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I'm located in one of Yas Island's hotels in Abu Dhabi. I took some taxi trips so far, but I was quite surprised that in such modern country (as I understand, UAE is) none of the taxis / taxi corporations accepts credit card payments (none of these, I used so far). Cash only is accepted.

Tomorrow I need to take a taxi ride to Dubai and back, which -- I was told -- will cost me around 600-800 AED both ways. I'd like to pay that much money with my company credit card, not in cash.

Is there any reliable cab corporation in Abu Dhabi which I could call to order taxi and be sure that it will have credit card terminal / reader? Or is Uber the only option in this case?

The same question goes for my return trip, i.e. on finding cab corporation which accpets credit card payments in Dubai.

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    I used credit card to ride cabs in Dubai in 2014.
    – Augustine of Hippo
    Commented Mar 1, 2017 at 13:59
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    And you might ask the hotel concierge to arrange for a cab, specifiying that it has to accept a credit card. I've done this, although not in your location.
    – Giorgio
    Commented Mar 1, 2017 at 14:40
  • @Dorothy To be honest, I just did the same and to my extreme surprise I was informed that... no taxis in Abu Dhabi has credit card endpoint on-board and there is no way to pay via card for taxi except for withdrawing money from ATM and paying for ride in cash. Quite very surprising and hard to believe, but I'm only repeating, what I have heard about two hours ago from hotel concierge. He is not able to arrange me such cab and he is not aware of any credit card-enabled taxi corporations in Abu Dhabi.
    – trejder
    Commented Mar 1, 2017 at 19:53
  • How very annoying (and odd?). Would you be able to hire a car/driver and get a receipt? I'm guessing that you need these to expense your trip.
    – Giorgio
    Commented Mar 1, 2017 at 20:09
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    Why don't you answer your own question with all the info on your experience? Comments disappear and answer stay.
    – Giorgio
    Commented Mar 2, 2017 at 15:07

2 Answers 2

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According to this post, most of the taxis should be equipped with a credit card terminal : http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/transport/8-000-dubai-taxis-are-nol-ready-1.1680090

Then, based on my recent experience, it is pretty random. While most taxis should be equipped, I found that credit card is randomly accepted. I haven't checked why, maybe they fear fraud or maybe they prefer cash...

For a taxi company accepting credit card for sure, just Google "taxi dubai credit card" and you'll find some. Can't really promote any here.

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  • As per my comment to @Dorothy above, I was just informed that most taxis in Abu Dhabi are not equipped with credit card terminal and I can only get cash from ATM or use Uber-like services for paying with my company credit card for a cab ride in Abu Dhabi. I must admit that I was always asking about the ability of paying with credit card and maybe most of the "no" answers was for not accepting cards (due to suggested frauds) instead of not having credit card terminal. However, the effect is the same: As for my experience and hotel reception info there is no way pay with credit card for taxi
    – trejder
    Commented Mar 1, 2017 at 19:57
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Abu Dhabi / Yas Island

According to my recent experience, confirmed by information obtained at hotel desk and among few taxi drivers -- there is no way to pay for taxi via credit card in Abu Dhabi. At least not among taxis serving my place, i.e. Yas Island.

The same area wasn't covered by Uber in the moment of writing this (March 2017).

The only way to use credit card in this case is to withdrawn money from ATM machine as taxi drivers accepts cash only.

Dubai / Knowledge Village

According to Laurent's answer such problems should not exist in Dubai, as per article cited by him, at least 8000 taxis should be equipped with credit card terminal in Dubai.

However, I wasn't manage to verify this, as I decided to use Uber on my return trip (coverage of Uber in Dubai is significant).

Summary

When deciding to travel between Dubai and Abu Dhabi via taxi / Uber consider above and:

  1. Uber comes fairly more expensive than taxis! On average route between these two cities expect Uber prices to be even 40% higher than taxi services.

  2. Every Abu Dhabi taxi driver must handle you a printed confirmation receipt, if you travel by taxi-meter. If you decide on fixed price you will receive a hand-written few sentences on a piece of paper ripped-off from some old notebook in most cases. Consider this when planning company-like trips where you need a receipt for getting money back.

  3. Fixed-price tariffs may come better on short hops. On 100-like kilometers travels like between Abu Dhabi and Dubai they usually comes much more expensive (up to 30% more expensive).

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