Pay Reconnection Fee If Telecom Bills Are Overdue

If UAE residents pay their telecom bills late, they are now expected to pay a reconnection fee. Along with this, they will have their telecom services suspended from further use. Similarly, for late payments of telephone and internet bills, the users will have to face the consequence of their credit score reducing. 

What Etisalat and du Have Planned For Late Bills

The UAE’s biggest telecom service provider, Etisalat produces postpaid bills at the beginning of every month. The payment has to be done by the 15^th of each month. An Etisalat representative stated that if the payment becomes overdue, the company will suspend its services. Furthermore, it will charge customers with an additional reconnection fee worth Dh26.25 (inclusive of VAT). The company recommends the customers sign up their credit card for autopay with them so that the bills are automatically paid every month, without any hassle.

The country’s second-largest telecom service provider, du, has a slightly different policy. If the customer delays payment of bills, their outgoing calls are prevented and broadband services are halted after 21 days. After 26 days, mobile-hybrid plans are suspended as well. After 40 days, mobile and landline services are blocked and after 100 days, all the other services are also paused.

Meanwhile, the du team will be constantly reaching out to its users through different platforms, requesting them to clear overdue bills. If the customer pays their outstanding bill within the 100-day cycle, then their suspended services will be restarted without them having to pay the reconnection fee. The company wants to enhance and simplify the user experience through transparent and reliable communication.

How This Impacts Your Credit Score and Why Good Credit Score is Important

Timely completion of bill payments is a must to have a good credit score with the Al Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB). Having a low credit score means customers will find it difficult to get credit and other personal financial services from UAE banks. When applying for personal, auto, or home loans, banks tend to determine the rate of interest-based on the person or company’s credit score. This is significant because having a better credit score will lead to lesser rates of interest being charged, and vice-versa.

Both these companies are telecom giants in the UAE who regularly give the Al Etihad Credit Bureau details on the outstanding bills and payment history of people and companies. Both of their data combined causes AECB’s customer information database to include 9 million individuals and 600,000 companies. This information plays a huge role in the decisions of banks about giving out credit and the rates of interest at which they are given. 

At the moment, AECB gathers credit data from banks, telecom operators, finance companies, water and electricity companies, and courts. This adds information towards creating credit reports for individuals and companies. The analytics and special indicators on these credit reports, such as the credit score, helps predict the credibility of potential borrowers. Thus, having a good credit score is a must.