Cheque Book in the UAE: Requesting, Charges, and Keeping Your Facility Safe

Who gets a cheque book in the UAE

Cheque facilities attach to current accounts for residents with Emirates ID, and banks apply their own eligibility checks (salary levels or relationship criteria at some banks, and standing checks via the credit bureau). Banks are required to apply cheque discipline: accounts with repeated dishonours can lose the facility, and the administrative framework introduced with the 2022 law allows chequebook withdrawal and denial of new books for up to five years for misuse. Translation: the cheque book is a privilege with a compliance dimension, not a stationery item.

Requesting a new cheque book, bank by bank

Emirates NBD: through the ENBD X app or online banking (service requests, cheque book), phone banking, or any branch. Delivery by courier to your registered address, typically within about 3 to 5 working days.

FAB (First Abu Dhabi Bank): via the FAB mobile app or online banking service requests, phone banking, or a branch, with courier delivery in a few working days.

ADCB: through the ADCB app or personal internet banking (requests, cheque book), an ATM at some machines, phone banking, or a branch; courier delivery typically within 3 to 5 working days.

Mashreq: via Mashreq Neo / Mashreq Online service requests, phone banking or branch, with courier delivery.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB): through the DIB app or online banking, phone banking or branch.

The universal pattern: app first, courier delivery, Emirates ID on delivery for verification, and books returned to the branch after failed delivery attempts. Keep your registered mobile and address current before requesting; the courier delivers only to the registered details.

Charges and book sizes

First cheque book: free on many account tiers at account opening. Subsequent books: typically AED 25 to 50 per book depending on bank and tier, with premium tiers often waived. Book sizes run 10 to 25 leaves for personal accounts and 25 to 50 for business accounts. Returned-cheque charges are a separate, much larger number on every bank's schedule, and they apply per presentation.

The rules that protect your facility

1. Fund every cheque from the day you issue it, especially PDCs; the UAE's early-presentation reality means the date is not a shield. Post-dated cheques in the UAE
2. No alterations, ever. UAE image clearing returns corrected cheques; a mistake means cancelling the leaf. How to write a cheque in the UAE
3. Track every leaf: issued, cancelled, and remaining, with the numbering gaps explained. Unexplained missing leaves from a business chequebook are a fraud vector.
4. Reorder early: below two weeks of normal usage, request the next book; a business caught bookless on rent day borrows trouble.
5. Know your outstanding position: every unpresented cheque is a future debit; the register plus reconciliation shows exactly what is still in the wild.

ChequePro handles points 3 through 5 automatically: every printed cheque logs itself, the Chequebook Report shows each book's used/cancelled/remaining status, and reconciliation surfaces the outstanding list. Cheque printing software for the UAE