Careem Pay has expanded its remittance service to include Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, enabling UAE residents to transfer funds directly to bank accounts in both countries, bringing its total remittance footprint to more than 35 destination countries.
Transfers to both corridors settle directly into recipients’ bank accounts within 5 to 10 minutes. Transaction limits are set at AED 150,000 per transfer to Türkiye and AED 36,000 per transfer to Saudi Arabia. Careem Plus members receive zero-fee transfers and access to exclusive exchange rates on both corridors.
The two additions target distinct remittance dynamics. The UAE-Saudi Arabia corridor is driven by high-volume intra-GCC financial flows and Saudi Arabia’s financial inclusion push under Vision 2030, where bank account-based transfers are the dominant mechanism. The UAE-Türkiye corridor taps into demand from an estimated 6.5 million Turkish citizens abroad, with the UAE serving as a significant source market for high-value transfers — a segment where speed and reliability have historically been pain points.
Mohammad El Saadi, VP of Careem Pay, framed the expansion around addressing corridor-specific friction: trust and security for Saudi transfers, and settlement certainty for Türkiye, where delayed or uncertain transfers have been a persistent issue for senders.
Editor’s Note: A solid fintech brief. The Saudi corridor is the more strategically significant of the two given the scale of intra-GCC remittance flows and Careem’s UAE base, and it positions Careem Pay directly against established exchange houses and bank transfer services in one of the region’s highest-volume corridors. Worth tracking alongside Aani’s upcoming cross-border payments rollout — the two stories are converging on the same UAE outbound remittance market.
