A debt collector in the UAE may not visit your home or your workplace unless you have expressly consented or a court has ordered it, and may not contact you at all outside 9 AM to 8 PM. Those are not guidelines. They sit in section 5.2.5 of the Central Bank of the UAE’s Consumer Protection Standards, which bind every licensed financial institution and every collection agent acting for one.

The same section bars disclosing your situation to your employer, your family or anyone else outside a short closed list, and requires every single collection call to identify the caller by name. Most people being chased for a UAE debt do not know any of this, which is why the pressure works. This guide sets out exactly what a collector must do, what it is forbidden from doing, the arrears timetable that should have been followed before anyone called you, and how to complain when it is not.

What a Collector Is Forbidden From Doing

Standard 5.2.5.6(b) lists three outright prohibitions. A licensed financial institution must not visit your place of employment or your home unless you expressly consent or a court order permits it. It must not visit you outside the hours of 9 AM to 8 PM. And it must not disclose any of your information to any third party.

The third-party prohibition has only four exceptions, and they are narrow: a Credit Information Agency, an authorized debt collection agent, where legally required, or where you have given express consent. Your employer is not on that list. Neither is your spouse, your family, your sponsor or your landlord. Calling your office to apply pressure, or telling a colleague why they are calling, is a breach of the standard, not an aggressive-but-lawful tactic.

On telephone contact, standard 5.2.5.6(c) adds that the institution must not make an unreasonable and excessive number of communication attempts, and that attempts and actual contact must only be made during the hours of 9 AM to 8 PM. Where you cannot be reached, a message should be left so you can call back on the same number. Standard 5.2.5.6 opens with the overarching test: the frequency and manner of contact must be proportionate and not excessive, and the institution must apply a fair and due process before seeking recourse with the judicial authorities.

Every call must identify itself

This is the most useful and least known provision in the whole section. Under standard 5.2.5.6(d), every communication with you must include, as a minimum:

  • The name of the licensed financial institution and its collection department, or the authorized agent handling the collection;
  • The contact number of that department or agent;
  • The working hours of that department; and
  • The name of the employee or agent contacting you.

Asking for those four things on the call is not obstruction; it is asking the caller to comply with a rule they are already bound by. A collector who will not give a name and a department number is either not authorized or is not following the standard, and either way the exchange becomes evidence. Standard 5.2.5.7 requires all communications with consumers to be recorded and retained for five years after the debt is settled or written off, so the call you are on is already being kept.

Approved contact channels

Standard 5.2.5.6(a) permits contact by email, registered mail, courier, SMS, phone call, or any other method you have consented to. Anything outside that list, including messaging apps you have not agreed to and social media approaches, falls outside the approved methods.

The Arrears Timetable That Should Have Run First

Collection is the end of a documented process, not the start of one. The standards impose specific duties on the institution at 30 and 60 calendar days, and a written warning once you are two payments behind.

Stage What the institution must do
Before any collection effort Have written collection policies, and, to the extent reasonably possible, discuss your financial difficulties with you before proceeding with collection, redemption of collateral or guarantees, or legal proceedings. Those discussions must be documented (5.2.5.1).
Account in arrears Approach you, or your authorized representative, and discuss options that will help you resolve the arrears (5.2.5.2).
2 payments in arrears Advise you in writing of the possible consequences, including legal action, foreclosure, redemption of security, demand on the guarantor and negative credit reporting (2.1.3.23).
30 calendar days in arrears Immediately communicate with you to establish why the arrears have arisen, and liaise with your authorized representative if you request it and consent (5.2.5.3).
More than 60 calendar days in arrears Immediately issue a written notice to you, your representative and any guarantor, containing a prescribed list of information (5.2.5.4).
Arrears persist Send a monthly updated arrears notice confirming payments received and how they were allocated between interest or profit, principal and fees, with the accumulated balance (5.2.5.5).

What the 60-day notice must contain

Standard 5.2.5.4 prescribes the contents, and a notice missing them is defective. It must state the date the account fell into arrears; the number and total amount of missed repayments, other than for credit card accounts; the amount of arrears at a specified date; the interest or profit rate; details of any arrears fees; a request that you engage with the institution; and the contact details of the responsible person or, where an external agent is assigned, the name and contact details of that authorized collection agent.

It must also set out the consequences of continued non-payment, expressly including sharing your data with the Credit Information Agency, the potential for off-setting against your other accounts with the same institution where the agreed terms permit it, the potential sale of collateral and security, demand for payment from guarantors and co-signers, legal proceedings, and continued accumulation of interest and fees. Finally, it must advise you to seek credit counselling assistance from the institution and give the contact details of the staff who provide it.

The off-setting line is worth pausing on. It confirms that a bank may set one account against another where your existing terms and conditions permit, which is how salary accounts get swept. It also means the institution is required to have warned you about it.

When a Third-Party Agency Takes Over

Standard 5.2.5.8 requires the institution to tell you if it has appointed a third party to engage with you about arrears, and to disclose who that third party is, the amount they are to collect, and the authority granted to them to act on the institution’s behalf, including whether they may receive payments.

Three practical consequences follow:

  • An agency that contacted you before the bank told you about it is out of process. Ask the bank in writing to confirm the appointment, the amount and the authority.
  • Check whether they can actually take money. Paying an agent who has no authority to receive payments creates a dispute about whether the debt is reduced at all.
  • The agent is bound by the same rules. Standard 5.2.5.6 refers throughout to the institution and its authorized debt collection agent together, so the 9 AM to 8 PM limit, the no-visit rule and the identification requirements travel with the agent.

A separate provision matters if the debt is sold rather than outsourced. Standard 2.1.3.25 requires that where a licensed financial institution sells or transfers your credit product to a third party, you must be advised in writing 60 calendar days in advance of the sale or transfer and told the name of the third party, unless the Central Bank instructs otherwise.

Mortgages Have an Extra Layer

Standard 5.2.5.9 applies specifically to residential mortgages where a full or partial payment is missed, remains outstanding, and no alternative arrangement has been put in place. The institution must notify you in writing of the potential for legal proceedings and repossession, the importance of seeking independent advice, and, critically, that irrespective of how the property is repossessed and disposed of, you may remain liable for the outstanding debt after the sale proceeds are taken into account, including accrued interest or profit, fees, legal, selling and other related costs.

It also requires that the costs and fees related to default proceedings charged to you must be fair, transparent and reasonable. The wider foreclosure chain, including the Dubai law provisions that void automatic-transfer clauses, is covered in our guide to mortgage default and repossession in Dubai.

What Collectors Cannot Do to You Legally

Separating rules from folklore matters here, because fear does most of the work in UAE debt collection.

  • They cannot have you arrested for the debt itself. Non-payment of a loan is a civil matter. What creates criminal exposure is a separate act, most commonly a security cheque that bounces, and even that changed substantially in 2022, as set out in our guide to the UAE bounced cheque law after the reform.
  • They cannot impose a travel ban by themselves. A travel ban is a court measure with its own threshold and its own lapse rules. You can check your own status, as explained in our guide to checking a UAE travel ban online.
  • They cannot seize your salary or your assets on their own authority. Attachment happens through an execution case after a judgment, with statutory protections on what can be taken, including the rule that salary is attachable only to one quarter. See our guide to how a UAE execution case works.
  • They cannot tell your employer. Standard 5.2.5.6(b)(iii) prohibits disclosing your information to any third party outside the four listed exceptions, and your employer is not one of them. Disclosure of personal data also engages the separate obligations under the UAE Personal Data Protection Law.

What they can legitimately do is report the arrears to the Credit Information Agency, which affects your credit standing and future borrowing. That is expressly contemplated in the 60-day notice contents, and you can see the result yourself through your AECB credit report.

How to Take Control of the Conversation

The standards are built around a restructuring conversation, not a chase. Standard 5.2.5.1 requires the institution, to the extent reasonably possible, to discuss your financial difficulties with you before collection efforts, before redeeming collateral or guarantees, and before legal proceedings, and to document those discussions.

A practical sequence that uses the rules rather than arguing with them:

  • Move it to writing. Email is an approved channel under 5.2.5.6(a). Written exchanges create the record, and the institution is keeping its own for five years anyway.
  • Ask for the four identification items on any call: institution or agent name, department contact number, working hours, and the name of the person calling.
  • Request the 60-day notice if you never received one, and check it against the prescribed contents. A missing interest rate or a missing breakdown of arrears fees is a concrete, citable defect.
  • Make a written restructuring proposal. Standard 5.2.4.5 requires that where you offer a revised repayment arrangement and the institution rejects it, it must internally document its reasons and communicate to you in writing why the offer was rejected. That converts a phone brush-off into a documented decision.
  • Get any agreed variation in writing quickly. Where a revised arrangement is agreed, standard 5.2.4.4 requires the institution to provide written disclosure and explanation within 10 complete business days, including a detailed revised payment schedule and a breakdown of how payments will be allocated between interest or profit and the outstanding balance.
  • Log every breach with a date and time. A call at 9:40 PM, a visit to your office, a message to a relative: each one is a specific standard, not a general grievance.

Where the debt is genuinely beyond restructuring, the formal route is the personal insolvency regime, covered in our guide to personal insolvency and debt settlement in the UAE. And if you are leaving the country, settle or formally address the debt before you go rather than after, for the reasons set out in our leaving the UAE checklist.

How to Complain

Complain to the institution first, in writing, citing the specific standard. The Consumer Protection Standards bind the licensed financial institution, so the institution is answerable for its agent’s conduct as well as its own.

If the institution does not resolve it, the escalation route is the independent financial ombudsman unit established under the Central Bank framework, which handles complaints about licensed financial institutions once the institution has had its own opportunity to resolve the matter. Note that the ombudsman route generally requires you to have complained to the institution first and given it time to respond, so opening a complaint file with the bank is not an optional preliminary; it is what unlocks the next stage.

Include in any complaint: the dates and times of contact, the channel used, what was said, the names given or refused, whether a visit occurred and whether you consented to it, whether any third party was told about your debt, and copies of the notices you did or did not receive. The standards are specific enough that a complaint framed against numbered provisions is far harder to deflect than one framed as harassment in general terms.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can debt collectors visit my home or workplace in the UAE?

No, not without your express consent or a court order. Standard 5.2.5.6(b)(i) of the Central Bank’s Consumer Protection Standards prohibits a licensed financial institution from visiting the consumer’s place of employment or home unless expressed consent is given by the consumer or by permission of a court order. Standard 5.2.5.6(b)(ii) separately prohibits visiting outside the hours of 9 AM to 8 PM.

What hours can a debt collector call me in the UAE?

Between 9 AM and 8 PM only. Standard 5.2.5.6(c) states that telephone contact attempts and actual communications must only be made during those hours, and that the institution must not make an unreasonable and excessive number of attempts. Standard 5.2.5.6 also requires that the frequency and manner of contact is proportionate and not excessive.

Can a debt collector contact my employer or my family in the UAE?

No. Standard 5.2.5.6(b)(iii) prohibits disclosing any of the consumer’s information to any third party other than a Credit Information Agency, an authorized debt collection agent, where legally required, or where the consumer has given express consent. An employer, a colleague, a family member or a landlord is not within those exceptions.

What information must a debt collector give me when they call?

Four things, under standard 5.2.5.6(d): the name of the licensed financial institution and its collection department or the authorized agent handling the collection, the contact number of that department or agent, its working hours, and the name of the employee or agent contacting you. Asking for these is asking the caller to meet a rule they are already bound by.

Can I be jailed or banned from travelling for an unpaid loan in the UAE?

Not for the debt itself, which is a civil matter. Criminal exposure arises from a separate act, most commonly a security cheque that is dishonoured, and that position changed substantially with the 2022 reform. A travel ban is a court measure with its own threshold and lapse rules, not something a collector can impose, and attachment of salary or assets happens through an execution case after judgment, with statutory limits on what can be taken.

What must the bank send me before it starts collection in the UAE?

A sequence. Once you are two payments in arrears it must advise you in writing of the consequences. At 30 calendar days in arrears it must immediately communicate with you to establish why the arrears arose. Beyond 60 calendar days it must issue a written notice to you, your representative and any guarantor containing a prescribed list of information, and while arrears persist it must send a monthly updated arrears notice showing payments received and how they were allocated. Guarantors sit inside the same protective perimeter and carry their own liability, which is explained in our guide to being a loan guarantor in the UAE.

What must the 60-day arrears notice contain?

Under standard 5.2.5.4: the date the account fell into arrears, the number and total of missed repayments other than for credit cards, the amount of arrears at a specified date, the interest or profit rate, details of any arrears fees, a request that you engage, and the contact details of the responsible person or the named external collection agent. It must also set out the consequences of continued non-payment, including credit reporting, potential off-setting of your other accounts, sale of collateral, demand on guarantors, legal proceedings and continued accumulation of interest and fees, plus contact details for credit counselling.

Can my bank sell my debt to another company in the UAE?

Yes, but with notice. Standard 2.1.3.25 requires that where a licensed financial institution sells or transfers a consumer’s credit product to a third party, the consumer must be advised in writing 60 calendar days in advance of the sale or transfer and notified of the name of the third party, unless the Central Bank instructs otherwise. That is separate from appointing a collection agent, which triggers the disclosure duties in standard 5.2.5.8.

What happens if I offer a repayment plan and the bank refuses?

It has to tell you why, in writing. Standard 5.2.4.5 provides that where arrears arise and the consumer makes an offer of a revised repayment arrangement that the institution rejects, the institution must internally document its reasons and communicate to the consumer in writing why the matter was rejected. Where a revised arrangement is agreed, standard 5.2.4.4 requires written disclosure of it within 10 complete business days, with a detailed revised schedule and a breakdown of payment allocation.

Am I still liable after the bank sells my mortgaged property?

Possibly, and the bank must warn you of that. Standard 5.2.5.9 requires the institution to notify you in writing that, irrespective of how the property is repossessed and disposed of, you may remain liable for the outstanding debt after consideration of the sale proceeds, including accrued interest or profit, fees, legal, selling and other related costs. It also requires that default proceeding costs and fees charged to you be fair, transparent and reasonable.

Official Sources

Information is current as of August 2026. Every standard number, prohibition, deadline and notice requirement above was read from the Central Bank of the UAE’s published Consumer Protection Standards. Four limitations are stated rather than smoothed over. The Consumer Protection Standards bind licensed financial institutions and the agents acting for them; a person chasing a purely private debt that never involved a licensed financial institution is not governed by section 5.2.5, and a different analysis applies. No complaint fee, decision deadline or ombudsman timeline is quoted here, because those are set by the ombudsman framework rather than by the Consumer Protection Standards and were not confirmed from an official page for this guide. The Central Bank periodically renumbers and reissues rulebook sections, so verify the current numbering before quoting a provision in a formal complaint. And nothing here addresses whether a debt is owed or how much: these standards govern conduct during collection, not the underlying liability. This is general information, not legal or financial advice.