Security Cheques for Car Rental in the UAE: What Signing One Means

1Why would a rental company want a cheque?

A card hold has a ceiling and expires. A cheque does not — it is an instrument the company can hold for the length of a long rental and present if the balance is not paid. That is why the practice shows up mainly on monthly and lease-style rentals, and on cars where the damage excess is larger than a card hold comfortably covers.

It is not universal and it is not required by any regulation. It is a commercial term, which means it is something you can ask to change.

2What does UAE law say about a bounced cheque?

Until 2022, a cheque that bounced for insufficient funds was a criminal matter in the UAE. Amendments to the Commercial Transactions Law that came into force in January 2022 changed that for most cases: a dishonoured cheque now functions as an executive instrument the holder can take to enforcement directly, rather than a police complaint, and criminal liability was narrowed to specific circumstances such as acting in bad faith.

Read that carefully, because it cuts both ways. The change removed the threat of a criminal case in the ordinary situation — and at the same time made enforcement faster, because the holder no longer needs a judgment before acting on the cheque.

This is the position at the time of writing and it is a summary, not advice. If a company is asking you for a cheque on a significant sum, that is a question for a UAE lawyer rather than for a comparison site.

Whatever the law says, an undated cheque with no amount written on it is a blank commitment. That is the term to fix, not the cheque itself.

3What should you ask before signing one?

• What amount goes on the cheque, and why that figure — a cheque for the excess is a different proposition from a blank one.
• Write the amount yourself rather than leaving it open, and keep a photograph of the cheque as you handed it over.
• When is it returned? Get a date in the agreement, not a verbal assurance.
• What happens to it if you end the rental early, or extend it.
• Is there an alternative — a larger card hold, or a higher-excess insurance option — that the company will take instead.

4Can you rent without one?

For a short holiday rental, usually yes: the ordinary arrangement is a credit-card hold, and none of the eleven car rental companies on TripReview publishes a cheque requirement in its own terms. That is not the same as saying none of them asks — a term that appears at the counter and not on the website is exactly the kind that does not get published — but it does mean it is not the advertised norm.

For a monthly rental it is more common, and the sensible move is to ask before you commit rather than at handover. If a company will not put the cheque's amount and return date in writing, that answer tells you something about how the rest of the rental will go.

• Monthly car rental