Some UAE banks are seeing up to 2,500 customers leave the country every month without paying off their credit card bills, a number that could rise in June, a senior RAKBank official said yesterday. RAKBank business advisor David Martin said most of those leaving without settling their credit card bills were linked to the construction sector.

"On our credit card portfolio, in common with other banks, we are seeing an increasing number of 'skips' – people leaving the country without paying their bills," he said.

Martin said the bank's research indicated lenders in the UAE have 1,500-2,500 customers leave every month over the past six months without paying what they owe on credit cards.

RAKBank, which has around 20 per cent market share in the country's credit card sector with around 300,000 customers, has seen around half that rate in the same period, Martin said.

"The instances of skips in our bank, according to our own intelligence, is 50 percent below our competitors," he said. "Most of the skips are connected to the construction industry. We don't see a lot of skips in Abu Dhabi or Sharjah."

Thousands of expatriates have lost their jobs in the region since the financial crisis triggered a slowdown in the economies.

Although growth in the number of skips has begun to level off in the past two months, Martin said, banks could face a new wave of customers leaving with their debts unpaid as expats who have lost their jobs may wait to the end of the school year to leave.