Reading statements
Reading a UAE card statement, line by line
City codes, mall abbreviations, tolls, utilities and pay-later plans. How purchases in the Emirates show up on a statement, and how to read them.
Written for: Cardholders 4 min read Updated
A UAE card statement mixes global brands, local chains, government services and pay-later plans, often in the same week. The lines follow the same basic order as everywhere else (bank words, merchant, place) but the places and a handful of very common merchants have their own shorthand. Once you know it, most statements read quickly.
City and place codes
The city field is only about thirteen characters, so UAE lines lean on codes. These are the ones you will see most:
| On the line | Means |
|---|---|
DXB, DUBAI | Dubai. DXB is the airport code, used for the whole city. |
AUH, ABU DHABI | Abu Dhabi. |
SHJ, SHARJAH | Sharjah. |
AJM, RAK, FUJ, UAQ | Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain. |
AE, ARE, UAE | The country, in two-letter, three-letter or everyday form. |
MOE, DFC, TDM | Malls: Mall of the Emirates, Dubai Festival City, The Dubai Mall. Branch names like these often sit between the merchant and the city. |
JLT, JBR, DIFC, DSO | Districts: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Jumeirah Beach Residence, the financial centre, Silicon Oasis. |
Place words can look like part of a name. "CARREFOUR MOE" is Carrefour in Mall of the Emirates; "SHELL 1043 KARAMA" is a fuel station numbered 1043 in Karama. When a line has an unfamiliar word after a brand you know, it is almost always the branch.
A typical line
POS PURCHASE LULU HYPERMARKET AL BARSHA DUBAI AE
- POS PURCHASE
- The bank's words: an in-store card payment.
- LULU HYPERMARKET
- LuLu Hypermarket, the supermarket chain.
- AL BARSHA DUBAI AE
- The branch district, the city and the country.
The everyday lines
Roads and parking
Salik is Dubai's road toll; card payments are top-ups of your Salik balance, not individual gate crossings, so they arrive as round amounts. Parking, public transport cards and fines usually carry the government authority's name rather than the car park or station.
Utilities and telecoms
Electricity and water bills show the utility's name or abbreviation, sometimes with an account or premises number. Mobile and internet bills come from e& (Etisalat) or du; e& still appears as "ETISALAT" on many lines years after the rebrand, which is a good example of a descriptor outliving a brand.
Fuel
ENOC, ADNOC and Emarat stations usually show the brand and a station name or number. Some cards show the fuel company's legal entity instead, which reads more like a utility than a petrol station.
Delivery and rides
Talabat, Careem, noon, Instashop and Deliveroo account for many lines a month in a typical Dubai household. The restaurant or shop you ordered from usually does not appear: you paid the platform, so the platform's name is on the line.
Pay-later plans
Buy-now-pay-later is common in the UAE, and it changes how a purchase looks. With Tabby, Tamara and similar services, the shop is paid by the provider, and your card is charged by the provider in instalments. You will typically see the provider's name, sometimes with the shop's name after it, repeated across several weeks or months. The first instalment may land on the day of the purchase and the rest later, which is a classic source of "I never bought this".
TABBY*NAMSHI DUBAI AE
- TABBY*
- The pay-later provider took this instalment.
- NAMSHI
- The shop the original purchase was from.
Arabic and mixed lines
Most UAE descriptors are in Latin script, but some local merchants register their name in Arabic, and some bank apps print Arabic for local accounts. Transliterations vary: the same name can appear as "AL", "EL" or joined to the next word. Our Arabic descriptors guide covers how we handle them.
Field note
The UAE line we see misread most often is a mall branch read as part of the shop's name. The second is a government or utility payment made through an intermediary app, where the app's name is on the line and the authority's is not. If a line has a familiar app name and an amount that looks like a bill, it probably is the bill.
Shopping abroad and online
A UAE card used on a foreign website, or abroad, can add an exchange rate and a separate fee line. Some merchants offer to charge you in dirhams at checkout; that conversion is usually more expensive than letting your bank do it. Our foreign currency guide explains the extra lines and how to avoid paying twice.
Still stuck on a line?
Paste it into the playground: it marks which part is the merchant and which is the place, and returns the merchant's website so you can check your account there. For a step-by-step checklist, see identifying an unknown charge.