PS Store Switches the UAE and Saudi Arabia off US Dollars in October — What Happens to Your Wallet

If your PlayStation account is registered in the UAE or Saudi Arabia, the store is about to stop charging you in US dollars.

The UAE moves to the dirham and Saudi Arabia to the riyal, and there is a maintenance window in the middle of it where you cannot buy anything.

The dates

• 5–8 October 2026 — maintenance. You cannot make purchases during this window, and wallet top-ups are unavailable.
• From 5 October — PlayStation 3 store purchases end permanently in these countries once maintenance completes. This one does not come back.
• 23 September — store promotions resume, having been paused ahead of the transition.

What happens to money you already have

Existing wallet funds convert automatically. PlayStation's support page gives the UAE rate as 1 USD = 4.00 AED, rounded up to the nearest decimal value.

The equivalent Saudi rate is not stated on the page we checked, so do not assume a figure — check your own wallet after the changeover.

Gift cards you already hold stay valid. Codes redeemed after the switch convert using the same wallet formula.

Subscriptions

If your PS Plus renewal falls inside the maintenance window, it does not lapse. Your subscription continues through the maintenance and payment is taken afterwards.

The one thing you have to do yourself

Child account spending limits are not carried over. If you have set a spending limit on a child account, you will need to set it up again once maintenance is complete.

Everything else is automatic — PlayStation says customers in both countries do not need to change anything on their accounts.

What to do before 5 October

Three practical things:

1. Buy anything time-sensitive before the 5th. Any sale ending during that window is unreachable while the store is down.
2. If you still buy on PS3, buy now. After maintenance, that storefront is closed to you permanently.
3. Note your wallet balance before the switch so you can check the conversion landed correctly.

Whether local-currency pricing ends up cheaper or dearer than the dollar prices you are used to is a separate question, and it will not be answerable until the new prices are live. Dollar pricing insulated these stores from local currency movement; local pricing means local pricing decisions.

Dates are from PlayStation's own support page.