A cashback card’s headline rate is the least useful number on its product page. What a UAE cashback card actually pays is set by three other things: the spend floor (many cards pay nothing in a month you spend under a threshold), the caps (per category and per month), and the annual fee after year one. A 6% card with an AED 5,000 monthly floor pays a light spender less than a 1% card with none.
So this guide does not rank cards by headline. It runs the cards we cover through three monthly spend profiles and shows the arithmetic, then names the best card for each kind of spender. Every rate, cap, floor and fee comes from our card database as verified on the dates shown on each linked review. Annual fees are AED inclusive of 5% VAT.
This guide is for UAE residents with an AED salary. If you are choosing your very first card, the entry-level roundup ranks the same market by salary band instead.
The short answer
| If you are… | Take | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A light spender (around AED 3,500 a month) | FAB Cashback or HSBC Live+ | Low spend floors (AED 3,000), and 5% or 6% on the categories a small budget is made of |
| A household spending around AED 6,000 a month | FAB Cashback, HSBC Live+ or ADCB 365 Cashback | All three return roughly AED 1,950–2,100 a year net of fee on our profile |
| A heavy spender (AED 15,000+ a month) | Liv Cashback+ | 4% on everything once total monthly spend reaches AED 15,000, capped at AED 1,500 a month |
| A diner who wants no fee, ever | Mashreq Cashback | 5% on all dining, uncapped, free for life |
| Shopping Sharia-compliant | ADIB Cashback Visa | 4% on five household categories with no monthly spend floor |
| Someone who wants one flat rate | Citi Cash Back | 1% on everything, 2% groceries, uncapped, no floor, fee waived at AED 9,000 a year |
The tables below show how each of those picks was reached.
How we ran the numbers
Three monthly profiles, all spent in dirhams inside the UAE. None includes government, utility or bill payments, which most cashback cards pay at or near zero.
| Profile | Groceries | Dining | Fuel | Travel | Everything else | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light | AED 1,400 | AED 700 | — | — | AED 1,400 | AED 3,500 |
| Household | AED 2,000 | AED 1,500 | AED 500 | — | AED 2,000 | AED 6,000 |
| Heavy | AED 4,000 | AED 3,000 | AED 1,000 | AED 2,000 | AED 5,000 | AED 15,000 |
Each card’s monthly cashback is the rate times the spend in each category, with that card’s caps and floors applied. The annual figure is twelve months of that, minus the annual fee you would pay in year two — the steady state, after any first-year waiver has run out. Where a card waives its fee on annual spend and the profile clears the threshold, the fee is zero. Welcome bonuses are one-off and are listed separately below.
Net annual cashback by profile
| Card | Light (AED 3,500/mo) | Household (AED 6,000/mo) | Heavy (AED 15,000/mo) | Year-two fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liv Cashback+ | AED −280 | AED 20 | AED 6,500 | AED 700 |
| ADCB 365 Cashback | AED 0 (under floor) | AED 1,957 | AED 4,657 | AED 383.25 |
| FAB Cashback | AED 1,113 | AED 2,085 | AED 4,245 | AED 315 |
| HSBC Live+ | AED 924 | AED 1,980 | AED 4,140 | Waived above AED 12,000/yr |
| ADIB Cashback Visa | AED 904 | AED 1,816 | AED 3,736 | AED 103.95 |
| Liv Cashback | AED 315 | AED 1,080 | AED 3,600 | Free |
| Mashreq Cashback | AED 756 | AED 1,389 | AED 3,138 | Free |
| Citi Cash Back | AED 588 | AED 960 | AED 2,280 | Waived above AED 9,000/yr |
Rounded to the nearest dirham. Two cards with strong numbers are kept out of this table because a field in our data is under re-verification; they are covered in their own section.
Three things stand out. ADCB 365 pays nothing at all on the light profile, because AED 3,500 is under its AED 5,000 monthly floor. Liv Cashback+ loses money below about AED 5,800 a month, barely breaks even up to AED 7,000, and becomes the best card on the list at AED 15,000. And the free cards are not the cheap option they look like: on the household profile, FAB’s AED 315 fee buys roughly AED 700 a year more than Mashreq’s free card.
The household arithmetic, card by card
The AED 6,000 profile, worked in full so you can swap in your own numbers.
FAB Cashback — 5% on supermarkets, fashion and dining, 1% on most other spend, AED 3,000 previous-month spend floor. Groceries AED 2,000 × 5% = AED 100; dining AED 1,500 × 5% = AED 75; fuel AED 500 × 1% = AED 5; other AED 2,000 × 1% = AED 20. AED 200 a month, AED 2,400 a year, AED 2,085 after the AED 315 fee. Each 5% category stops paying at AED 150 of cashback a month (AED 3,000 of spend). FAB lists a small set of categories at 0.15%; if fuel is among them, take about AED 51 a year off. Cashback pays as FAB Rewards, redeemed in the FAB app.
HSBC Live+ — 6% dining, 5% fuel, 2% groceries, 0.5% elsewhere, AED 3,000 monthly floor, AED 200 cap per bonus category. Dining AED 1,500 × 6% = AED 90; groceries AED 2,000 × 2% = AED 40; fuel AED 500 × 5% = AED 25; other AED 2,000 × 0.5% = AED 10. AED 165 a month, AED 1,980 a year. The AED 313.95 fee is waived from year two above AED 12,000 of annual spend, which this profile clears six times over.
ADCB 365 Cashback — 6% dining, 5% fuel and Salik, 3% groceries, 1% elsewhere, AED 5,000 monthly floor, AED 1,000 monthly cap. Dining AED 1,500 × 6% = AED 90; groceries AED 2,000 × 3% = AED 60; fuel AED 500 × 5% = AED 25; other AED 2,000 × 1% = AED 20. AED 195 a month, AED 2,340 a year, AED 1,957 after the AED 383.25 fee. The fee has no spend waiver. A month under AED 5,000 earns nothing.
ADIB Cashback Visa — 4% on groceries, fuel, dining, education and utilities, 0% on everything else. Groceries AED 2,000 × 4% = AED 80; dining AED 1,500 × 4% = AED 60; fuel AED 500 × 4% = AED 20; other AED 2,000 × 0% = AED 0. AED 160 a month, AED 1,920 a year, AED 1,816 after the AED 103.95 fee.
Mashreq Cashback — 5% dining, 1% on most other spend, 0.15% on the fuel, government, utilities and telecom bundle. Dining AED 1,500 × 5% = AED 75; groceries AED 2,000 × 1% = AED 20; fuel AED 500 × 0.15% = AED 0.75; other AED 2,000 × 1% = AED 20. AED 115.75 a month, AED 1,389 a year, no fee.
Liv Cashback — one rate on all spend, set by total monthly spend: 0.75% under AED 5,000, 1.5% from AED 5,000, 2% from AED 10,000. AED 6,000 × 1.5% = AED 90 a month, AED 1,080 a year, no fee.
Citi Cash Back — 2% groceries, 1% everything else, uncapped. Groceries AED 2,000 × 2% = AED 40; the other AED 4,000 × 1% = AED 40. AED 80 a month, AED 960 a year. The AED 315 fee is waived from year two at AED 9,000 of annual spend.
Liv Cashback+ — 1% under AED 7,000 of monthly spend, 2% from AED 7,000, 4% from AED 15,000. AED 6,000 × 1% = AED 60 a month, AED 720 a year, AED 20 after the AED 700 fee.
Best for light spenders: FAB Cashback or HSBC Live+
At AED 3,500 a month the deciding number is the spend floor, not the rate. ADCB 365’s AED 5,000 floor rules it out entirely. FAB’s AED 3,000 floor (measured on the previous month’s spend) and HSBC’s AED 3,000 floor both clear.
FAB Cashback comes out ahead on our light profile: groceries AED 1,400 × 5% = AED 70, dining AED 700 × 5% = AED 35, other AED 1,400 × 1% = AED 14 — AED 119 a month, AED 1,428 a year, AED 1,113 after the fee. The catch is that the fee posts in full: FAB’s year-one waiver ran with a welcome cycle that closed on 31 May 2026, and FAB has published no spend-based waiver.
HSBC Live+ pays AED 924 a year on the same profile (dining AED 42 + groceries AED 28 + other AED 7 = AED 77 a month) but costs nothing from year two, because AED 42,000 a year clears its AED 12,000 waiver. If your monthly spend sometimes dips under AED 3,000, both cards pay nothing for that month — FAB for the month after.
The ADIB Cashback Visa is close behind at AED 904 net, and it has no monthly spend floor at all, which makes it the safest choice if your spend is uneven.
Best for a household budget: FAB, HSBC or ADCB 365
On the AED 6,000 profile the three cards land within about AED 130 of each other, so pick on the shape of your spend:
- Groceries are your biggest line — FAB Cashback, the only card here paying 5% at the supermarket on an everyday budget.
- Dining and fuel lead — HSBC Live+ at 6% and 5%, with a 2% FX fee that is low for the UAE if you also spend abroad. Its AED 200 per-category caps start to bite above about AED 3,300 of monthly dining.
- You reliably clear AED 5,000 every month — ADCB 365 Cashback, the broadest earn table (it also pays 5% on fuel, Salik and digital subscriptions). It is the riskiest of the three: one month under the floor earns nothing.
Best for heavy spenders: Liv Cashback+
At AED 15,000 a month, Liv Cashback+ pays 4% on everything: AED 15,000 × 4% = AED 600 a month, AED 7,200 a year, AED 6,500 after the AED 700 annual fee. No category card on the ranked list comes close, because their bonus categories are capped and the rest of the spend earns 1% or less.
Two cautions, both from Liv’s own terms. The 4% is a tier on total monthly spend, not a rate you can count on: at AED 14,999 the whole month earns 2%. And cashback is capped twice — at AED 1,500 a month, and at a share of your credit limit (Liv’s own example: an AED 20,000 limit caps cashback at AED 800 a month). Liv also charges an AED 700 joining fee, waived with an active Liv Max subscription, and issues either the Cashback+ or the free Liv Cashback to a customer, not both.
Its points can also be converted to Emirates Skywards Miles, up to 10,000 a month; Liv does not publish the conversion ratio in the material we hold.
Among the category cards, ADCB 365 Cashback does best on the heavy profile (AED 420 a month, AED 4,657 a year net), well inside its AED 1,000 monthly cap.
Best free-for-life card: Mashreq Cashback
Mashreq Cashback never charges a fee and pays 5% on all dining — local, international and food delivery — with no cap and no spend floor. On every profile here it beats Citi, and on the light and household profiles it beats the free Liv Cashback.
What it does not do is pay well on anything else: 1% on general spend and 0.15% on fuel and bills since Mashreq’s 13 June 2026 cut. If dining is a small part of your spend, the Liv Cashback is the better free card once you spend AED 10,000 a month (2% on everything, capped at AED 750 a month).
Best Islamic card: ADIB Cashback Visa
The ADIB Cashback Visa Covered Card pays 4% on groceries, fuel, dining, education and utilities, with no minimum monthly spend. Its caps are AED 300 each on groceries, fuel and education, AED 200 on dining and AED 100 on utilities, inside an AED 1,000 monthly total. The fee is AED 103.95 a year.
It pays nothing outside those five categories, including all international spend. Its closest Islamic rival in our data, DIB Consumer Cashback, pays 3% on groceries and fuel only, behind an AED 3,000 monthly floor.
Welcome bonuses
One-off, so they are not in the tables above. Each applies to new customers on the terms shown on the linked review.
| Card | Welcome bonus | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Mashreq Cashback | AED 500 (AED 100 for existing Mashreq card customers) | AED 5,000 of spend in the first two months |
| Emirates Islamic Switch Cashback | AED 500 cashback | AED 15,000 of retail spend within 60 days; offer listed to 31 December 2026 |
| ADCB 365 Cashback | AED 365 | AED 5,000 of spend within 45 days |
| Citi Cash Back | AED 300 statement credit | AED 6,000 of spend within 60 days, applying directly with Citi |
| ADCB Essential Cashback | Up to AED 250 | New-customer activation; salary transfer to ADCB required |
FAB Cashback, HSBC Live+, ADIB, RAKBANK World and both Liv cards carry no welcome bonus in our data as of their last verification.
Strong numbers, held out of the ranking
We do not rank a card while a field that decides the ranking is under re-verification. These four would place well on the profiles above; the reason each is held is stated plainly.
- Emirates Islamic Switch Cashback — on our household profile in its Lifestyle mode, it pays groceries AED 2,000 × 4% = AED 80, dining AED 1,500 × 4% = AED 60, fuel AED 500 × 8% = AED 40 and other AED 2,000 × 1% = AED 20: AED 200 a month, AED 2,400 a year, with the AED 313.95 fee waived above AED 30,000 of annual spend. That would top the household table. You pick Lifestyle or Travel mode each month and earn only that mode’s rates, there is an AED 2,500 monthly floor, and the caps are tight (AED 100 fuel, AED 200 on each other category). Held because its eligibility data is under re-verification.
- Wio Credit — 2% on all purchases, capped at AED 2,500 a month, no card fee. The price is a Wio plan: cashback needs the Salary plan (free with an AED 15,000+ monthly salary transfer), Plus or Family (AED 49 a month each). On the household profile that is AED 6,000 × 2% = AED 120 a month, AED 1,440 a year on the Salary plan, or AED 852 after twelve months of Plus. Held because its eligibility data is under re-verification.
- RAKBANK World — 10% on supermarkets, dining and travel in months you spend AED 10,000 or more, capped at AED 300, AED 300 and AED 400 a month; 1% elsewhere, capped at AED 100. On the heavy profile: groceries capped at AED 300, dining AED 300, travel AED 200, other AED 60 — AED 860 a month, AED 10,320 a year, with the AED 997.50 fee waived above AED 100,000 of annual spend. Minimum salary AED 20,000. Held because our review has flagged the earn grid for re-verification: RAKBANK’s current page and older terms state different caps.
- Standard Chartered Platinum X — held because its earn rates are flagged for re-verification in our data.
What to check before you apply
- Your worst month, not your average one. A card with a spend floor pays nothing in a month you miss it. If your spend swings, weight the floor-free cards (ADIB, Mashreq, Citi) more heavily than the tables do.
- Where the cap lands. Divide the category cap by the rate to get the spend at which the bonus stops: HSBC’s AED 200 dining cap at 6% stops at about AED 3,333 of dining a month.
- The fee after year one. Most of these cards are free in year one. The tables use the year-two fee because that is what you keep paying.
- Spend abroad separately. None of the profiles includes foreign spend. FX fees on these cards run from 1.99% (Liv) to 3.7% (DIB), so a 1% or 3% foreign-spend rate is usually a net cost.
Bottom line
There is no single best cashback card in the UAE; there is a best card for how much you spend and where. Under about AED 5,000 a month, take a card with a low or no floor: FAB Cashback if you can carry its AED 315 fee, HSBC Live+ or ADIB if you cannot. Around AED 6,000, FAB, HSBC and ADCB 365 are within a rounding error of each other, so match the earn table to your biggest line. From AED 15,000 a month, Liv Cashback+ is the card to beat. Mashreq Cashback is the free card for anyone who eats out.
All figures from our card database, re-checked on 19 October 2026. The per-card sources and last-verified dates are on each linked review.
