Residents and businesses across the UAE now have a faster path back to a healthy credit score. Etihad Credit Bureau has rolled out an updated assessment model called Credit Score 3i, allowing people who clear defaulted payments and keep up six to twelve months of consistent repayment to climb out of the lowest rating tier.
Director-General Marwan Ahmad Lutfi said the bureau now reviews 36 months of financial history instead of 24, making it easier to separate a temporary cash-flow problem from a pattern of chronic non-payment.
The bureau's database covered 11.6 million individuals and companies as of September 2026, tracking 20.2 million active credit contracts and 25.3 million active IBANs nationwide. Credit reports and scores issued jumped to over 17 million in 2025, compared with just one million a decade earlier in 2015.
The cost of checking a personal credit score has also been cut, from Dh30 to Dh10. Established borrowers are scored on a 300-850 scale, while newcomers to credit fall on a 300-650 range until they build more history.
New residents and first-time borrowers can receive an initial score within a month of opening their first account, and reach the full scoring range after three to four months of steady repayment.
The revamped model also folds in data from buy-now-pay-later providers such as Tabby, Tamara and CashNow, giving lenders a fuller picture of a customer's spending habits. Users can now see, through the bureau's app or website, exactly which behaviours are helping or hurting their score — from timely bill payments to missed instalments and bounced cheques.
The bureau's mobile app has surpassed one million downloads over the past year, reflecting growing public interest in tracking personal credit health as banks and lenders increasingly rely on these scores for loan and mortgage approvals.