Tabby and Tamara are in your credit file now. The cost shows up on a mortgage.

On 27 July the Etihad Credit Bureau said Tabby and Tamara accounts now appear in UAE credit reports, for people already on the plans as well as new ones.

Nothing anyone owes went up. No plan got more expensive, and the cap on what a lender may take out of your salary, half of your gross pay, has been in the central bank’s rules since 2011. What changed is that a mortgageTermMortgage×الرهن العقاريA loan secured by property, where the lender holds a claim on the house until the debt is repaid.Open the term lender can see the plans.

Then the lender has to do a sum.

The central bank’s 2013 mortgage rules make a bank test every mortgage against a rate two to four points above the rate on the loan, and where the loan starts on an introductory rate, against the rate that takes over when it ends. Three-month EIBOR, the rate most UAE mortgages revert to, was 3.96% on 4 September. Lenders add their own margin on top, and two points is at the high end of what they publish. Add the four stress points and the test rate is 10%.

At that rate, over the 25-year maximum term, every dirham a month of spare income buys about AED 110 of mortgage.

Take a borrower earning AED 20,000 a month, with no car loan and no card balance, buying her first home. Her cap is AED 10,000 a month, and that buys about AED 1.1 million. Now give her three plans at AED 400 a month each: a phone, a flight, a sofa. If her lender counts them, AED 1,200 comes off the cap and she can borrow AED 971,000.

She spent AED 14,400 over the year, paid no interest on any of it, and can borrow AED 132,000 less.

Whether your lender counts the plans is its own decision. The 2011 rule lists car loans, housing loans, overdraftsTermOverdraft×السحب على المكشوفA credit arrangement that lets you withdraw more than your account balance, with interest charged on the amount overdrawn.Open the term and credit cardsTermCredit card×بطاقة ائتمانA card that lets you borrow money to pay for purchases now and repay the bank later, usually with interest.Open the term, and says that list is not the whole of it; Buy Now, Pay Later is not in it by name. So it comes down to whoever opens your file, and before July the plans were not in it.

Tamara has held a restricted finance licence from the central bankTermCentral bank×البنك المركزيThe government's bank, which controls the money supply, sets interest rates, and oversees all other banks in the country.Open the term since October 2025, and the licence sets its terms: it cannot charge interest, it cannot lend you more than AED 20,000 or three months of your verified net income, whichever is lower, and its fees cannot go past 30% of what you borrowed. Tabby holds a stored value facilities licence from the central bank, granted in April, and that one covers holding customers’ money rather than what Tabby charges. Its own page says a service fee may apply on plans of more than four payments.

The bureau said reports would include “relevant historical transactions”, and called the change “an important step towards providing a more comprehensive view of consumers’ financial obligations”. It has not said what relevant means, or whether the reports carry the monthly instalmentTermBuy now pay later×التقسيطA purchase you make today, paid back in installments over weeks or months rather than all at once.Open the term, and that is the one number a debt-burden sum needs. Until they do, no lender can put a plan into the calculation automatically. Someone has to decide to.

Nothing about the plans changed in July except who can see them. On a mortgage application, that is the part that costs money.

You can put your own plans into the instalment-cost calculator. Three at AED 400 a month is the AED 1,200 above; it shows the monthly total, which is the part a lender sees.