We found these guidelines on how to use the metro published in Gulf News today.  Now, is it just us or are these not common sense…?

- If standing, hold on to one of the handrails to avoid falling

- Please give up you seat to the elderly or to those in greater need

- Do not use the emergency call points and emergency stop buttons without any real emergency

- Touch your card to the card reader machine and walk through briskly

- Do not loiter within the gate area

- Please carry the children under five to avoid the gates closing on them.

- Do not run

- Do not crowd and obstruct walkways in the stations

- Stand aside and let arriving passengers alight before you board

- Do not attempt to board once the doors are closing.

GCC nationals and expatriates become acutely aware of international roaming charges at this time of year as most companies reject enormous expense claims that include holiday phone calls.

This makes it all the more important to do some research into roaming charges, and to ensure that you connect to the best priced networks in the countries you are visiting.

For example, did you know that Etisalat customers with a contract will pay roughly twice as much for making a phone call in the UK if they connect to O2, Orange or Vodafone networks rather than T-Mobile?

Etisalat’s web site lists the cost of making a call back to the UAE as:

O2: AED8.04 per minute
Orange: AED9.49 per minute
T-Mobile: AED4.43 per minute
Vodafone: AED8.08 per minute

Irritatingly, while T-Mobile is cheapest for making calls back to the UAE, Orange is far cheaper when making calls to other UK numbers.

The price of receiving a call (AED3.09 per minute) is exactly the same across all UK networks.

Count yourself lucky if you are not a Batelco customer. Batelco has entirely different roaming charges, and the cheapest options are different for peak-time and off-peak calls. Looking again at roaming in the UK, Vodafone offers the cheapest off-peak price for calls to UK numbers of BD0.082 per minute, compared to BD0.284 per minute on Orange for peak and off-peak calls - more than treble the price!

Peak price tariffs are different. Connect to the O2 network and you will pay BD0.355 per minute, 40 percent more than the tariff of BD0.204 with Vodafone.

And if you are calling Bahrain, it is different again. This time T-Mobile is comfortably cheapest with an all-day rate of BD0.39 per minute, compared to Orange’s eye-watering peak time rate of BD1.17 per minute.

UK coverage for all major mobile networks is in the high 90 percent range, so in most parts of the country you are well advised to manually select a network rather than allow your phone to automatically find one.

The examples here give only a narrow window into the complexities of international roaming, but I urge you to do your own research before travelling this summer. Five minutes of web research could save you colossal sums on your phone bills come September.

Let me know if you have any other tips for saving money on mobile roaming.

I have just received a credit card statement from Emirates Islamic Bank and very surprised to find a membership fee charge of Dhs 500. When I just enquired with the customer service, I was advised that this was because I had not used my credit card in the previous billing cycle. Hence, I must ensure every month I make a minimum purchases on my card of AED 100 and then pay it off without leaving any balance. In short, I will have to pay the fee if I don’t use the card or if I leave any balance before the due date.

I quite understand the reason to pay if I had left any balance although the charge is ridiculously expensive compared to normal credit cards’ interest fee. But can anyone make any sense to me why I have to pay Dhs 500 for not using their service (credit card)? How Islamic is it? I am a Muslim and I know my religion very well. Islam does not constitute to charge customers for not using their service. So, on what basis does a bank that claims itself an Islamic bank charge me?

Let us see another scenario. If you leave the town on June 15th for one month holiday and decide not to use your credit card, that would mean you are forced to pay Dhs 500. In other words, the bank is penalising me for not using their service.

This whole Islamic banking deal is completely fabricated and is ripping off customers. And I am very sorry to say, these policies set by certain Islamic banks such as Emirates Islamic Bank are only insulting Islam.

I have a credit card from Citibank as well and have never had to call customer service because I have just never had any issues. Recently, I missed my Citibank payment by two days and was charged late payment fee. But that fee was waived off on the very next bill without even requesting. Now that is what I call true banking. With Citibank, even if I just make a minimum fee, I would never have had to pay Dhs 500 as an interest.

Time to spread the word… after all Islamic Banking is not Islamic. You are better off to do with normal banks that understands customers. And profit rate is just another word for interest. In the end, you do not have any benefit but you pay ridiculously more. So why then bank Islamic?

A Must Read for all Bloggers.

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F. Hot to write a petition