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Converting money in Dubai and Abu Dhabi
The Dirham is pegged to the US Dollar at a rate of 3.6724 Dirhams to the Dollar and has been since 1980. (The technical bit is that "The UAE is officially pegged to a special drawing right at the rate of SDE1=4.7619 UAE Dirhams, with a margin 7.25% on either side) And so currency fluctuations are wholly dependant on the greenback. There is talk of following the monetary union model for the Gulf, but if a currency were to be introduced it would be unlikely to come in earlier than 2015. Given that this is unlikely the most that would happen is the Dirham may change its peg to a basket of currencies rather than just the Dollar that, although has been good for the UAE over the medium term, has resulted in some issues over the last couple of years, with its weakening.
Credit Cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Diners Club) are accepted in the majority of shops, but not necessarily in the street stores. Unlike many other countries, shops are unlikely to accept dollars, pounds or euros as payment, so you would have to convert to Dirhams first.
There are many places to exchange your cash, including your hotel, specialist exchanges and banks. As with most countries, the rate that you will receive at your hotel will not be as good as at the exchanges. There are many exchanges on the street and in the malls, and it is perfectly safe to exchange your money there, and in most cases you do not need any ID, but you may need your passport, so it might be better to check beforehand.
To get a picture of what the rates are actually like, check out the website of Al Ansari Exchange http://www.alansariuae.com/
What might be useful is to print off a currency cheat sheet before you leave so you know how much you are paying, or you could use a simple exchange converter to get the rate for your currency.