Citibank_UAE Reviews 101

Pathetic bank. which Bank credit doesn’t allow purchases of over Aed.10000 in a payment machine or online, these guys charges for an annual fee of Aed.750 and have blocked the card due to this transaction! Its been over 1 week now. And I am unable to use my card for daily use.
If anyone is from this bank, please get back and activate my card access immediately - complaint reference no.10042026124498587

Horrendous don’t ever be their customer

I recently cancelled my Citigold account due to extremely poor service and lack of any support, it is shocking as to how bad the service is in UAE for Citibank even for gold accounts. They don’t seem to care about supporting customers.

The website and the app are ancient…
My credit card no longer works even though it’s still valid and my account has funds.
So I’m stuck abroad without any way to pay…
I can’t reach them because they only have UAE phone numbers, and via email I’d get a reply in 4 days…
You’ve just lost a customer.

No respect for Citi gold customers, my card has been blocked for almost one month now without any specific reason, I went in person to meet them and they are just delaying the process, a bank to avoid at all cost

I’m a Citigold customer—I shudder to think how others customers are treated! Absolute nightmare. I’ve been trying to transfer money via a wire and they give me a different answer every time as to why the transfer is blocked. The web interface is clunky, the people nice but clueless. This is not my first nightmare, every experience has been similar.

Terribile. After several years being citigold customer, I moved out of UAE and I had to change my bank status from uae resident to non resident; as a result tons of papers and impossible procedures with people that do not even knew I have been a customer for years, and keep asking stuff they should know already. And while the process was ongoing, they blocked my accounts and cards. If you plan to exit form uae one day, this is not the bank for you

You will come to know the real customer service and so called "this is bank's procedure" when you want to cancel the card for some reason. They will literally drag you for months saying their process, statement date, 4-5 working days to get the call from retention team and after that again calling to request clearance letter and after that wait for 4-5 working days...OMG. No one is interested to support after taking all interest from us.

I have been trying to upgrade my Citi Premier card to Citi Prestige, and the experience has been absolutely infuriating. The customer service teams are completely unaligned, repeatedly sending me automated or bot messages that make no sense.

When I called the call center, I was told that since I am upgrading to a card with the same “Thank You Points” program, my points should not be lost. Yet, after submitting all required documents, giving consent, and agreeing to pay the AED 1,500 yearly upgrade fee over a week ago, I am still getting ridiculous, generic responses. Every time I respond, I get the same bot-like messages. When I request a call back? Nothing. No one calls.

Their latest response suggests my points will lapse—despite the fact that the call center confirmed they won’t. It’s as if no one in the bank talks to each other, and their processes are completely broken.

How is this bank even operating in 2025? The lack of coordination, accountability, and basic human communication is shocking. Citi UAE, you are failing your customers miserably.

Charging on something that is already paid

The worst bank to deal with in the UAE. Every step with Citibank is a headache. Nothing works properly — services are terrible, their processes make no sense, and their systems constantly fail. They mass-call you, spam you with emails, and then suddenly block your cards without warning, leaving you completely unable to use your own money. There is no reliable hotline, and every time you contact them the only thing you hear is, “I’m sorry, we’ll solve it” — but nothing ever gets solved.

Transferring money is a nightmare. Registering a payee can take up to four hours with a pointless “cooling time.” If you need to send money urgently, forget it — your funds feel locked in a prison. The app and website crash often, adding even more frustration.

Since joining this bank, I’ve had to call them at least once every month, often several times, just to deal with basic issues. They also call me repeatedly about random things I don’t even understand. It feels like having Citibank is a full-time job that drains energy, time, and patience.

Overall, this has been the worst banking experience of my life. If you value your time, money, and peace of mind — stay far away from Citibank UAE. Truly the worst choice you could make for a bank.

Very good bank services specially credit card department (Maria),
Had an issue with all my all my credit card application with mostly every bank in Uae but she managed to help. Very thankful for her efforts

At Citi bank Duba, the relation ship manager turnover is like changing your shirt everyday.
In the last 3 years I have had 4 different RMs and now for last 4 months no RM has been assigned to me.
The interest rates Citi offers for term deposits are absolutely negligible.

Compared to local banks they stand last.

The Local Banks are outstanding in every aspect.

My experience with Citibank UAE is as poor as it gets. There are almost no branches, and getting any real help is nearly impossible. Even if you visit a branch, staff often just direct you to the app and many times have no idea how to help.

The photo I attached is a perfect example of their lack of attention to detail: even something as simple as a sticker on a new card is completely mismanaged, it’s impossible to tear off properly.

The app experience is modest at best. Citibank seems capable of doing only the bare minimum. If that’s all you need and you insist on using Citibank, it might work, but compared to other banks in the UAE, this would not be my first choice.

one of the worst bank App ever used. Even in my home country, we have a very advanced app. No OTP receiving, even notification has multiple errors. cannot pay utility bills.

As expected the single star shows the kind of service this bank Citi bank is giving to their customers.

I am quite surprised to see the lounge access provided by the banks on the credit cards are not real and play with customers at airports.

They ask us to spend in USD to be eligible to use airport lounges which I feel it is a joke we use lounges when we go out of country but now they are asking to go out come back and then go to airport and access to lounges.
I have to really face humiliation with my family and kids in the lounge when we don’t get the access.

When I call they are not even worried of closure of card also but they are ok with the same arrogant answer and service to customers.

Anyways there is no much benefit as well to Continue as I don’t see much benefits of cards in citi bank with so much yearly charge .

Where as other banks like FAB and ADCB are much better in customer service and charges on card . Life time card fee with good benefits.

Worst bank you can deal with

Very bad bank, nasty and unjustifiable charges. I tried to close my credit card after clearing all my outstanding but only because of the reason that I did not call them to close card they charged AED 3200 . Also I lost through credit card AED 55000 because of banks inefficiency and they charged it to me. Never in your life open any type of account with them.

The worst bank ever I can’t express how foolish i was to make account with that bank

Citibank UAE is absolutely evil and horrible institution. They abuse power, their employees are absolutely stupid, irresponsible and incompetent. The do intentional harm to their clients. Here is my recent experience:

1) I received a KYC email data update request on February 24th February 2025
2) and responded on February 26th. No further questions or follow-ups were asked in return.
3) Then, on 28.02.2025 my account was unexpectedly suspended without notice, and I was not able to access my funds.
4) Since 28 February I sent several email reminders and called many times to KYC department on their direct phone numbers, but they did not answer and did not call back. They ghosted. My opinion is that they deliberately ignored my calls because i called from an UAE number which is recognized by their systems.
5) As of the date of this writing, the account remained blocked (9 March 2025).

This situation is totally unacceptable, outrageous, and criminal abuse of powers by Citibank. They violate the UAE laws and your own AML/Compliance policy, because the bank is not allowed to block the client’s bank account for no reason. The only valid ground for blocking the account is where some illicit money was credited into the account, which was not my case. The only money credits into my account has been salary from a UAE employer with a valid business license.

The employees of KYC department are stupid, incompetent and must be fired immediately by Citibank.

I will close my Citigold account at Citibank and move all my funds to Emirates NBD.