The AECB Cheque Clearance Indicator — what someone can learn about your cheque before accepting it, and what a bounced cheque now does to your score

The Cheque Clearance Indicator is the Al Etihad Credit Bureau's probability that a specific cheque will clear. Whoever holds your cheque can buy it for AED 10.50 in the bureau's app, without your consent, and it shows as High, Medium or Low. It is built from your cheque payments and court obligations over the last 24 months, your creditworthiness, and up to 36 months of payment history. Under Credit Score 3i, cheque behaviour is also one of the six named factors in your own score. Here is what the holder of your cheque sees, what goes into it, what a returned cheque does to your file, and how to keep every post-dated cheque you have written from becoming a line in it.

What the holder of your cheque sees

The person or business you gave a cheque to opens the Etihad Credit Bureau app, chooses Cheque Clearance Indicator, and either scans or uploads a photo of the cheque or types its details: the MICR code from the bottom of the cheque, the IBAN if available, the bank, the due date, the issuer's name and the amount. They pay AED 10.50. The reading comes back at once as High, Medium or Low, shown against the cheque's date and amount.

Two things the bureau is explicit about. First, it does not advise: its FAQ says its role is "only to provide a probability that the cheque will bounce", and the decision to accept the cheque is the holder's. Second, no consent is needed, because the indicator "does not disclose any confidential information". You are not notified when someone buys a reading on your cheque.

The same screens offer reminders: the app can notify the issuer and the holder when a cheque is nearing its due date. A landlord who uses that feature is, in effect, reminding you to fund the account.

What goes into it

The bureau's page names three factors:

Its page also describes the product as insight into "the issuer's cheque payments and court obligations in the last 24 months", and the in-app explainer shows the shape of that: cheques that bounced, registered court cases, and the share of cheque amounts that bounced. The FAQ adds that the model compares your record with the cheque and credit behaviour of everyone else in the bureau's database.

So the reading is not only about cheques. A clean cheque record with a card in arrears can come back Medium; the credit side counts.

What a returned cheque does to you

Three separate things happen, and it helps to keep them apart.

The payment is still owed. Since 2 January 2022, under Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2020, a cheque returned for insufficient funds is a civil matter, not a crime. The cheque becomes an executory instrument: the holder can take it to the Execution Court directly, without a criminal complaint. Criminal exposure is reserved for fraud, such as a closed account or forgery. The police-case guide covers the line between the two.

The return is recorded. Returned cheques appear in the public-records section of your AED 84 credit report, and a court file against you appears there too. The AECB guide explains what else the report holds.

The score moves. This is the part that changed in 2026. The bureau's Credit Score 3i page lists "cheque behaviour: your record of honoured and returned cheques" as one of six named factors. A returned rent cheque is now read by the next bank, the next landlord through tenant screening, and the next supplier through this indicator. The 3i guide has the full list of factors and the new ranges.

Keeping every cheque off that list

Most people who write cheques in the UAE write them for rent, in one to four instalments a year, and most returns are timing, not refusal: the salary landed on the 28th and the cheque was presented on the 25th. The method is dull and it works.

1. Write every cheque down the day you sign it. Account, date, amount, who holds it. Four rent cheques, a school-fee cheque and a security cheque with the bank is a normal list; the money-year guide shows when the big ones land.
2. Fund the account two working days early. Banks present post-dated cheques on or after the date; a transfer made the morning of the date can miss. If the cheque draws on an account other than the salary account, the transfer is a standing instruction, not a memory.
3. If it cannot be covered, say so before the date. A cheque that is replaced, split, or held back by agreement is never presented and never returned. A landlord who gets a call on the 20th has options; one who gets a return on the 25th has a court instrument. The deferment template is written for a bank, and the same shape works for a landlord.
4. If a cheque has returned, settle it and get it in writing. The return stays in the 24-month window; a settlement letter sits beside it and is what a court or a landlord reads next.

If you are the one holding a cheque

The reading is a probability, and the bureau is clear it is not advice. A Low on a rent cheque is a reason to ask for a bank transfer or a smaller cheque schedule, not proof the tenant will not pay. A missing reading usually means a new account with no cheque history, which is common for someone in their first year here; the bureau's own list of reasons for no indicator is an unreported IBAN or a deceased issuer, not a bad record. For the wider question of a tenant's finances, the bureau's tenant screening service shares the credit score itself, with the tenant's consent.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Cheque Clearance Indicator the same as the old Cheque Score?

Same product, new home. The bureau's app-store listing says the indicator is "now integrated into this new app and replaces our previous standalone 'Cheque Score' app". In May 2026 the bureau said it had upgraded the cheque scanning with AI.

Does buying a reading on someone's cheque affect their score?

No. It is not a credit application and it is not recorded on the issuer's file as an enquiry.

Can a bank refuse to pay part of a cheque?

The 2020 amendments to the Commercial Transactions Law require a bank to pay what is available in the account against a cheque if the full amount is not there, unless the holder refuses the partial payment. That partial payment reduces what is left to enforce, but the cheque is still recorded as not honoured in full.

How long does a returned cheque stay on my file?

The indicator reads the last 24 months of cheque behaviour and 36 months of payment history; the report shows public records for the period it covers, which the bureau describes as the past three years. Accurate records cannot be removed early; a settled return reads better than an open one.

I paid a company with a cheque and it bounced because the salary was late. Will there be a police case?

Not for insufficient funds. Since 2 January 2022 that is civil, enforced through the Execution Court. Call the payee, settle or replace the cheque, and keep the confirmation. The police-case guide covers what fraud means in this context and why a late salary is not it.

Sources, and when we last read them

Every figure in this guide comes from one of the sources below. The date is when we last read the guide against them. Rules and fees change without notice, so if a number matters to a decision, open the primary page before you rely on it.

When the cheque has a date and so does the salary

A returned cheque is almost always two dates in the wrong order. Hisab holds every cheque you have written with the day it will be presented, next to the day the salary lands and the day the money goes home, and says which transfer to make first. Free, no account, records on your phone, in English, Arabic, Hindi and Urdu.

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