Visa’s Money Travels 2025 finds digital remittance apps surging in UAE (66%) and Saudi Arabia (59%), driven by ease, safety and faster transfers

The latest Visa study reveals a substantial shift toward digital remittance solutions in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, underscoring how digital channels are reshaping cross-border money transfers for families and communities across the Middle East. With two in three residents now preferring digital applications over physical locations for remittances, the financial landscape is undergoing a rapid transformation. The drivers behind this shift are clear: easier-to-use platforms, enhanced safety and privacy, and faster transactions. In the UAE, remittance activity remains a cornerstone of how households support relatives abroad, while in Saudi Arabia, a similar digital pivot is evident alongside persistent concerns about transfer costs. Together, these trends illuminate a broader regional move toward digital wallets, card-based transfers, and mobile-number-based remittance solutions that aim to streamline the experience for millions of migrant workers and their families.

UAE Remittance Landscape in 2025: Digital Adoption, Usage Patterns, and Economic Implications

Digital remittance adoption in the United Arab Emirates has reached a pivotal point, with roughly two out of three residents now choosing digital applications over traditional in-person remittance channels. This substantial tilt toward digital platforms reflects not only consumer preference but also an ecosystem maturing around fintech-enabled transfers and bank-integrated services. The new Visa Money Travels: 2025 Digital Remittances Adoption Report highlights a clear set of motivators underpinning this shift. Half of the respondents cited ease of use as a primary reason for adopting digital apps, while nearly as many pointed to safety, privacy, and faster transaction speeds as decisive factors. These findings suggest that the UAE market is rewarding convenience and security in near real time, reinforcing the attractiveness of digital remittance channels for families and expatriate workers alike.

Digital remittance adoption: core drivers and user sentiment

In the broader UAE context, digital remittance channels are increasingly perceived as the default option for sending money abroad. The emphasis on ease of use indicates that platforms are aligning with user expectations for straightforward onboarding, intuitive interfaces, and reliable customer support. Safety and privacy considerations, together with faster settlement times, underscore trust as a critical enabler for adoption. Financial institutions and fintechs in the UAE are responding by deploying streamlined verification processes, stronger anti-fraud controls, and more transparent fee structures to reduce friction and build confidence among senders and recipients. The emphasis on speed also aligns with the needs of families who depend on timely support to meet living expenses, education costs, healthcare, and other essentials.

Remittance patterns: why UAE residents send money abroad

Remittance behavior in the UAE remains deeply tied to family and humanitarian support. Nearly half of respondents report sending money to meet humanitarian or family needs, while just under half provide ongoing regular support to loved ones living abroad. A sizable portion also uses remittances to cover unforeseen or emergency expenses, underscoring the role remittances play in buffering households against financial shocks. An important indicator of engagement is the frequency: about 95 percent of respondents stated that they send remittances at least once a year. This high level of annual activity demonstrates the critical role remittances play in sustaining transnational family networks and social safety nets.

Market size, growth trajectory, and regional implications

Market projections position the UAE as one of the leading remittance hubs globally. The UAE is described as the world’s third-largest sender of remittances, with transaction values expected to expand at a double-digit pace. Specifically, annual growth is projected to average about 16.91 percent through to 2030, with total remittance flows reaching approximately $6.59 billion in that year. These figures imply not just rapid growth in transaction volume but also a shifting composition of the market, with more transfers moving through digital rails rather than traditional agents, banks, or cash-based channels. The implication for the UAE economy includes enhanced cross-border financial inclusion, improved financial literacy among migrant workers, and greater competition among service providers, all of which can contribute to more favorable terms and broader access for expatriates.

Costs and friction points: the persistent challenge of fees

Despite the rising adoption of digital remittance channels, cost remains a salient pain point for users. Approximately one-third of respondents highlighted high fees as an impediment when sending money, and about one-quarter cited fees when receiving funds as a key challenge. These findings reflect a familiar tension in cross-border payments: digital channels offer speed and convenience but can be offset by cost considerations if pricing is opaque or inconsistent. Stakeholders in the UAE—ranging from regulators to financial institutions and fintechs—are thus incentivized to pursue price transparency, competitive pricing, and more affordable transfer options to sustain user trust and broaden adoption, particularly for lower-income migrant workers who constitute a substantive portion of remittance flows.

Visa’s strategic role and product innovation in the UAE

Visa positions itself as a catalyst for expanded international money transfer options in the UAE by partnering with local financial institutions and payment networks. The Visa Direct service enables real-time transfers to eligible cards, bank accounts, and digital wallets across the globe, illustrating the move toward seamless, near-instant cross-border payments. The company has also introduced Visa+, a service designed to facilitate international transfers via a mobile-number-based model. This approach simplifies recipient identification and onboarding while reducing the friction commonly associated with traditional remittance methods. In practice, these innovations help streamline the remittance journey for UAE residents sending funds to families and dependents abroad, enhancing speed, reliability, and security.

Visa’s broader UAE strategy and local collaboration

Visa emphasizes a collaborative strategy in the UAE, working with financial institutions to broaden the array of international transfer options available to customers. By enabling real-time or near-real-time transfers to cards, bank accounts, and digital wallets, Visa is expanding the geographic and device coverage of remittance services. This approach aligns with a broader regional trend toward utility-driven, consumer-centric payment experiences that prioritize speed, transparency, and user control. The UAE’s status as a major remittance hub makes it a critical testing ground for new models of cross-border payments, with potential lessons and best practices that could be scaled to other markets across the GCC and beyond.

Subsection: emerging formats and user experiences

In parallel with core transfer rails, the UAE market is seeing the emergence of formats designed to improve user experience and breadth of coverage. Solutions that rely on a recipient’s mobile number, as opposed to bank details, reduce onboarding requirements and shorten the time to transfer. The combination of card-to-card, bank-to-wallet, and wallet-to-wallet pathways creates a multi-channel ecosystem that can accommodate diverse user preferences and constraints. For recipients, faster receipts translate into more predictable budgeting and improved financial resilience. For senders, the ability to see quicker settlement and to track transfers in real time reinforces confidence in digital channels and fosters ongoing adoption.

Implications for customers, service providers, and policymakers

From a customer perspective, digital remittance adoption in the UAE brings convenience, security, and speed, along with greater control over transfer choices and costs. Service providers benefit from expanded customer reach, improved data-driven insights, and opportunities to upsell value-added services such as currency hedging, transfer scheduling, and customs-friendly remittance options for diaspora communities. For policymakers, the shift toward digital tools calls for continued focus on consumer protection, data privacy, and transparent pricing. Maintaining a pro-innovation regulatory environment while safeguarding user interests is essential to sustaining momentum and ensuring that digital remittances contribute positively to financial inclusion and economic dynamism.

Saudi Remittance Trends in 2025: Digital Adoption, Trust, and Cost Considerations

Saudi Arabia’s remittance landscape demonstrates a parallel transition toward digital channels, reinforced by concerns about safety, privacy, and speed. Visa’s research shows that 59 percent of respondents in Saudi Arabia prefer sending money through digital applications, reflecting a strong appetite for online and mobile-based remittance services. In addition to the digital preference, respondents highlighted safety, privacy, and speed as key reasons—47 percent cited these benefits. Ease of use was a concern for 43 percent of participants, indicating that the user interface and overall experience remain critical determinants of adoption in the Saudi market.

Digital channel trust and material drivers of adoption

The Saudi context reveals rising confidence in digital channels, with 43 percent of respondents stating that peace of mind is a reason they use digital remittance apps, marking a six-point increase from 2024. This shift signals growing trust in digital rails, underpinned by improvements in security, authentication, and fraud protection. The sense of security ties closely to the pace of transfers, as faster settlement times enable families to access funds promptly, reinforcing the perceived reliability of digital pathways.

Remittance frequency, magnitude, and expatriate flows in Saudi Arabia

The survey indicates a high engagement level with remittance activity in Saudi Arabia, with 93 percent of respondents reporting that they send money at least once a year. This milestone underscores the importance of remittance activity in sustaining cross-border family networks and supporting living costs for dependents abroad. Expatriate remittance volumes from Saudi Arabia reached SR144 billion in 2024, marking the highest level since 2021. This notable milestone underscores robust outflows from Saudi Arabia to protect and support families across borders, highlighting the ongoing importance of remittance channels in the Saudi economy.

Cost barriers: sending and receiving remittances

Cost remains a central challenge for users seeking digital remittance solutions in Saudi Arabia. About 29 percent of respondents identified fees as a barrier when sending money, while 33 percent pointed to fees as a barrier when receiving money. These figures reflect a broader global challenge where cross-border payments can incur multiple layers of charges, including origination, conversion, intermediary, and receiving fees. The Saudi context suggests that price sensitivity is high among remittance users, which has implications for service providers and policymakers who aim to improve affordability and widen access to digital remittance services.

Survey methodology and scope

The Saudi-based insights come from the same Visa-Morning Consult collaboration that covered January 2–30, 2025. The study gathered responses from nearly 44,000 remittance senders and recipients across 20 countries, with a focus on the Middle East region. The large sample size and cross-country coverage provide a robust snapshot of attitudes toward digital remittance channels, enabling comparisons across regions and market segments. The inclusion of Saudi Arabia within this wider survey helps identify regional patterns and distinctive features of digital remittance adoption in the Gulf.

Implications for service providers and financial inclusion

For providers, Saudi Arabia’s remittance landscape presents opportunities to expand digital channels and reduce friction for users who seek faster, safer transfers. The strong uptake of digital remittance solutions is encouraging for banks and fintechs who are expanding mobile and online platforms, offering features such as real-time transfers, secure authentication, and cost-efficient pricing. Financial inclusion remains a central objective, as digital channels can extend accessible remittance services to underserved communities that may have limited access to traditional banking infrastructure. The trend lines in Saudi Arabia also suggest potential for cross-border collaborations with international card networks and payment platforms to expand reach and streamline the remittance journey for expatriates and their families.

Subsection: the role of policy and market dynamics

In Saudi Arabia, policy environments and market dynamics influence the rate of digital remittance adoption. Regulatory clarity around consumer protection, data privacy, and cross-border payments can accelerate the adoption of digital remittance solutions by building trust and improving usability. Market dynamics, including competition among banks, fintechs, and payment networks, push for lower fees, better exchange rates, and more transparent pricing. As digital remittance usage grows, so too does the potential for innovative services—such as real-time settlement, mobile-number-based transfers, and multi-channel access—that can further enhance user experience and widen access for Saudi families with loved ones abroad.

Visa Direct, Visa+, and the Evolution of Cross-Border Money Transfers in the GCC

Across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Visa’s initiatives in digital remittances are emblematic of a broader move to modernize cross-border payments. Visa Direct enables real-time transfers to eligible cards, bank accounts, and digital wallets around the world, providing a flexible, reliable mechanism for sending money to loved ones overseas. The introduction of Visa+ signals an additional layer of convenience by allowing international transfers using only a recipient’s mobile number, simplifying recipient setup and addressing onboarding complexities that can deter users from choosing digital channels.

These offerings align with a growing demand among expatriates and their families for faster, safer, and more transparent remittance experiences. By partnering with local financial institutions and aligning product features with users’ daily financial habits, Visa is helping to accelerate digital remittance adoption in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The real-world impact includes shorter transfer times, improved recipient accessibility, and the potential to lower total cost of ownership for users over time as competition drives price reductions and service enhancements.

Regional Implications, Market Dynamics, and the Path Forward for Digital Remittances in the GCC

The convergence of rising digital adoption, persistent cost concerns, and robust remittance flows positions the UAE and Saudi Arabia as pivotal markets in the global digital remittance landscape. The GCC’s growing diaspora presence and the dynamic interplay between banks, fintechs, and international card networks create a fertile environment for continued innovation in cross-border payments. The following themes emerge as key focal points for stakeholders across the region:

• Digital channels as the default: The shift toward digital remittance platforms is accelerating, driven by user expectations for simplicity, speed, and security. The UAE and Saudi markets illustrate how digital rails can become the preferred path for international money transfers, reshaping traditional remittance ecosystems that previously relied on cash agents and in-person services.

• Consumer protection and pricing: As digital remittance providers compete on speed and convenience, fee transparency and cost competitiveness become central to sustaining growth. Policymakers, regulators, and industry players must collaborate to ensure that pricing is fair, transparent, and visible at the point of sale, reducing friction for users who are price-sensitive.

• Security and privacy: Trust remains foundational to the continued expansion of digital remittance products. Investments in fraud prevention, secure authentication, data privacy, and customer education help build confidence among senders and recipients, essential for maintaining high usage levels and cross-border flows.

• Product innovation: The introduction of mobile-number-based transfers and broader network reach through Visa Direct and Visa+ demonstrates the value of consumer-centric design in payments. Expanding the toolkit of transfer options—cards, bank accounts, wallets, and mobile identities—enables users to select the most convenient path for their unique circumstances.

• Economic and social impact: Remittances are a critical lifeline for many families in the UAE and beyond, supporting education, healthcare, housing, and daily living costs. A more efficient and affordable remittance environment can amplify the positive social and economic effects of these transfers, contributing to household resilience and regional development.

• Market expansion and global linkages: The GCC markets act as gateways to broader global remittance networks. As digital rails mature, there are opportunities to connect Gulf economies more deeply with recipient countries across Africa, Asia, and beyond, fostering inclusive financial ecosystems and supporting international trade and investment relationships.

Conclusion

The Visa-led research on remittances in the UAE and Saudi Arabia confirms a notable pivot toward digital channels, underpinned by strong user demand for ease, safety, privacy, and speed. In the UAE, two-thirds of respondents prefer digital remittance applications, with half citing ease of use and 46 percent prioritizing safety, privacy, and faster transactions. The UAE remains a leading remittance hub, with a projected growth path that positions it as the world’s third-largest sender, and with a projected reach of $6.59 billion by 2030 at a double-digit growth rate. However, the persistence of high fees—perceived as a barrier by a meaningful share of users—signals the ongoing need for price transparency and cost-effective options to sustain digital adoption at scale.

In Saudi Arabia, the trend toward digital remittances is equally compelling, with 59 percent of respondents favoring digital channels and 47 percent emphasizing safety, privacy, and speed. The sense of peace of mind, a factor cited by 43 percent of respondents and rising from 2024, points to growing trust in digital solutions. The ceiling on remittance flows remains linked to costs, with 29 percent noting sending fees and 33 percent citing receiving fees as barriers. The 2024 expatriate remittance figure of SR144 billion marks the high point since 2021, illustrating the sustained importance of remittances for Saudi households and the broader economy.

Across both markets, Visa’s initiatives—particularly Visa Direct and the mobile-number-based Visa+—illustrate how technology can streamline cross-border transfers by expanding the set of usable channels and reducing onboarding friction. The collaboration with financial institutions in the UAE and Saudi Arabia signals a shared commitment to delivering faster, safer, and more accessible remittance experiences. As adoption deepens, regulators and industry players will need to balance innovation with strong consumer protections, price transparency, and robust privacy safeguards to ensure that the digital remittance revolution remains inclusive and sustainable.

In sum, the regional shift toward digital remittances reflects broader global trends toward fintech-enabled financial inclusion. The UAE’s and Saudi Arabia’s experiences demonstrate how digital channels can reshape traditional remittance flows, bolster family resilience, and catalyze a more integrated, secure, and efficient cross-border payments landscape for the Gulf and beyond. The coming years are likely to bring further enhancements in speed, accessibility, and affordability, reinforcing the central role of remittances in the social and economic fabric of the region.