, sign your application and are good to go after 10 minutes. Account is opened within a day. The bank had some delay shipping my ATM / debit card, and it took about 2 weeks to receive it per mail.

—

With regards to crypto offramp, Fred suggested a OTC provider which has worked flawlessly.

The timeline was a bit slower than expected, but at the end Fred delivered everything he promised.

I also sent dozens of questions to Fred, and he patiently answered all of them.

As someone who’s banked in other places like Hong Kong, I wasn’t too surprised that there were delays. Setting up banking in a tax haven isn’t always straight forward.

I couldn’t be happier with my Dubai residency + banking setup, and would highly recommend DLS Dubai.

 

[ImKing]

nice reviews, they are good to read.

Why don't you leave reviews on his trader score
https://www.offshorecorptalk.com/members/fred.13805/#feedback

 

[nftard]

I should preface my review because this is a brand new account. I know in the past some people questioned Fred's service because of positive reviews with new accounts. I've been on OCT for 2-3 years, mostly reading but sometimes contributing and I don't want these two accounts linked.

I stumbled upon this forum when researching Estonia's e-residency and I even considered some other weak solutions, like buying iban/card for 1000eur from reeseek. Reading the forum and new tax laws being passed it's become obvious that you need residency and substance if you want to have a chance for normal banking and avoiding other countries tax offices. I still see a lot of people not realizing this and considering themselves digital nomads.

I should also mention that I have a legitimate and easy to understand business. I'm software engineer working for clients in UK, Germany and I didn't need any crypto exit strategy.

I've decided I needed residency and banking which I can get done quickly. I'm not an EU citizen, I'm from small country in Balkans, so my options aren't as easy and wide as from neighbors in the EU. I've approached Fred in late January. Quickly after that I sent him USDT and started the procedure. It took couple of days to register the company, a week more for digital visa and I flew to Dubai then. I went for premium medical test so I got the results the same day and tomorrow we went to DSO-IFZA to get my visa printed in my passport. It took one more day for that. My fingerprints were scheduled ~10 days after my medical, but I wanted to cheap out so I booked the stay for only 5 days. This is where Fred's creativity helped a lot because he was able to get fingerprints done before official appointment (ofc by paying insider ). My advice would be not to cheap out and stay longer, it was during the last months of Expo so there were a lot of tourists and prices were high. I had to wait very long for printed Emirates ID, which isn't Fred's fault. They changed to new format for the card and it almost took one month for it to arrive in the post. That was annoying because in UAE everything is done using physical ID, I did have digital EID in my phone's app but it wasn't very useful, at least I was able to open local personal account using bank's app and digital ID. Luckily I could open business bank account using EMI with my passport while waiting for ID and approval for local business bank account. Because I had personal account and business EMI account I wasn't in a rush to get local business account which was good because local banks take a lot of time to open business accounts. If you we've been reading the forum, it's seems very hard for most cheaper freezones to even obtain business account so I'm not complaining. Fred did the business account application online, no deposit required and I didn't have to be in Dubai. After about 3 weeks my account was approved and I had to come to sign the papers and get business debit card. Very happy that I went with Fred because he is living in Dubai, and is up to date with how to handle when things change ( and they change frequently). I also learned a lot from him, I have exchanged a lot of messages, and to this day I get his responses (even though I already got his package completed). I would recommend Fred and I would suggest to stay longer in order to avoid any hiccups that can happen (they do happen and outside of Fred's control, like IT system not working). I'm also looking to spend winter time with my girlfriend in Dubai and to build more substance there. I won't be coming just once every every 6 months, which seems to work, but I know Martin Everson is waiting for the day for those people to get busted

 

[0xb1]

My experience with DLS Dubai:

I was searching for a banking and residence setup, comparing various jurisdictions when I came across the DLS Dubai ad. After reading their reviews I decided to schedule a call with Fred.

He was knowledgeable and had other clients similar as me (nomads, crypto) so it was good to talk to someone that understood my needs. I had previously looked into Caribbean islands, Cyprus, Malaysia, etc. before and in my experience dealing with other agents and other countries was not as straightforward.

I sent him the full payment upfront in stablecoins. He registered the company and set up my visa remotely. A month later I took a flight to Dubai. I had no problem entering the country. A DLS PRO came to pick me up in the morning and we went to the medical test and filled out the EID application. It was quick and easy. At that point, you usually need to wait a month or 2 to get the fingerprint appointment. With DLS, we were able to do it immediately. I then received my EID and my personal bank account with a debit card. This entire process took around 8 days.

While I was out of the UAE, Fred applied for a corporate bank account. It is worth noting that before that I had no bank accounts whatsoever making it more difficult to obtain a bank statement for the due diligence process. We got it done nonetheless.

My corporate account was approved last week and I’ll be returning to Dubai to sign the paperwork and complete the opening. The personal and business accounts are with Mashreq.

Overall I’m very satisfied with Fred service. He also gave me some ideas on how to optimize my FX fees overseas.

 

[maxmoney]

yeah fred is very helpful and knows what he is doing!

 

[Fishman777]

Thank you very much to the campaign - DLS Group. I am a Russian citizen who left after the events of February 24. I chose Dubai to relocate my business, as it has the law and comfortable conditions for business. With the help of guys from DLS Group I opened a company, received the Emirates Id in 4 days and opened a personal account in 2 days. In 2 weeks I already had a working corporate account in the bank. I recommend everyone to contact this organization.

 

[vpak8]

I would like to thank company DLS Group and Fred personally for taking care of my Emirates ID, my personal bank account, for establishing a free zone company in very short time and opening a corporate bank account. I recommend DLS Group services for everyone who wants to move to Dubai with no headache. Please do not do it by yourself as there are a lot of things that must be taken care of. The price of DSL Group services is very low if you compare with other real competitors and not fake companies who just promise to do things. If you need a free zone company with corporate bank account just contact Fred and he will help you.

 

[PGA]

After doing a lot of research on these forums and elsewhere I decided to go with DLS and Fred for the company setup and banking package. The business bank account has recently successfully been opened. Which says a lot about the quality of the service they offer, as I have heard a lot of people here in Dubai not using DLS are struggling to get business banking here lately, especially if you are not a large established company already.
Everything took a little bit longer than expected, but this is just due to dealing with the bank mostly, things don't work as simply here as you might imagine, so it is invaluable to have someone experienced like Fred to assist with the process. Like many others here, thanks to DLS I was able to complete the biometrics within 1 day which speeds things up a lot, without this current wait times were about 1 month. It was a pleasure to deal with Fred and the DLS staff throughout the process, and they were professional and quick in all communications - which is something that is hard to find in Dubai from my experience. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend their business and bank account package to anyone looking for that setup, it is good value and you get exactly what you expect.

 

[Yiannis09]

I had a great experience with DLS Dubai as well. Without local experts you are definitly screwed there. Especially the process of getting an Emirates ID and business bank account, would not have been possible so smoothly and fast without the amazing service of DLS Dubai. Fred has an amazing team with local agents helping you on every step during your stay in Dubai. Even for questions regarding payment providers Fred was always willing to help out.

 

[MegaBull]

Started working with Fred a few months back for the complete setup and just got approval for my Business Bank account yesterday so leaving a review. The whole process was very smooth and relaxed without any hassles for me. Fred really does handle everything on his end, I just needed to give some basic information and answer some simple questions from time to time.

My first stay in Dubai was 10 days for the company formation, personal bank and Emirates ID. No problems during this time and received my debit card before I left Dubai. The business bank process started a week after that and took about 2 months. I would like to add though that my case was a bit harder than most so that probably made it take longer. There were also more compliance questions than usual due to the same and Fred handled all of it perfectly. Honestly, I would probably be rejected from the business bank account if I tried to apply myself.

Overall, I really recommend him to anyone looking for a Dubai setup. I had been following his thread for a year before taking the plunge and so far it's been a great decision!

 

[clemens]

Thanks for letting us know. What is the timeframe to get a bank account and do we have to visit the bank in person ?

 

[rootless]

Okay, time to give Fred and DLS Dubai another absolutely awesome review!

Wow, so let me start at the beginning and describe my situation and tell you the story.

So I left Canada last year with my Russian wife and kids, mainly because of all the weird stuff going on there surrounding covid and just the general mood of things. My wife wanted to go to Russia to be with her family, so I said why not; let's do it!

I had to throw my job in at the end of the year and instead set up my own company, an offshore US LLC; I'm an app developer and was really excited. I had contracts, money was coming in, and things were great. Only a month after this, the war happened. The mood darkened, kitchen talks with the misses were no longer about exciting prospects and possibilities, but more on how we would handle things if there were problems with the business or cashflow etc. I'm not Russian, but sanctions were to hit me too, because I was residing there. One of my accounts got frozen unfortunately, and at the end of July, my registered agent in the US sent me a 30 day notice of resignation; they could no longer provide their services because of my location. My heart sank and palms got sweaty.

Truth be told, even in January I was thinking of ways around this, part of me had this distant feeling that I might end up with problems for living there. I'd looked into Singapore and Hong Kong as a solution; I'd spoken with AirCorporate and Aspire. But there just wasn't anything there, it felt distant really. Then shopping around I saw Dubai as an option, but didn't think anything of it and tossed over an email to some business formation company. It literally wasn't even on my radar.

Then I found this forum, started digging, fell down the rabbit hole and clicked over to DLS Dubai. As soon as I found out that you could actually get residency just from opening a company; I got really curious, that was a key selling point for me, seemed like a hole was forming at my feet being in Russia I might not be able to dig myself out of and needed a way out.

So I pinged DLS via their website, got an email and then Fred called me really fast. I made my decision on that same day, didn't take me much convincing, he said we would have it all done by the end of the month and we did!

I wired money over, after I did that I did panic a bit the next day or two, mostly because we were just waiting and my head was full of questions and uncertainties. When the money arrived he got to work and I ended up flying to Dubai super early to check it out. I was there for 2 weeks already before the process actually needed to be done, and it flew by like a rocket when it was ready. Mohammad picked me up, super pleasant guy, we talked a lot, he filled out my fingerprints application for me, we went to the medical center where a little robot zipped up and delivered me a cappuccino while I waited for my blood test to be done.

Then we drove over to the IFZA itself, went up to the front desk and I signed the Memorandum of Association and picked up the Trade License and Articles of Formation. Really nice documents there, little gold seals over them, I got some good protectors to keep them in good order. They're clearly a busy bunch though, DLS has a lot on the go, and I'm amazed at just how happy Fred is to just pop up on Telegram at 2 AM and help you out answering a question.

Anyway, the next day my passport arrived, then a few days later the emirates id got delivered to my hotel. and shortly after that the Mashreq personal card; we were done for that trip!

I got on the plane and flew back to my wife on her birthday, kids were with the parents so we had a night out in the center and I told her how excited I was about Dubai and how I actually wanted us to live there. She was already prepared for us spending some of the time of the year there, she had spent the whole month watching videos on Dubai and advice there. She was a bit uncertain to some extent, because she had put so much work into getting me a residency in Russia, but she agreed. There wasn't much of a future for me there sadly, as a non-native fluent speaker and no way to continue business. So Dubai it was.

Fred helped with the business banking application on that same week that I returned, and it was waiting time. This I was super nervous about too, all the plans hinged upon this. My wife was saying we should go to Dubai in a few months so she had time to do stuff, but I convinced her to go within the month; so we did, and here we are!

Yesterday I went and signed for my business bank set up! I got approved in as little as 3 weeks. The only request that came back was for a CV and business plan. I'd spent some of my free time in Dubai putting a business site together, I'd also gone out, slapped on a suit and had professional headshots done; added those to my Linked In and my business site. I also added my trade license to my site and dressed it up nicely, the same with the CV too, maybe it helped. But my requirements were simple, I'm a software developer of ten years, I didn't have a complicated set up, just wanted to grow a business in a neutral country.

Moving into a new apartment tomorrow, will be getting kids to school here. Absolutely loving it.

Oh yeh, get yourself a company stamp when you get to Dubai, you'll need it. They're not expensive, pretty much every lock and key shop you find will make them. They'll want a copy of your trade license and passport though to do it. I was in the Mankhool area, my wife booked me the hotel originally. It's a bit of a cheaper side of town, but there's a ton of shops down there that'll make you a stamp. I got someone on WhatsApp.

Also, another tip. Don't use the Du sim card at the airport. I bought a throwaway Red Mi phone and put the sim in it, but with Du you can't retain the phone number when you switch to a resident plan. Do yourself a favor and get Etisalat. I went with them for my main plan, but I had my personal bank under Du.

If you run into an issue with Mashreq Neo not activating after a couple of days of activating your card, go into your My Id Documents in your profile and see if there's anything outlined in red, in my case I needed to upload my visa. Had a call or two with the reps and then they activated my personal account.

Today I went and met with Fred too, for the first time, went up to his office and just chatted for ages about stuff. Really, really awesome guy.

So this was a bit of a review and a tangent, but I wanted this review to have some substance and experiences to it, because one of the things I did was comb through these reviews before making a decision. So I hope this helps someone out.

Seriously, DLS and Fred are awesome. Do it!