TW closing UAE accounts

[rowena]

@orange
RAKICC is a very problematic jurisdiction. Even the RAK Goverment owned RAKBANK doesn't open account for RAKICC. The goverment itself not supporting the jurisdiction... Unfortunately, my suggestion is you should close your RAKICC.

Airwallex support is disaster. You can expect reply in 3-4 weeks. Paysera is good but they won't open account for RAKICC.

 

[orange]

@orange
RAKICC is a very problematic jurisdiction. Even the RAK Goverment owned RAKBANK doesn't open account for RAKICC. The goverment itself not supporting the jurisdiction... Unfortunately, my suggestion is you should close your RAKICC.

Airwallex support is disaster. You can expect reply in 3-4 weeks. Paysera is good but they won't open account for RAKICC.

Thanks for the heads up! For the time being, I'll try to open various bank accounts as a quick fix. I'll post back which worked and which didn't.
If that fails, I'll start looking into DMCC or another country altogether (Georgia maybe)

 

[For Free]

I generally agree with your statement about UAE banks, I bank with the top 3 mentioned ENBD, FAB and ADCB and there is definitely one bank that stands out - ADCB, both on personal and corporate levels. On a corporate level they can give you access to their spot FX trading facility, so you can get close to mid market rates - margins obviously depends on the volume, but they do have such platform in place. Also on a personal level ADCB is great to deal with. Excellency personal account FX rates are the best on the market on the premium banking segment (FAB Elite doesn't even offer any better FX rates online compared to non Elite accounts). Their credit cards also stand out, Traveller card with 0% FX fees + 20% hotels & flights discount (the latter capped at AED 5000 but still good, I book business class AED 5000 cheaper). Hotels discounts are unlimited, so this card has saved me a LOT of money in expensive locations & hotels. The only issue is the hotel has to be available on hotels.com and it has to be possible to prepay for it. They were the only local bank which had offshore Jersey location with multi currency accounts with debit cards (EUR/USD/GBP) integrated under one login with instant and free transfers between onshore and offshore and served by the same relationship manager. I know they closed Jersey accounts but still, they did stand out with this solutions as a local bank.

I had a fraudulent transaction on my cc lately and they have credited the amount 48 hours from receiving my complaint form, where all other banks normally ask you to wait 3 months until the investigation is completed. They gave me 100k credit card limit without any questions asked or security cheques required - as an Excellency customer from "day 1" I started banking with them. Try that with FAB, even after being Elite for many years, they will ask for tons of documents and security cheques to be signed. They (ADCB) do rely on SMS OTP, however all new beneficiaries require confirmation. So ADCB will call you within 24-48 hours (usually it is just few hours) to confirm the beneficiary, without that you cannot transfer money out. It is a bit of an inconvenience, as I don't know any other UAE bank doing that but on the other hand, it gives me a great peace of mind.

We don't know the true story behind TW problems. If that would be the case, they would not be granted ADGM's license. I mean the government knew what TW is about. Also TW is not really a great option for users having AED, as their deposits were automatically converted to USD + TW fees for sending payments are high in my opinion. The only good thing about TW was EU IBAN for freezone company free of charge. I would never use TW on a personal level to exchange FX, as it works out for me much cheaper elsewhere.

Dear @BlueMist, is your company LLC or FZC/FZE? Do you need local office to open business account at ADCB?

 

[BlueMist]

Dear @BlueMist, is your company LLC or FZC/FZE? Do you need local office to open business account at ADCB?

My company is FZ LLC. I don’t know the requirements now to be honest, as I opened it few years back.

 

[loccu]

Thanks for the heads up! For the time being, I'll try to open various bank accounts as a quick fix. I'll post back which worked and which didn't.
If that fails, I'll start looking into DMCC or another country altogether (Georgia maybe)

Hey orange, any updates on this? What did you do and which banks worked and didnt work?

In the same boat so would appreceate sharing your experience!

 

[troubled soul]

In Dubai Rules and regulations changes very quickly If any one serious about it ,Go there and Find out the requirement.
If Something works Today. Very next day it will not work.
That is the sad reality of UAE

 

[For Free]

Hey orange, any updates on this? What did you do and which banks worked and didnt work?

In the same boat so would appreceate sharing your experience!

You may need to provide the following information and supporting documents:

• Any other sister/parent company in UAE or abroad?
• What is the company line of business?
• In which services/products Company is majorly dealing?
• What is the actual reason of establishing free zone company?
• Perform enhanced due diligence regarding the profile of customer in which activities he was engaged earlier in home country, UAE etc.. and share the same with Compliance.
• Expected annual turnover
• Major supplier names:
• Major client names:
• Number of employees
• Company complete address
• In which other UAE Banks company is maintaining account?
• Is customer well known to branch
• Does customer will submit documentary evidences to justify the transactions?
• Any transactions originating to/from Sanctioned countries?
• What are the expected transactions conducted by customer on monthly basis, kindly provide in below table:

Transactions Type	Number of transactions	Amount in AED
Cash Deposit
Cheque Deposit
Inward Telex Transfer
Internal Transfers
Others

My recommendation is to start with an small and easier bank (like Ajman Bank - a very bad-service bank), then get the Bank Statement after 3-6 months then go to bigger banks (Mashreq, FAB...). Offshore company will not work anymore, so better if you have at least Free Zone Company with Flexi Desk

 

[orange]

Hey orange, any updates on this? What did you do and which banks worked and didnt work?

In the same boat so would appreceate sharing your experience!

Results so far:

• Paysera - fail (asked for public registry which doesn't exists)
• Airwallex - in process, but given up for now (they are super super slow to respond, they just asked for a whole bunch of documents that need to be notarized, after 20 days after applying. Runway has written a few posts before that they also ask for a public registry proof)
• Payoneer - already gotten GBP account details and EUR IBAN (ireland) in about a week, but the account is still marked as "in review", didn't test it out yet due to this (keep in mind, this might be an expensive solution, 2% fees)
• Paydo - applied today, will see what the future holds
• Bankera - next on my list to try (didn't start yet)

PS. my UAE agent suggested Quant Paymenet, and says one of her customers uses it successfully. I'm not even gonna try since its basically non-existent on google. (their android app has 10+ downloads)

 

[EliasIT]

What about Payeer any thoughts on them for UAE companies?

 

[Cristero]

Hey @rowena
can you recommend any EMIs for app developers that are registered as an offshore company in UAE.

I'm currently using RAK offshore with TW.
Apple pays me in EUR to EU IBAN (TW)
And Google pays me in GBP in UK sorting/account code (TW)
I'm a resident in Croatia EU, SEPA capable bank would be best.

So an EMI that accepts UAE offshore businesses, and that gives you local UK and EU bank accounts.

I'm currently in the process of opening up Paysera (for Apple, since its EU only IBAN), and Airwallex (for Google, because of the UK details).
Paysera just gave me the "public register question", which doesn't really exist for UAE offshore. Waiting to see what they say on Monday about that. Maybe they won't mind since its a super clean business.
Airwallex has been ignoring me for a week now, haven't really gotten anywhere with them.

Any other EMI suggestions?

Hey,
I'm in the same situation as you. Company incorporated in UAE through RAKEZ and I was using TW with no issues until the ban.
I've set up another account with Currenxie but I don't like the fact that the bank accounts they provide have the prefix "Currenxie".
Airwallex has been really slow until now and they came out today saying that they put my application on pending because they don't have any experience with companies incorporated in UAE and they are checking the legislation.
It's been really annoying since they shut down TW, it was the perfect solution for me.

 

[Fred]

We always open accounts for Dubai Companies in Paysera for our clients.

There is a workaround we can provide you via PM to keep it working in future.

In our eyes Paysera is the best Electronic Money Provider for companies incorporated in UAE for EUR.

Forget about all the other rip off EMI's with the non refundable application fees and even can't provide SWIFT payments at all or only in in name of the EMI instead of your company.

 

[Cristero]

We always open accounts for Dubai Companies in Paysera for our clients.

There is a workaround we can provide you via PM to keep it working in future.

In our eyes Paysera is the best Electronic Money Provider for companies incorporated in UAE for EUR.

Forget about all the other rip off EMI's with the non refundable application fees and even can't provide SWIFT payments at all or only in in name of the EMI instead of your company.

Hi Fred. Do you provide a multicurrency business account with bank coordinates to receive payments for the USA, UK and Europe?

 

[Fred]

Hi Fred. Do you provide a multicurrency business account with bank coordinates to receive payments for the USA, UK and Europe?

In case you have a local UAE bank account you can try Payoneer. They charge 2%+ FX for withdraw to local bank account.

If you don't have a local UAE bank account we can help you with.

Beside of this two options we only have one other solution in mind but we need more information about your business.

 

[rowena]

You can open Payoneer without having a local UAE account. Their pricing is only 2%(FX included) but highly negotiable. If you have a monthly $100k+ turnover you can get 0.6%.

 

[Cristero]

In case you have a local UAE bank account you can try Payoneer. They charge 2%+ FX for withdraw to local bank account.

If you don't have a local UAE bank account we can help you with.

Beside of this two options we only have one other solution in mind but we need more information about your business.

I don't need a UAE bank account. I'm just looking for an EMI that provides a business account in different currencies.
Basically something like TW or Airwallex.
Bankera is not an option for the UAE due to ridiculous fees.
I just have a one man company with not much of a turnaround at the moment.

 

[Fred]

You can open Payoneer without having a local UAE account. Their pricing is only 2%(FX included) but highly negotiable. If you have a monthly $100k+ turnover you can get 0.6%.

Payoneer wanted us and other clients to withdraw in AED currency for the bank withdraw option. Maybe you can clarify.

Furthermore we have made the experience that they are only fine with big payments of big players like Google and Amazon and typically reject 3rd party payments with 5 figures+ and close the account.

Only the clients receiving Google, Amazon and PayPal money are fine till today even with 100k$ payments.

 

[rowena]

Payoneer wanted us and other clients to withdraw in AED currency for the bank withdraw option. Maybe you can clarify.

There are 2 ways:
1-) You can withdraw from Payoneer company account to any shareholder's personal bank account in any currency.
2-) You can open a personal Payoneer account and transfer funds to Payoneer personal account from the Payoneer company account. Once you transfer the funds, you can withdraw money from your Personal Payoneer account to your personal bank account easily or you can use your Payoneer card.

Furthermore we have made the experience that they are only fine with big payments of big players like Google and Amazon and typically reject 3rd party payments with 5 figures+ and close the account.

Only the clients receiving Google, Amazon and PayPal money are fine till today even with 100k$ payments.

I don't have experience about receiving money from a third party but yes you can easily receive money from marketplaces with Payoneer. They provide US/USD and IR/EUR accounts which are very useful.

 

[Fred]

I don't need a UAE bank account. I'm just looking for an EMI that provides a business account in different currencies.
Basically something like TW or Airwallex.
Bankera is not an option for the UAE due to ridiculous fees.
I just have a one man company with not much of a turnaround at the moment.

Transferwise was the best EMI solution for UAE. All other EMI's are restricted in currencies or in the funcionality for UAE companies.

We recommend local bank account now as the best alternative to Transferwise if someone needs all the requirements like you mentioned.

As already memtioned here UAE banned Transferwise to boost the local banks.

 

[extremedox101]

What about Payeer any thoughts on them for UAE companies?

you sure very selective with these reputable emi's .

 

[Cristero]

Transferwise was the best EMI solution for UAE. All other EMI's are restricted in currencies or in the funcionality for UAE companies.

We recommend local bank account now as the best alternative to Transferwise if someone needs all the requirements like you mentioned.

As already memtioned here UAE banned Transferwise to boost the local banks.

I did the application with Mashreq that went through, but they require signatures to be done physically in one of their branch and travelling is not an option at the moment.
They also require an Emirate ID.

Do you have a workaround?