I have used ING since I moved here last July and have had no problems with them. I simply changed my former NY address to my mother's Ohio address. They never send anything in the mail anyway, as everything is on-line. An added bonus is that their electric orange acct comes with an ATM card, which charges NOTHING to take money out in shekels at any caspomat here in Israel. And they have relatively favorable interest rates. It is a dream! I have found it to be the easiest and least costly way to get cash here in Israel from an american acct.
I maintain both my citibank and my ING accts. Citibank allows an Israeli
address, whereas ING does not. I use my mother's address for ING
and my addressin Israel for Citi. The problem with citibank is that when
you take cash out of your account here (via an ATM or caspomat as it
is called here) theycharge you 3% for changing it into shekels. ING
charges NOTHING! If you are taking money out every week as I am,
it really adds up.
Randi
NbN yahoogroup
I've seen a lot of discussion on the best way to get American dollars transferred into shekels. It is now more important than ever with the dollar so low. Many people said the best way was to use their
ReplyDeleteFEE FREE ATM cards. But I haven't found any banks that issue such a
card. For instance several posters said that ING's Electric Orange
account provided this service. But I spoke to them just moments ago
and they said they do charge; it is likely these customers just
didn't realize it. I asked specifically about Israel and was told the Israeli bank would charge me an ATM fee while ING would charge me a conversion fee when withdrawing money. I checked their website and it said something similar:
"Foreign Currency Conversion: We may charge you a fee of up to 2.00% of each cash advance or purchase that you make in a foreign currency
after it is converted to U.S. Dollars. This fee is in addition to the
fee that MasterCard may charge as part of converting the purchase to
U.S. Dollars."
http://banking.about.com/
So DOES anyone actually get a fee free ATM with their bank? If so,
please let me (and everyone else) know which one. Seeing this in
writing with a posting from their website would be most convincing.
I do know from extensive research and personal experience that
Capital One is the only credit card I could find that charged no fee
for use overseas, but sometimes you just need cold hard cash and an
ATM card would be a good solution. Thank you!
Boaz
nbnyahoogroup
I used to bank with Wells Fargo and they would charged me $5 a pop to use a foreign ATM plus whatever the Israeli bank charged me. I changed banks to my local Credit Union and now it's only $1 for foreign ATM's. I would suggest looking into a credit union or a smaller local bank, the bigger banks aren’t necessarily better.
ReplyDelete