AECB Credit Score 3i — the new 300 to 850 score, what changed in October 2026, and why your number moved

Credit Score 3i is the Al Etihad Credit Bureau's new scoring model, and the bureau's app said in September that every score would be migrated to it in October 2026. The new score runs 300 to 850 for a mature file and 300 to 650 for a new-to-credit or new-to-country file; the old one ran 300 to 900. So a number that looks lower this month may be the ruler, not you. Here is what the bureau says changed, what the six named factors are, how to tell a scale change from a real change, and what the new model means if you are rebuilding after a bad patch.

What changed, in the bureau's words

The bureau's credit score page describes 3i as three things: inclusive, meaning it "extends credit scoring to more people"; intelligent, "a smarter approach to understanding credit behaviour"; and insightful, "deeper insights into credit health and financial behaviour". Its FAQ lists the features more plainly:

• up to 36 months of trended credit information
• a richer set of indicators reflecting credit behaviour
• greater consideration of how credit obligations are managed over time
• enhanced assessment across different customer and credit profiles
• a modernised modelling approach based on the information now available in the UAE market

The one line most people need is the one about the two score types.

Two scores, two ceilings

The old model had one range, 300 to 900. Two things follow.

A 700 on the old scale is not a 700 on the new one. Nobody has published a conversion, and the bureau's own answer to "will my score be lower or higher" is that the impact varies with each person's profile and behaviour. The bands the app shows, Weak, Fair, Good, Very good and Excellent, are the stable thing to compare across the change; the points are not.

A new arrival's number is capped at 650 by design. Under the old model many new residents had no score at all, which the credit-file guide covers. Under 3i, limited history gets a score, but on a shorter ruler. A 600 on a new-to-credit file is near the top of its scale; it is not a weak mature score. The bureau says the type moves to Mature once there is enough established history, and it does not publish how long that takes.

The six factors the bureau names

The credit score page lists six, and the new report names which ones are moving your number:

The last one is new as a named factor. If you pay rent in post-dated cheques, each one that clears is now evidence in your favour and each one that returns is evidence against; the cheque guide covers what a returned cheque does and what the person holding your cheque can see.

Inside the app, the same ideas are grouped as three questions: how well you manage your credit limits, whether you pay bills and loans on time, and how many loans and cards you currently have.

How to tell a scale change from a real change

Do this once, in this order:

1. Read the score type. Mature or New-to-Credit. If it says New-to-Credit, your ceiling is 650 and a number in the 500s or 600s is not a verdict.
2. Compare bands, not points. If you were Good before and are Good now, nothing happened to you; the ruler moved.
3. If the band dropped, buy the report. The score is AED 10.50 and shows the number; the report is AED 84 and, per the bureau's comparison table, is the one that includes payment history, credit accounts, credit enquiries, legal records, recommendations and score factors. The score factors section names what moved.
4. Match each factor to one action. Utilisation: pay a card down below a third of its limit. Credit application: stop applying. Payment behaviour: automate the due dates. Cheque behaviour: make sure the account a cheque draws on is funded two days before the date.

If you are rebuilding after a bad patch

This is the part of 3i that matters most to the people who read these guides. At a media roundtable in November 2025, the bureau's director general, Marwan Ahmad Lutfi, said that under the old model a person who missed more than three consecutive payments sat in a delinquency category for 24 months, and that the new model would let a customer leave that category within six months and improve their score in under a year, with scores adjusting quarterly. In September 2026 the bureau repeated the six-month aim: customers who settle what is outstanding and keep paying regularly will see their information updated automatically and their score recover progressively, and it said the change followed complaints from people who had fixed their finances but were still being held back by old delays.

Two cautions from the same sources. Six months is a design aim, not a guarantee of a specific score; total obligations, repayment behaviour and everything else in the file still set the number. And the recovery runs from regular repayment, so the clock starts when the pattern starts, not when the last arrears were cleared. The timeline guide covers what a reported missed payment does and the settlement guide covers how a settled account reads.

What did not change

• Who reports. Banks, finance companies, telecoms, utilities, courts and government entities, with Tabby and Tamara plans since July 2026; the BNPL guide has the detail.
• The prices. AED 10.50 for the score, AED 84 for the report.
• Self-checks. Buying your own score is not an enquiry.
• Correcting errors. The report still carries a data-correction route, and the bureau says information providers must respond to a correction request within 10 working days; the checking guide has the steps.
• Lenders decide. The score is one input into a bank's decision alongside the debt burden ratio and its own policy; no bank has published a 3i threshold.

Frequently asked questions

Is Credit Score 3i the same as Credit Score 3.0?

Yes. The bureau announced the model as Credit Score 3.0 in November 2025 and its FAQ still uses that name in one heading; the product shipped as Credit Score 3i. The app and the website use 3i.

When did the migration happen?

The bureau's app carried a home-screen notice in September 2026 saying all credit scores would be migrated in October. Its website and app-store listing already describe 3i and the 300 to 850 range. If your most recent score was bought before October, it was on the old scale.

Will my bank re-check my score because of the change?

Banks pull a score when you apply for something or when they review an account; the migration does not itself trigger an application. If you have an application in progress, ask the bank which scale its threshold is on; the bands are the safer language.

Does a New-to-Credit score stop me getting a card or a loan?

Not by itself. A bank reads the type, the band and the debt burden ratio together, and the Central Bank's income floor for a card is a separate rule; the loan-or-card guide runs it salary by salary. What a New-to-Credit score does is give a lender something to read where before there was nothing.

Can a landlord see my 3i score?

Only if you let them. The bureau's tenant screening service sends you a consent request through UAE PASS and shares the score only when you approve; the tenant screening guide covers what they see and what refusing means.

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 number moves and the plan should not

A new scale is the one month when a score can change without anything in your life changing, and the one month when people make rash decisions about cards and applications. Hisab reads the report once, names the factors in your language, and keeps the plan the same size as the problem. Free, no account, records on your phone, in English, Arabic, Hindi and Urdu.

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