Sharia
Isn't a fee for a guarantee just interest with extra steps?
It's the right question, and it deserves a real answer rather than a logo.
The objection
Classical fiqh treats Kafalah — guarantee — as a benevolent contract. Charging for it is contested, and for good reason: if you pay a fee that scales with an amount of money and the time it is outstanding, you are paying for money. That is riba, whatever it is called.
Any structure that wants to charge for a guarantee has to answer that objection at the level of the contract, not at the level of the marketing.
Why this structure is different
The contemporary position, and the one this product is built on, permits a fee that compensates the guarantor for the administrative and risk-management work of providing the guarantee — not for the guaranteed amount itself. Three design consequences follow, and all three are binding on us.
The fee is flat.
KD 40 a year, identically for every cardholder, regardless of how much of the KD 500 ceiling is ever used or how many holds are placed.
The fee is not time-apportioned.
A thirty-day hold and a two-day hold cost you the same. The fee prices a standing facility, not an exposure period.
Recovery is at cost.
If we settle a valid claim, we recover exactly what we paid. No mark-up. Any late-payment charge is Gharamah — it is assigned to charity and is not our revenue.
The other three contracts
Separating the membership into four contracts is not presentation. It is the mechanism by which each charge is demonstrably attached to an identifiable service.
The guarantee itselfKafalah bi-al-Ajr · KD 40
Kafalah bi-al-Ajr: we stand behind 90% of a hold, up to KD 500. The fee is flat and not time-apportioned, for the reasons above. It compensates the work of underwriting and administering a standing facility, not the amount guaranteed.
The lease of the card and the platformIjarah · KD 25
A conventional lease of a determinate thing — the card and the platform — for a determinate term. The least contentious of the four, and priced as an ordinary service.
The agency that defends youWakalah bi-al-Ujrah · KD 10
Fee-based agency. You are paying for a legal panel to stand between you and a merchant's claim, and to examine it before anything is settled. This is what makes a disputed claim our problem before it is your bill.
The scheme cost, passed throughUjrah · KD 5
A pass-through of Visa's own scheme costs. We do not mark it up; it is stated separately so you can see that we do not.
What the Wa'd is, and why it has no price
A unilateral, binding undertaking that you will repay us, at cost, if we settle a valid claim on your behalf. It is not a loan and it is not sold to you — it is the thing that makes the guarantee a guarantee rather than a gift, and it carries no charge.
Governance
Who rules on this, and who they answer to
The structure has been submitted to an independent Sharia Supervisory Board, appointed by our Board of Directors — not by management. Its rulings bind the company. Management cannot vary a term the board has ruled on without going back to the board.
Our four-contract structure has been submitted to an independent Sharia Supervisory Board for ruling. Until it is issued, nothing on this site describes the product as Sharia-compliant, and this page is an argument rather than a claim.
Read them yourself
All four contracts and the Wa'd undertaking are published in full, in Arabic and English, before you apply. Not inside the signup flow — here, now, where you can read them without a countdown.
The follow-up questions
Isn't a flat fee still a fee on a financial exposure?
It is a fee on the provision of a facility. The test that matters is whether the charge varies with the amount of money or the time it is outstanding — because that is what makes a charge a price for money. This one varies with neither, by design and by contract.
What if the board rules against part of the structure?
Then the structure changes. The board's rulings bind the company and management cannot vary a term the board has ruled on. That is the point of appointing it through the Board of Directors rather than through the executive.
Does a Kuwaiti ruling apply in other markets?
No. A Kuwaiti fatwa does not bind a Saudi or an Emirati board. If and when Depozit operates in another market, that market gets its own ruling, published separately.
Where does Depozit's money actually come from?
From the four disclosed fees, and from interchange paid by merchants. Not from interest, not from a spread, and not from earning on a float — there is no cardholder balance in this product to earn on.
The argument is above. The contracts are one click away.
If you don't accept the reasoning, you shouldn't take the card. We would rather you read it than trust a badge.
Registration with the Central Bank of Kuwait is in progress. We are not yet authorised to issue cards.
Our four-contract structure has been submitted to an independent Sharia Supervisory Board for ruling.
BIN sponsorship is under negotiation with a Visa principal member.
Depozit does not offer credit. There is no credit line, no revolving balance, and no interest charged or paid on any part of this product. The guarantee covers 90% of the KD 500 ceiling; the remaining KD 50 is the cardholder's own responsibility.