PassportCard, Israel’s largest travel and relocation insurer, said it is expanding PassportCard PAY to cover flights, hotels, car rentals and attractions, the biggest spending items in overseas trips. The company says the move can save customers up to 10% and cut the cost of an average family vacation by thousands of shekels, thanks to use of its red card, which is already held by 2 million Israelis.
The expansion was unveiled Monday night at a conference at Heichal HaTarbut in Tel Aviv attended by more than 2,000 insurance agents, along with Israeli Insurance Agents Association president Moshik Ben Porat, PassportCard founder and president Alon Ketzef, and the group’s management. PassportCard said the savings come from its PAY service, launched last year, which removes double foreign-exchange fees from overseas payments.
Until now, PassportCard PAY could only be used while already abroad. The new version lets customers pay in Israel during the trip-planning stage, and the fee savings are reflected directly in the booking price. The benefit applies to bookings made on websites that charge in foreign currency, not sites that convert the final amount into shekels. The service will first be available to PassportCard PAY customers, then to all customers.
The company also highlighted its recently launched Tax Free service, which provides a fast digital process for VAT refunds on purchases abroad. It said Israelis leave about 1.3 billion shekels a year overseas by failing to claim refunds due to them. In addition, PassportCard announced PLAN B, a new insurance product that covers flight cancellation for any reason, including family events, schedule changes or simply not wanting to travel.
Alon Ketzef said the company’s findings show that more than 200,000 customers who joined PassportCard PAY in the past year and spent hundreds of millions of dollars using the red card saved far more than the cost of their travel insurance. CEO Itzik Avקסיס said the goal is to make every stage of an overseas trip “safe, simple and more worthwhile” and to let travelers save “thousands of shekels” already during trip planning in Israel.
