How to Write a Cheque in the UAE (Step by Step, with AED Examples)

The six steps

Step 1: Date (top right). Day, month, year. The cheque is presentable from this date for six months. A future date makes it a post-dated cheque, the UAE's standard rent and instalment instrument, with rules worth knowing before you rely on them. Post-dated cheques in the UAE

Step 2: Payee. The full name exactly as the recipient's bank account holds it: for a person as per their ID, for a company its exact registered name ("Al Noor Trading LLC", not "Al Noor"). Rule a line through leftover space, and strike the printed "or bearer" for any payment that should be secure.

Step 3: Amount in words. Start at the extreme left: "UAE Dirhams Twelve Thousand Three Hundred Fifty and Fils Fifty Only". End with "Only" and strike through the remaining space. On bilingual leaves, write in the language of the printed line you are using and keep it consistent across the cheque.

Step 4: Amount in figures. In the AED box, tight against the symbol, fils as decimals: AED 12,350.50. Many writers close with a dash to block additions.

Step 5: Crossing. Two parallel lines at the top left with "A/C Payee Only" between them: the amount can only be credited to the named payee's account, never cash over the counter. For rent PDCs, supplier payments and anything with a paper trail purpose, cross it.

Step 6: Signature. Exactly as the specimen your bank holds; UAE banks verify signatures strictly and "signature differs" is a routine return. Company cheques follow the registered mandate (signatories, combinations, stamp where required). One deliberate legal note: signing in a way intended to make the cheque unpayable is among the acts that remain criminal under the 2022 framework. Sign last, after every field is complete.

Worked examples

Conventions: "and Fils ..." for the fractional part, "Only" closes the line, strike-through fills leftover space, and words and figures must agree; a mismatch is a standard return.

The no-alteration rule

UAE cheques clear as images through the ICCS system: the paying bank sees a scan, and a scan cannot authenticate a correction. Visibly altered cheques come back, initialed or not. One mistake anywhere means: write CANCELLED across the leaf, do not sign it, record the number, take the next leaf. Cancelled cheques in the UAE

The errors that get UAE cheques returned

1. Words and figures differ
2. Signature differs from the specimen, or a mandate signatory or stamp missing on company cheques
3. Any visible alteration
4. Stale cheque: presented more than six months after its date
5. Payee name not matching the account title on a crossed cheque
6. Unsigned or incomplete cheque
7. Illegible writing failing image-quality checks
8. Insufficient funds, which since 2022 is civil rather than criminal but still means partial payment against your balance, direct execution for the rest, and administrative penalties Bounced cheque law in the UAE

Every mechanical error on this list disappears when the cheque is printed instead of handwritten: the words generate from the figures, payee names print from a verified list, and every field is image-perfect by construction. Cheque printing software for the UAE