Tabby late fees in the UAE — what a missed instalment costs, and what Tabby Cash is

A missed Tabby Pay Later instalment in the UAE costs a collection charge of 15 percent of that instalment, capped at AED 40 to 70 depending on the loan size, and the same charge is taken again on day 15 and day 29 if the amount is still unpaid, so three charges at most. A missed Tabby Card statement costs AED 60 to 200, once, the day after the due date. Every number on this page comes from Tabby's own Key Facts Statements, which it publishes because the Central Bank requires it.

Pay Later: the charge, and the three days it is taken

Tabby's Pay Later Key Facts Statement sets the collection charge as the lower of two figures: 15 percent of the missed instalment, or a cap that depends on the size of the loan.

The charge is applied on the date of the missed instalment. If the amount is still unpaid, the same charge is applied again on the 15th day and on the 29th day after the first miss. Tabby takes each one from your linked card separately, immediately, and calls them non-refundable. After the third there are no more collection charges on that instalment under the table; what continues is the overdue balance, the locked account, and from July 2026 the entry on your Al Etihad Credit Bureau report.

Do the hisab: a worked example

A worked example of a common situation. You split AED 1,200 into four instalments of AED 300. The second one is missed.

• The charge is the lower of 15 percent of AED 300, which is AED 45, and the cap for a loan of AED 1,200, which is AED 50. So AED 45.
• Left unpaid for a month: AED 45 on the missed day, AED 45 on day 15, AED 45 on day 29. Total AED 135, on an instalment of AED 300.
• The alternative, before the due date: Tabby's Extend due date for 7 days costs 16 percent of the instalment, AED 48, but is capped at AED 20 for an instalment between AED 301 and 775. So AED 20.

AED 20 to move the date, against AED 135 to ignore it. That is the whole of this guide in one line.

Tabby Card: a different table

The Tabby Card is a monthly statement, so it has its own fees in its own Key Facts Statement.

The charge is added to the overdue statement the day after the due date and is payable with the overdue amount. Three other card fees matter more than the late fee if you carry a balance:

• Rollover fee. If you pay the minimum and carry the rest, a variable fee of up to 12 percent of the amount rolled over. Tabby's own example charges 4.5 percent on AED 1,800 carried, AED 81, and states the annual percentage rate of that example as 54 percent.
• Split fee. Splitting a purchase made outside Tabby's partner network into up to 12 instalments costs up to 22 percent of the purchase value.
• Fee cap. Fees will not exceed 30 percent of a transaction, or of the month's transactions together.

The minimum repayment can be up to 25 percent of a balance, and Tabby says it may try your linked card more than once after a missed due date.

The fees that are not late fees

Three paid features in the Pay Later document are the way to avoid the collection charges, and each has a published price.

The extension is the one to know. Its cap for a small instalment is AED 10, and Tabby's example prices a 7-day extension on an AED 50 instalment at AED 8. It is only offered before the due date, so the moment to use it is the week before, not the day after.

What Tabby Cash actually is

A lot of people search "tabby cash loan". It is not one. Tabby Cash is an account: you top it up by debit card or bank transfer, spend from it with a Cash Visa card, and send money to a phone number or a UAE bank account. Tabby says the account is free to open, carries no fees, and allows up to AED 25,000 added and spent a month, with a daily spend limit of AED 10,000. The card pays cashback on three categories you choose, 3 percent for all customers until 1 November 2026, then 3 percent for Tabby Plus members and 1 percent for everyone else, up to AED 200 a month.

The part that matters for this guide: Tabby Cash is provided by Tabby Payments LLC under a Central Bank licence. Pay Later and the Tabby Card, the products that charge the fees above, are provided by Tabby LLC. Money in a Cash account is yours; a Pay Later plan is a loan. If a collection charge is taken, it comes from the linked card, not from Cash, unless you have made Cash the linked method.

The caps above Tabby's caps

Tabby's documents set a ceiling on what it charges: 130 percent of the original loan for Pay Later, 30 percent of transactions for the card. Above those sits the Central Bank's Finance Companies Regulation, under which buy-now-pay-later has been short-term consumer credit since 27 December 2023, with total fees capped at 30 percent of the amount financed. A charge inside those limits is not an overcharge. A charge above Tabby's own table is a dispute, and the place to raise it is the in-app chat, quoting the Key Facts Statement by name; the complaint guide covers the steps after that.

Frequently asked questions

Does the collection charge keep growing every day?

No. It is a fixed amount from the table, taken on three fixed days: the missed date, day 15 and day 29. It does not accrue daily, and it is not a percentage of the whole loan.

Can Tabby waive a collection charge?

The card document says Tabby may waive or reduce fees at its discretion. There is no published rule on when. Asking in the chat, with the reason and a proposed payment date, costs nothing and is the only route; the collections guide has a message you can adapt.

Is a missed Tabby payment reported to AECB?

From July 2026 Tabby and Tamara accounts appear on Al Etihad Credit Bureau reports, and Tabby says consistently late payments lower a customer's score. One late instalment is a smaller mark than a default; months of them are the pattern a lender sees. The BNPL-on-your-report guide explains what a bank does with it.

What happens after the third collection charge?

Under the table, no further collection charges on that instalment. The balance stays overdue, the account stays blocked, and the file may be passed to a collection agency, which brings the rules in the collections guide into play.

Does Tabby charge a fee for paying with a credit card?

The cardholder agreement allows a processing fee of up to 1 percent of a repayment made from a linked credit card. A debit card or bank transfer avoids 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 fee is the smallest number on the list

A collection charge is rarely the problem; it is the sign that the month does not close. Hisab shows every plan, card and loan with its due date and what the month costs, so the next instalment is decided before the charge, not after. Free, no account, records on your phone.

Get the app — free →