Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Currenge service cost, and how much money may it save?

Currency Conversion Costs at Banks in Israel, For a bank non beneficiary Client

Let’s start by clarifying an important point: When converting foreign currency (FX) through a bank in Israel, rather than with Currenge, the main cost for a bank non beneficiay Client does not lie in the visible transfer or conversion fees. Instead, most of the cost is hidden within the currencies exchange rate itself.

At Israeli banks, a non beneficiary client which is not offered preferential rates, may pay about 0.8%–0.9% of the transaction amount, as a cost which hidden inside the currency exchange rate.
This hidden cost can be easily be calculated as half the spread between the bank’s buy and sell rates, divided by their average.

For example:
If a bank offers to buy USD at 3.6916 Israeli shekels, and sell USD at 3.7602 Israeli shekels, the full rates spread is 0.0686 Israeli shekels, or 6.86 Isralei agorot.
Half that spread is 0.0343 Israeli shekels.
With the average of such exchange rates being 3.7259 Israeli shekels, this results in a hidden cost of 0.92% on the converted amount.
So, converting shekels into $100,000 would carry an implicit cost of $920, compared to a conversion at a mid-market rate.

On top of this, banks typically charge a conversion fee of about 0.15-0.20%, bringing the total cost for a non beneficiay client to roughly about 1% of the total converted money amount.

What Currenge Offers Instead
Currenge enables its clients to avoid most of that cost by providing access to trading room currency rates — that are far more favorable than those offered at banks to their non beneficiary clients.

For non beneficiary bank clients, Currenge’s service significantly reduces the effective cost of currency conversion, in particular by eliminating the most of such hidden margin embedded into standard bank offered currencies exchange rates.

Currenge’s services are available for transfers and/or conversions starting from the equivalent of $10,000.


The cost of conversion and/or transfer with Currenge consists of:

1. Currenge’s direct commission, which is 0.1% of the total transaction money amount, with a minimum of $20
2. The “hidden” cost in an currencies exchange rate in a trading room, which is involving the Israeli shekel and a second Major currency, mostly of about the order of 0.06-0.07%, and that may also be smaller than that. On less common currencies conversions, that cost may be higher
3. Foreign currency bank transfer costs, which are required for You to receive a Currenge service

Main foreign currency bank transfer costs, when in Israel, for example
Your transaction, depending on its structure, may incur bank foreign currency transfer costs, if any, for: transferring your foreign currency to Currenge, Currenge’s transferring foreign currency to a trading room as part of your transaction, and/or Currenge’s transferring foreign currency to a beneficiary’s bank account, on Your behalf.

Where it is a foreign currency transfer, done between two bank accounts that are both held at one of the banks: HaPoalim, Leumi or any bank belonging to the First International Bank Group, each such foreign currency transfer made on such a bank’s website costs only $2.85-7.5 depending on the bank, as of June, 2025. Where it is such a foreign currency transfer, done between two bank accounts at the same bank, which Currenge itself executes at Discount Bank, its cost is $5, as of 2025, while for another account holder at Discount Bank, the foreign currency transfer may be more expensive.

Where it is any foreign currency transfer involving two different banks, in additional to the bank foreign exchange transfer fee, a bank ‘correspondent’ fee is also expected to be charged. Such charge is in the order of approximately €25.

Where it is a foreign currency transfer, that Currenge executes on your behalf, to an account at a bank where Currenge does not hold a bank account, the cost of an outgoing such transfer is in the order of approximately 0.15-0.22% of the transaction amount, depending on the transferring bank, and a charge may also applied when monies enters the beneficiary’s bank account. At a beneficiary bank account which is held at a bank in Israel, that cost is of a similar order of magnitude to the fee for an outgoing foreign currency transfer.

When it comes to a foreign currency transfer that Currenge executes for you, between two bank accounts that are held at different banks, which are with two of the three banks HaPoalim, Leumi, or any bank of the First International Bank group, you can benefit from the fact that the foreign currency transfer fee when executed by the same entity, i.e., Currenge, is supervised by Bank of Israel, and is only on the order of $10 for the transfer section till Currenge’s bank account, plus the above correspondent bank fee, and the relatively low foreign currency transfer fee for a transfer between two bank accounts that are both held at one of the banks HaPoalim Leumi, or any bank of the First International Bank group.

Costs of transferring money to an account abroad
A transfer from your bank account in Israel to your owned bank account outside of Israel, if would be executed by Currenge, may be made through Currenge’s bank account at the First International Bank.

At the First International Bank, the fee for transferring money to an account abroad is, as of September 02, 2025, 0.1313% of the transaction amount, with a minimum of $18.75 and a maximum of $165. In addition, a Correspondent fee of approximately $20 is expected to apply. A charge may also be charged for the receiving of an international money transfer in the bank account abroad.

Such an international money transfer may complete relatively fast, with the transferred money being received in the beneficiary’s bank account abroad, on the same business day that the transaction is initiated through Currenge.

The execution of such a transfer is subject to the First International Bank’s consent to carry it out.

Possible Saving for You as a Currenge Client
In addition to receiving service from foreign exchange professionals, a Currenge client, who has no benefits in bank fees and/or costs, may achieve a converted amount, higher than in bank by 0.6-0.9% of its total transaction.

For example, in a transaction amounting to $100,000, this may mean the Currenge client will receive a greater return of about $600-900, compared to what would have been received through a transaction conducted at a bank.

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