A mobile remittance app offering fast and free money transfers from the UAE to various parts of the world has temporarily paused its operations, citing a system upgrade as the reason for discontinuing services.
Taptap Send, described as an international peer-to-peer remittance company, has not been operational for nearly a week now, according to expats who regularly use the app, as reported by Khaleej Times. The timing is unfortunate, they noted, with payday approaching and expats preparing to send part of their salaries to their families and loved ones back home.
When users opened the app, a notification appeared stating: “Sending temporarily unavailable. We’ve temporarily paused transfers from the UAE while we upgrade our service. We look forward to resuming our low-cost, fast transfer service as quickly as possible.”
Khaleej Times reached out to Taptap Send on Wednesday for further clarification but has yet to receive a more detailed statement.
“Customers prefer this mobile remittance app for its zero transfer fees, competitive exchange rates, and fast transfers,” said Mohammed, a 35-year-old Indian expat working as a marketing executive in Dubai.
“I like the app because I can send multiple times a month without worrying about the service charge. That’s why I was really surprised when I couldn’t use it since Friday (October 17) last week,” he added, mentioning that some of his friends also use Taptap Send to send money to India.
Taptap Send, founded in 2018 by Michael Faye and Paul Niehaus, was launched in the UAE in June 2023. Mobile banking and digital wallets have become more popular and convenient for the large expat community. It is also available in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and some European countries.
For Filipino expat Michael Ortega, the zero transfer fee is a significant advantage, as he sends money 2-3 times every month to his family in the Philippines. “When I go to remittance centers, they usually charge between Dh15 and Dh25 plus VAT. Mobile remittance apps, on the other hand, offer zero cost.”
Every dirham counts for expats like Ortega, and sending money back home is a big business in the UAE, which is the third-largest sender of remittances in the world, after the US and Saudi Arabia. Last year, Indian expats based in the UAE sent $21.6 billion to India, accounting for 19.2 percent of the total dollar inflows. In 2024, Filipino workers in the UAE sent approximately $1.52 billion in cash remittances to the Philippines, according to Statista.
The remittance market in the UAE is still dominated by traditional remittance companies and major banks. New entrants like Taptap Send offer zero remittance cost as part of their growth strategy, noted UAE-based financial coach Jay Adrian Tolentino.
This also means offering free money transfers can put a strain on operational sustainability.
Tolentino explained: “Remittance apps that don’t charge any transaction fees usually make money through FX spreads (the difference between buying and selling rates when exchanging or trading currencies). Free transfers are often a growth strategy. But once they hit scale or face higher compliance and licensing costs (especially in the UAE, where regulations are strict), they’ll likely add minimal fees or adjust FX spreads to make their operations sustainable.”
“The competition in the remittance industry is very tough, so they need to be creative to stay afloat,” he added, noting: “Sustainable remittance businesses need either volume (meaning, more customers), funding, or small FX margins to survive.”
Tolentino also noted remittance apps are favorable for low-volume transfers — that is why they are popular among middle to low-income expatriates. “If transactions are bigger, banks offer a much more competitive rate in most cases,” he added.
Meanwhile, this was not the first time this year that residents faced remittance issues. In July this year, some UAE residents experienced transaction delays for days. The delay was caused by a technical glitch that occurred on a busy weekend. Customers impacted were given cashback vouchers ranging from Dh20 to Dh60, and the company assured customers of enhanced safeguards to avoid recurrence of the incident.
