Credit Cards in Qatar: Eligibility and How to Apply

This guide pulls together what individual bank pages and comparison sites say about credit card eligibility in Qatar, since no single official page sets out the rules for every bank. Figures below are quoted from each bank's own card pages where we could find them, with the date we checked, because minimum salary requirements and card tiers change and differ bank to bank. We could not visit Al Meezan or confirm banking regulator rules this session, and we did not verify every bank operating in Qatar, so treat this as a starting point for comparing banks, not a complete list.

What banks generally ask for

Across the banks we checked, the consistent requirements are a valid Qatar ID (QID), and for expats, a passport and an employment letter or salary certificate from your employer. Some banks also want proof of your residential address. Beyond that baseline, requirements diverge quickly by bank and by which specific card you are applying for.

A mix-up worth knowing about

While checking Commercial Bank of Qatar's "Mastercard Standard" page for credit card eligibility, we found that the page actually describes a Standard Debit Card, not a credit card: age 18 to 65, Qatar resident, and a monthly salary of at least QR 4,000 paid into a Commercial Bank account. This is a useful reminder on its own: bank websites can mislabel or redirect pages, and a page named after a card type does not always describe the product you expect. If you are comparing cards, confirm with the bank, in person or by phone, exactly which product a page is describing before you rely on its figures.

Salary tiers we found

• **QNB (co-branded cards):** ESSENTIAL tier for a monthly salary up to QR 15,000; SELECT for QR 15,000 to QR 35,000; FIRST requires a minimum monthly salary of QR 35,000 or an average daily balance of QR 350,000; FIRST PLUS requires a minimum monthly salary of QR 100,000. These figures are for QNB's co-branded card range specifically, and we could not find the minimum salary for QNB's standard, non-co-branded credit cards.
• **Doha Bank:** A comparison site lists a minimum salary of QR 3,000 for the Lulu Shopping and Dream cards, with the Lulu card's eligibility sometimes tied to also being an existing salary transfer customer. That page itself notes the card cannot be applied for through the comparison site, and cites a 2016 promotion, so treat these figures as dated and unconfirmed. An older news article separately reported a QR 5,000 minimum salary transfer for a Doha Bank salary package, which may also be out of date.
• **Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ):** For Premium Banking specifically, rather than a standard card, the bank's own site states Qataris need a minimum monthly salary transfer of QR 25,000 and expats QR 50,000, plus combined loans and deposits of QR 365,000. The bank's own page notes these criteria can change.

How to apply

The general pattern across banks is: contact the bank (branch visit, phone, or an online "Apply Now" form), provide your QID, nationality, and monthly salary band, choose the specific card product, and provide an employment letter or salary certificate when asked. Some banks' online forms only collect your details and have the bank contact you afterward to complete the application in branch, rather than approving a card entirely online.

What we could not verify

• QNB's minimum salary for its standard (non-co-branded) credit cards, as opposed to the co-branded tiers above.
• Current, confirmed minimum salary figures for Doha Bank cards; our sources were dated or unconfirmed.
• Annual fees, interest rates, or welcome offers for any specific card, since these change often and we did not research them this session.
• Whether a salary transfer to the issuing bank is a strict requirement for every card, or only for certain tiers.
• Eligibility rules at banks we did not check, including Qatar Islamic Bank, QIB, Al Rayan Bank, and others.