Payment gateways in the UAE: cards, Jaywan, Apple Pay, Aani and BNPL for websites and apps

The payment methods UAE customers expect

• Visa and Mastercard: still the bulk of online card payments in the UAE, from debit and credit cards issued by local banks and from visitors and overseas buyers. Every gateway supports them, so the questions are the fee, the 3D Secure flow and the settlement time.
• Jaywan: the UAE's national card scheme, operated by Al Etihad Payments, a subsidiary of the Central Bank of the UAE. Banks, licensed financial institutions and exchange houses began nationwide issuance on 20 July 2026, in phases, and Al Etihad Payments says Jaywan cards of all categories work at point of sale, on e-commerce platforms, at ATMs and in digital wallets. Over the next year more of your customers' debit cards will carry the Jaywan logo, so your gateway must accept it online.
• Apple Pay: the UAE is on Apple's list of countries and regions that support Apple Pay. On iPhone, a one-tap Apple Pay button is usually the fastest route through checkout.
• Google Pay: Google lists the UAE among the countries where Google Pay can be used online or in apps with participating websites and apps, which covers the Android half of your mobile traffic.
• Aani: the instant payment platform from Al Etihad Payments, launched in October 2023, which lets customers pay by phone number or by scanning a QR code through their banking app. Al Etihad Payments says transfers of up to AED 50,000 go through immediately, around the clock. It suits invoices, high-value orders and in-person collection more than everyday checkout.
• Buy now, pay later: Tabby and Tamara are the two names UAE shoppers recognise. Tabby announced a Stored Value Facilities licence from the Central Bank of the UAE in April 2026, and Tamara announced a restricted finance licence in October 2025. Both usually come as a separate contract, or as an add-on through your gateway.
• Bank transfer and cash on delivery: transfers suit B2B invoices. Cash on delivery is still offered by most UAE consumer stores, though it costs courier cash handling and refused deliveries, so many stores now charge a small fee for it or restrict it by basket size.

Jaywan: what the national card changes for your checkout

Jaywan is to the UAE what mada is to Saudi Arabia: a domestic scheme that routes transactions locally instead of through the international networks. Al Etihad Payments describes the launch as the official start of nationwide card issuance by banks, licensed financial institutions and exchange houses, with the rollout happening in phases over the following months. Its Jaywan questions and answers says the scheme starts with debit and prepaid cards, with credit cards to follow if there is demand, and that it reduces the cost of payment processing for businesses. Cards come mono-badged, for use at home and in the GCC, or co-badged with Visa, Mastercard, Discover or UnionPay for use abroad.

What this means in practice: a Jaywan card used on your site is a Jaywan transaction, not a Visa or Mastercard one, so your gateway must have added Jaywan to its online acceptance. The large acquirers have. Telr announced Jaywan acceptance across its merchant network on 27 April 2026, and Network International integrated Jaywan into its e-commerce gateway on 20 July 2026, stating that there are no additional fees for merchants on Jaywan transactions processed through its gateway. Ask any provider you are considering two questions: is Jaywan live on your online gateway today, and what is the rate for a Jaywan transaction compared with Visa and Mastercard?

A co-badged Jaywan card may be routed through either scheme depending on the merchant's set-up and the rules in force, so the rate you pay can differ for the same card. Have the gateway explain how it routes co-badged cards and show it on the statement, because that is where the cost saving Al Etihad Payments describes will or will not reach you.

Licensing: the CBUAE regulation and what to check

Payment services in the UAE are licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE under the Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes Regulation, Circular 15/2021, which the CBUAE rulebook lists as effective from 6 June 2021 and which the Central Bank's announcement says was published in the Official Gazette on 15 June 2021 with a one-year transition for existing providers. It covers nine retail payment services, listed in Annex I: payment account issuance, payment instrument issuance, merchant acquiring, payment aggregation, domestic fund transfers, cross-border fund transfers, payment tokens, payment initiation and payment account information. E-wallets fall under the separate Stored Value Facilities Regulation of November 2020.

The two services that matter to an online store are merchant acquiring, the service that accepts card payments on your behalf, and payment aggregation, the service that lets one provider collect for many merchants. Article 3 sets four licence categories. Categories I to III may provide acquiring and aggregation, with Category I alone adding payment token services and Category III limited to domestic transfers, while Category IV covers only payment initiation and account information. Banks are exempted persons that notify the Central Bank rather than apply. So the check before you sign is simple: ask the gateway which CBUAE licence category it holds, or which licensed bank acquires for it, and confirm the answer against the Central Bank's published list of licensed institutions.

The regulation also protects you as a merchant. Under Article 14, a provider may hold your money only while it is in transit, must keep it segregated from its own funds, and, if it settles later than 24 hours after the transaction, must hold it in a separate escrow account at a bank or cover it with insurance or a bank guarantee. Terms must be clear, available in Arabic and English, and changes need at least 30 days' notice, after which you may terminate at no charge if you disagree. Fee schedules, complaint procedures and liability for unauthorised transactions must be provided before you contract.

One more line from the exclusions is useful: technical service providers that support a payment service but never hold the money, including data processing and IT services, are outside the regulation. That is why a web developer building your checkout does not need a licence, and why you should be cautious of any platform that holds your customers' funds without one.

Common gateway options in the UAE

UAE stores and apps commonly use PayTabs, Telr, Network International, Checkout.com, Amazon Payment Services and Magnati, as well as direct acquiring through UAE banks. Stripe lists the UAE on its global availability page, with account registration open rather than by invitation, and its UAE pricing page publishes a standard rate of 2.9% plus AED 1.00 per successful domestic card transaction, an extra 1% for international cards and another 1% where currency conversion is needed, with AED 60 per dispute. Shopify stores can use Shopify Payments, which Shopify's supported countries list includes for the UAE, or a gateway app.

Published rates are a starting point, not the offer you will receive: most UAE providers quote per merchant, and rates differ between local debit, local credit, international and Jaywan transactions. Rather than ranking providers, compare them on the criteria below against your own order sizes and volumes.

Step by step: from trade licence to first payment

Checkout details that raise conversion in the UAE

• English and Arabic, with the language switch on the checkout itself, not only the home page. See our Arabic website checklist.
• Show the card, Jaywan, Apple Pay and Google Pay logos on the product page and the cart, not only on the final step.
• Show the full price in AED including VAT and delivery before the payment step; registered sellers must display VAT-inclusive prices.
• Put Apple Pay first on iPhone and Google Pay first on Android, and keep card entry short.
• Show BNPL instalment amounts on the product page, where they influence the decision.
• Keep cash on delivery visible but make prepaid the default, and consider a small COD fee to reduce refused deliveries.
• Handle failed payments gracefully: keep the cart, explain the reason, and offer another method.
• Send the order confirmation on WhatsApp or SMS as well as email.

Apps: in-app payments and store rules

In a mobile app, physical goods and real-world services, such as products, food, rides or bookings, are paid through your gateway's SDK, including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Jaywan. Digital content and subscriptions consumed inside the app generally fall under Apple's and Google's in-app purchase rules instead. Decide which applies before you design the checkout. Our guide to publishing on the App Store and Google Play covers store review.

Selling across the Gulf

A UAE gateway will usually accept international Visa and Mastercard from Saudi, Omani or Qatari customers, but each market has its own domestic scheme and habits: mada and Apple Pay in Saudi Arabia, OmanNet debit cards in Oman. If those markets matter, read payment gateways in Saudi Arabia and payment gateways in Oman, and expect to run a local gateway or a regional provider with local acquiring in each country. Selling to consumers there also brings local VAT and consumer rules into play.

The rest of the UAE set-up is covered in our guides to .ae domain registration, UAE corporate tax registration, Shopify vs custom ecommerce in the Gulf and, for customer accounts, UAE PASS login integration.

How OGB Labs helps

Every UAE store and app we build takes cards, Jaywan, Apple Pay and Google Pay through a licensed gateway, with BNPL, Aani and cash on delivery where they fit, English and Arabic checkout, and payments connected to orders, invoicing and your accounting. We help you compare gateway offers before you sign, including the free zone question and Jaywan routing, and handle the sandbox, Apple Pay domain setup and go-live testing. See web development in the UAE, our ecommerce service and mobile apps, or message us on WhatsApp at +968 7111 0727.