Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Isratransfer

There are basically two ways to legally transfer money in and out of Israel (discounting money belts, which tend to itch on long flights!):
1. You can do a bank to bank transfer
2. You can use the services of a private money change business in Israel.
Both methods have their drawbacks: Israeli banks basically gouge their customers by wracking up the charges and offering a poor exchange rate far below the interbank rate, and the reason they are able to get away with this is because they are aware of the drawback with private money changers in Israel, which is they may be far less expensive and offer much better rates, but they are simply not as secure.
In recent years there have been high profile cases of money change firms going bust and of clients in the middle of a transfer losing their money. This happens because basically when your funds arrive in Israel, they land in the money changers accounts, and they then transfer the money to wherever you want it sent, but before they do, they have full control of the funds, which means the clients has to trust they money changer to do the right thing, which obviously they must do or nobody would use them again... unless you happen to pick the day they go out of business!!
There is however a money changing firm that have voluntarily added a layer of protection, arguing that clients shouldn't have to trust them, but rather they should be able to trust the system. That has always been the bank's advantage: I mean who really trusts bankers, but on the whole, we do trust the banking system.

I found out about Isratransfer's system when I was doing my daily radio show here in Israel. One of the founding partners did the financial news for me, and the system of transferring money was actually developed in partnership with the radio station's parent organization,  a highly respected non profit called The AACI (the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel).

Essentially what happens is that the AACI act as an independent 3rd party, approving transfers.Without the AACI approving a money release, Isratransfer are unable to do anything with their clients money. As soon as money arrives in the account, it is immediately released to the destination specified by the client when the money was sent and there is absolutely nothing else that can happen to the money. In fact, even if Israetransfer was to collapse while your money was in transit, it would still have to go where it was supposed to.
So with this system you get peace of mind and you don't have to pay the ridiculous bank charges and poor exchange rates of the banks. How much do I believe in what I say here? I have used Isratransfer myself  on multiple occasions and saved a lot of money, not to mention aggravation (the one thing Israeli banks give you that Isratransfer doesn't!) and now I'm trying to encourage people to use their services.
If you want more info, click here and I'll try to help

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