You have been in the country six weeks. You have a teudat zehut (תעודת זהות, national ID), a bank account, and a landlord who wants twelve post-dated cheques and one shik bitachon (שיק ביטחון, security cheque) with the payee line left blank before he hands over keys. Nobody mentioned that the pinkas shekim (פנקס שיקים, chequebook) those cheques come out of is something your bank has not yet agreed to give you.
That gap is the whole newcomer problem here. Israelis have carried a pinkas for years and stopped thinking about it. You are being asked to underwrite a year of rent with an instrument you do not hold, on a convention that does not work the way the one you were trained on works, against a clearing timetable your money is not yet arriving on.
> Cross-border note. This is general information, not tax, legal, or financial advice. Cross-border (US/UK) and Israeli rules interact in complex ways; consult a qualified cross-border professional before acting. Nothing here is a recommendation about any bank, product, or account.
US tax treatment of investments, including PFIC, is covered separately in The PFIC Problem. This page is cheque and current-account mechanics only, and names no pooled investment vehicle of any kind.
One sourcing note, because on this topic you are luckier than usual. The Bank of Israel maintains a thirteen-section Guide to Restricted Accounts in English, and its English and Hebrew versions both carry the same last-updated date of 9 September 2024, read on 23 August 2026 12. You can read the regulator directly, in your own language, without wondering what the Hebrew says instead. Every procedural number below traces to that guide, and where the two language versions diverge, this page says so and names both.
Why does a stack of post-dated cheques land on you before you even have a chequebook?
Because a chequebook is not part of opening an account, and Israeli landlords do not know or care that it isn't. The Bank of Israel puts it flatly: issuing cheques and credit "are not services that a bank must provide a customer; they are provided at the bank's business discretion" 1. Business discretion means the decision belongs to your bank rather than to any rule you can hold it to, so the only reliable way to learn where you stand is to ask the bank that holds your account, at the branch, while nobody is yet relying on your cheques.
So the honest sequence for a newcomer is: ask about a pinkas before you go apartment hunting, not after you have shaken hands on a lease. If the answer is not yet, you need that information while you can still negotiate the security structure rather than after you have promised twelve cheques you cannot write. If you have not opened the account yet, Opening an Israeli Bank Account covers what you bring to the branch; add the pinkas question to that visit. The deposit and guarantor side of the negotiation is covered in Renting Without an Israeli Guarantor and Israeli Rental Contracts. The point for this page is narrower: those landlord cheques come out of the same pinkas as everything else, they will sit in a drawer with future dates on them for up to a year, and each one carries the same bounce consequence as every other cheque you write.
What is written on an Israeli cheque, and which field trips a newcomer?
Four fields do the work, and a newcomer can lose on any of them for reasons a lifelong Israeli never meets. The Bank of Israel defines a cheque as a bill by which the drawer instructs the bank holding his account to pay money from it to a third party, the payee, at a predetermined time 11.
- The date. Not decoration. A cheque only counts as refused when it was "presented for payment on or after the date recorded on it" 1, so the date is what decides whether a return can be counted against you at all, not merely a note to the recipient about when to bank it. It is also the field where the rule you learned abroad does not carry over, which the next section takes apart.
- The payee line. Leaving it blank is the habit a well-meaning neighbour will teach you, and it is the one field where a bank is barred from paying at all. See the Cash Law section below.
- The amount, written twice, in figures and in words. "Sums do not match" is a recognised return reason 1, and on a Hebrew chequebook the words half is a line of Hebrew you may be writing for the first time in your life. Worse, a technical return does not save you: if the balance was also short, the bank records insufficient funds in addition to the technical reason, and the cheque counts 1.
- Your signature. "Drafter's signature faulty" works the same way, counting against you when the balance was short too 1. The bank compares what you write against a specimen signature kept on your file 1, and that specimen was captured once, at a counter, in a language you were still decoding; it may not be the hand you have signed with your whole life. On a joint account that requires two signatures, one signature alone triggers the same return 1.
Then there is what happens to the cheque after it leaves you. A cheque is transferable by endorsement unless the drawer restricts transfer on the face of the cheque and the legal conditions for doing so are met; where it is endorsed, the endorsee may demand payment from the drawer or from the endorser 11. In plain terms, a security cheque you handed a landlord can be passed to somebody you have never met, who can then come to you for the money. That is what lemotav bilvad (למוטב בלבד, payee only), the crossing people write across the top corner, is for.
One distinction is worth holding onto, because it panics people who read the endorsement rules and conclude they cannot bank their own salary cheque. Handing a cheque to a bank for payment is not the same legal act as endorsing it. Under section 4(f)(1) of the Cash Law, a banking corporation, the Postal Bank or a licensed deposit-and-credit provider receiving a cheque for payment is not "the payee", and the endorsement rule does not apply to whoever handed it in 5. Depositing a cheque for clearing is not an endorsement.
Why does the US post-dating rule you learned not carry over?
Because the two systems put the risk in different places, and if you assume the American answer here you will make exactly the wrong call twice: once when a landlord asks for twelve dated cheques, and once when your own money is late.
For US olim only. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency states the American position without hedging: "Banks are permitted to pay checks even though payment occurs prior to the date of the check. A check is payable upon demand unless you submit a formal post-dating notice with your bank, possibly for a fee" (last reviewed April 2021) 7. If you learned to bank in the United States, you learned that a forward date on a cheque buys you nothing by itself.
The Israeli rule the guide actually states is narrower than "the date holds", and the narrow version is the one you need. What a landlord is asking for is a shik dachui (שיק דחוי, post-dated cheque). A refused cheque is one "presented for payment on or after the date recorded on it" 1, and a cheque deposited before its payment date sits on the guide's list of exceptional return reasons: when a cheque comes back on one of those grounds it is not counted as a refused cheque even if the balance was short at the time, alongside a cheque that turns out to have been stolen and a cheque drawn on an account whose owner has died 1.
Read that precisely. What the guide gives you is protection from the count, not a guarantee about the money. It says a cheque returned because it was deposited early does not go into the tally that restricts your account. It does not go on to say that a bank must refuse to pay an early-presented cheque when the funds are sitting there. So the working assumption for a newcomer is: the date protects your record, and your balance protects your rent. Do not treat a forward date as a reason to leave the account thin.
What does one bounced cheque actually trigger in Israel?
Not a restriction. This is the single most common thing newcomers get told wrong, so it is worth being exact: under section 2(a) of the Checks Without Cover Law, 5741-1981 4, an account is restricted for one year when ten or more cheques drawn on it are returned for insufficient funds within a twelve-month period and the bank returned them for that reason 1. The account then becomes a cheshbon mugbal (חשבון מוגבל, restricted account) and you become a lakoach mugbal (לקוח מוגבל, restricted customer). Those are the statutory terms, and they are the ones that will appear in the bank's letter.
There is also a carve-out for a single bad fortnight, which is precisely the shape of a newcomer's first crisis. The Bank of Israel's English guide states that the account is not restricted if the first cheque and the tenth cheque were returned within a period of fewer than fifteen days 1. The Hebrew version of the same guide phrases the same rule as the gap between the first refusal and the last refusal, in a case where more than ten cheques were refused 2. We describe it as the English guide describes it, and we attribute it to the guide rather than to the statute, because the two wordings can give different answers once more than ten cheques come back. Do not plan around either version.
Before any of that, there is a warning. When five cheques have been returned for insufficient funds, the bank must send the account holder a warning explaining that ten or more within twelve months restricts the account 1. Two things about that warning matter more to you than to anyone born here. First, read the next sentence twice, because it is the most expensive line in Israeli banking law for someone whose Hebrew is at ulpan level and whose post still goes to a temporary address: "A flaw in the warning or non-receipt of the warning are not grounds for the cancellation of the restriction, provided the bank actually sent the warning" 1. Not receiving it, not opening it, not being able to read it: none of those help you. Second, the warning is not guaranteed to come at all. If the conditions for restriction already apply on the date of the warning, the customer is sent a notice of restriction instead, and in an aggravated restriction no warning is sent 1. Warnings and notices go to every member of the account, anyone holding power of attorney, and any authorised signatory 1, so a spouse still abroad on a joint account is in the loop and you may not be.
After that: the bank sends the restriction notice no later than five business days after the day the last triggering cheque was refused, and the restriction begins fifteen days after the notice is sent, on the date the notice itself names 1. Watch which event starts that clock. It runs from the day the bank sends the notice, not from the day you read it, which is the whole difference between a fortnight of warning and none at all when your post is still going to an absorption centre, a sublet or a relative's flat. Those fifteen days are not a reprieve either. Cheques refused during that waiting period are added to the count that caused the restriction, and no cheque account may be opened for you during it 1. Once the restriction has begun, cheques presented on the account come back marked "Restricted account" and are not counted as refused cheques 1.
One rule cuts the other way and is worth knowing if somebody else signs on your account. The restriction attaches to the account and to the account holders on record with the bank on the day the conditions are met, whichever member drew the cheques, and it does not attach to a holder of power of attorney, even where that person is the one who signed the uncovered cheques 1.
### The three tiers
| Tier | What triggers it | How long | What it shuts down | Who notifies you | Where you appeal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ordinary | Ten or more cheques on one account returned for insufficient funds within twelve months 1 | One year 1 | Drawing cheques on that account, plus opening any new cheque-drawing account at any bank, plus being given power of attorney or named an authorised signatory on a new one 1 | Your bank 1 | Magistrate's Court under section 10, within 20 days of the bank sending the notice 1 |
| Aggravated | A second account restricted during a live restriction, or being restricted again within three years of the end of a previous one 1 | Two years 1 | Cheque-drawing on every cheque account in your name, including joint accounts you are a member of and accounts where you hold power of attorney. An account where you are only an authorised signatory is not itself restricted, but you may not draw cheques on any account 1 | The Supervisor of Banks, within nine days of the Bank of Israel receiving the bank's report 1 | Magistrate's Court, within 20 days of the bank's notice or 10 days of the Supervisor's notice, whichever is later 1 |
| Special | Imposed by a court in bankruptcy, by the Enforcement and Collections Authority, by the Center for Collection of Fines, Fees and Expenses, or by a rabbinical court for refusal to grant a writ of divorce 1 | One to five years, as the imposing body decides 1 | Same as aggravated 1 | The Supervisor of Banks, except restrictions imposed by the Enforcement and Collections Authority, which the Authority sends directly 1 | The body that imposed it, not the bank and not the Bank of Israel 1 |
The Bank of Israel publishes restricted account numbers with the bank, branch and restriction end date, and publishes the names and ID numbers of customers restricted under aggravated circumstances. It does not publish the identity of customers restricted under special circumstances, only their restricted accounts 1.
Which counting rules catch newcomers specifically?
Eight, and most of them carry a cross-border or first-year edge a lifelong Israeli never meets.
| The rule | Why it lands on a newcomer |
|---|---|
| The determining balance is the balance at the end of the business day the cheque was presented in the beneficiary's account, not the day you wrote it 1 | You control the date you write. You do not control the day your landlord walks into a branch |
| Credit for a cheque you deposit is provisional and becomes final only three business days after the day of deposit; the Bank of Israel recommends depositing at least four business days before the debit date 1 | Your first months run on international transfers with no guaranteed landing day, not on a salary that arrives like clockwork |
| A cheque you cancelled still counts if the account was short. The paying bank must check cover even with a stop order, and returns it citing both "Insufficient funds" and "Cancellation order received" 1 | Cancelling is the reflex when a deal goes wrong in a language you are still learning. It does not protect the count |
| A cheque returned for a technical reason also counts if there was no cover. "Drafter's signature faulty" or "Sums do not match" is recorded in addition to insufficient funds 1 | A specimen signature taken once at a counter, and shekel amounts spelled out in Hebrew, are exactly where a newcomer's cheques go wrong |
| In a joint account, cheques count for both members even if only one signed. Where two signatures are required and only one signed, the cheque comes back for signature and insufficient funds, so it still counts 1 | A spouse who makes aliyah later inherits the state of the existing account when added to it 10, and once a holder, the count |
| Blank cheque forms reported lost or stolen come back as "Check form canceled" and are not counted, but the bank has discretion and may ask for proof of a police complaint or a court decision, and may instead return the cheque as "Cancellation order received", which requires cover 1 | A chequebook goes missing in a shipping container or a sublet more often in year one than ever again. Report it to the branch in writing, and file the police complaint |
| The same cheque re-presented and re-bounced counts once 1 | Small mercy, and one of the two rules on this list that is not aimed at you |
| A cheque returned solely because of a lien does not count, for sixty days from the day the bank was notified of the lien 1 | The other one. Useful to know it exists; do not plan around it |
Two more mechanics sit underneath all of this. Cheques settle at the Paper-Based (Checks) Clearinghouse on the evening of the business day they are deposited, and returns are usually made the following business day, recorded at the deposit-date value; cheques are now presented and held by electronic means only 3. And on the day itself there is a rescue: under section 7a(a) of the Law the bank must notify the account holders or authorised signatories of the need to deposit funds no later than 8:00 am on the business day following the business day the cheque was presented, and must allow a deposit up to two and a half hours before the end of that business day to prevent refusal 14. That notice is your one same-day chance to stop a cheque becoming number one in a count, so ask your branch which phone number, address and app account it will send it to, and correct anything that still points at a hotel, an absorption centre or a relative's flat.
How does an ordinary month go wrong for a newcomer?
Like this. Illustrative figures, not sourced ones, in a 31-day month where the 28th falls on a Wednesday. The example assumes the working week a newcomer has to relearn, Sunday to Thursday, with Friday and Saturday out; ask your branch which days it counts, because everything below is measured in business days and nothing else.
You have rent cheques dated the 1st of each month at 6,000 ILS. Your standing balance is 2,300 ILS. Your salary, or a transfer from your home-country account, is expected on the 3rd. On Wednesday the 28th you deposit a 4,000 ILS cheque a private buyer gave you for the furniture you sold.
Count it out. Credit on that deposit becomes final three business days after the day of deposit. From Wednesday the 28th: Thursday the 29th is one, Sunday the 1st is two, Monday the 2nd is three. Your 4,000 ILS is not final until the end of Monday the 2nd.
Your landlord deposits the rent cheque on Sunday the 1st. The determining balance is your balance at the end of that Sunday, and the bank normally does not include a deposited cheque that has not gone final. So the balance the bank looks at is 2,300 ILS against a 6,000 ILS cheque. It comes back for insufficient funds, and it is refused cheque number one. Your money arrives on Tuesday the 3rd, forty-eight hours after the decision was made.
Now run it again with the Bank of Israel's own recommendation. Four business days before Sunday the 1st, counting back, is Thursday the 29th, Wednesday the 28th, Tuesday the 27th, Monday the 26th. Deposit on Monday the 26th and the credit goes final three business days later: Tuesday the 27th, Wednesday the 28th, Thursday the 29th. Your balance at the end of Sunday the 1st is 2,300 plus 4,000, which is 6,300 ILS against a 6,000 ILS cheque. It clears.
Two calendar days of deposit timing is the entire difference. That is why "four business days early" is not fussiness; it is the rule that decides whether an oleh whose money arrives by international transfer starts accumulating a count. If you are moving money in, Transferring Funds Into Israel covers the arrival side, and an approved overdraft facility is a separate question covered in Overdraft (Minus) Explained.
What does a restriction actually close, and what stays open?
Less than people assume, and more than is comfortable. You may not draw cheques on the restricted account, may not open a new cheque-drawing account at any bank, and may not be made an attorney or authorised signatory on a new one 1. That prohibition covers accounts in Israeli currency on which cheques are drawn 1.
Two corrections to the folk version, both from the same guide. An ordinary restriction is not a nationwide ban on writing cheques: if a restricted customer has another account that is not restricted, he may continue to draw cheques on that one 1. It is the aggravated tier that reaches every cheque account in your name 1. And what stays open in the restricted account itself is more than the word "restricted" suggests: cash, deposits, and any action other than drawing a cheque continue 1. A bank refusing to open a non-cheque account solely because you are restricted "does not constitute reasonable refusal to open the account" 1. Under Proper Conduct of Banking Business Directive 422, a bank is required to issue a debit card to any customer, including a restricted customer, for the immediate execution of payments, with narrow exceptions where the Enforcement and Collections Registrar has barred payment-card use and in exceptional money-laundering cases 1. You are not cut off from paying for things.
The middle clause is the one that lands squarely on a newcomer's plan. The usual first-year plan is an oleh banking package and then a move to another bank when it expires; Switching Banks (Nayadut) as an Oleh walks through how. A restriction shuts the door on a new cheque-drawing account for its whole term, and the record does not stay behind at the old bank either: other banks may not retain or use the circulated restriction information more than three years after the restriction period ends, but the bank that restricted you may keep it with no time limit 1.
Credit is not protected. The Law does not stop a bank issuing credit cards, but a bank that issued one may cancel it as a business decision, and banks may refuse loans, mortgages and credit lines to restricted customers even after the restriction has been cancelled, with no Bank of Israel authority to intervene 1. The restriction goes to the Credit Data Sharing System, shows in your credit report during the restriction period and for three years afterwards, and is treated as significant negative information; it also appears in the free annual Banking ID 1. Directive 430 bars banks from making commercial or business use of circulated restriction information, such as credit rating, but it does not stop them buying the same history from a credit bureau, and it expressly permits warning a partner who wants to join a restricted account, or an account whose restriction ended recently 1. That last window is the second place the two language versions of the guide disagree: the English says a restriction that ended less than three months ago, the Hebrew says less than three years 12. Ask what an account's cheque history looks like before you are added to it rather than relying on either number.
For how the credit file itself works for someone with no Israeli history, see The Israeli Credit System. Carry two corrections there from this page: a single bounced cheque does not make you mugbal, and an ordinary restriction is not a ban on drawing cheques from every account you hold. The trigger is the ten-cheque count, and the all-accounts reach belongs to the aggravated tier 1. For the practical consequence on a purchase, see Buying a Car With No Israeli Credit File.
The per-cheque and returned-cheque charges sit in your own bank's published tariff, so we quote none here. Look them up in the tariff your own bank publishes, and see Israeli Banking Fees.
Who gets told your ID number and home address when a cheque bounces?
The person holding the cheque, and this surprises almost everyone who banked somewhere else. The bank on which the cheque was drawn must give the recipient of a cheque that was not paid, for any reason whatsoever, the account holder's name, ID number and registered address, plus the name, ID number and registered address of any power-of-attorney holder or authorised signatory who actually signed, where the bank believes it can identify the signatory 1.
From there the holder can ask the Enforcement and Collections Authority to execute the cheque, or bring a civil suit 1. The relevant file type is shtarot ve'hamcha'ot (שטרות והמחאות, notes and cheques), and it is one of only two file types an unrepresented creditor can open through the Authority's online personal area, the other being a monetary judgment. Processing a file-opening request takes up to ten working days, after which a warning goes to the debtor, and a short track in which the office rather than the creditor pursues collection is available for debts up to 25,000 ILS, as stated in the Authority's file-opening guide, updated 26 January 2026 6.
Two things follow for a newcomer specifically. A landlord you met three times now holds your teudat zehut number and your registered address, which for a recent oleh may still be a temporary one. And the collection route runs through a body you have no relationship with, in Hebrew, on a ten-working-day clock, while your Hebrew is at ulpan level. Treat the count as a privacy and paperwork exposure, not only a money one.
How do you get a restriction lifted?
Not by arguing with your branch and not by complaining to the Bank of Israel, whose Checks Without Cover Section states that it is not authorised to intervene directly in a bank's decision to restrict an account or refuse a cheque 1. The route is an appeal to the Magistrate's Court under section 10 of the Checks Without Cover Law, filed in the jurisdiction where the branch the cheque was drawn on sits, within twenty days of the bank sending you the notice 14. Twenty days from a letter in Hebrew that you may not have read, filed at the court covering a branch that may be nowhere near where you now live.
The court's power is narrow: it can only remove cheques from the count, not rule the restriction itself unjustified 1. Five grounds are available: the bank refused due to an error; the bank refused due to a lien where the cheque was drawn before the bank received notice of it and could not have been paid for sixty days from that notice; you had reasonable grounds to assume the bank should have honoured it, from sufficient funds or an agreement with the bank; you were unable to take care of your affairs due to injury to person or property in a hostile action and the cheque was refused for that reason; or you live in an area where a state of emergency was declared under the Law's own provisions and your income was badly compromised between drawing and presentation 1. The last two are Israel-specific in a way nothing in your home country prepared you for, and they are grounds to argue rather than automatic relief.
Three practical notes, and the first is the one to act on today rather than on day nineteen. The application must be in writing on the form set out in the Regulations, with a detailed statement of the facts, the supporting documents, and a copy of your own request to the bank to remove the cheque from the count together with the bank's reply; where the cheque was drawn on a joint account, a further prescribed notice is required as well 1. That means the paper trail starts with a written request to your branch in the days after a cheque comes back, not after a notice arrives. Second, if the bank admits it restricted the account by mistake, it tells the Bank of Israel and the restriction is lifted with no court 1. Third, a third party's error is expressly not a ground: if you cancelled a cheque, paid the person another way, agreed they would not deposit it, and they deposited it anyway into an account without cover, the cheque stays in the count and your remedy is a claim against them 1. If the court does stay the restriction, you may transact and draw cheques during the stay, but you still may not open a new cheque account, and cheques refused during the stay start a fresh count 1.
Whose name has to be on the cheque under the Cash Law?
Start with the practical consequence, because it kills the habit a well-meaning neighbour will teach you in week two. The classic "open cheque" handed over with the payee line blank is a cheque an Israeli bank is barred from paying. The Second Schedule to section 5 of the Law for the Reduction in the Use of Cash, 5778-2018 provides that a banking corporation, the Postal Bank or a licensed deposit-and-credit provider shall not pay a cheque where the payee's name is not stated on it 5. That item carries no amount threshold at all, so it bites on a fully funded cheque as much as on an empty one. Section 5 and the Second Schedule took effect on 1 July 2019, later than the rest of the Law 5.
The naming rules themselves, read off the enacted text in Reshumot, Sefer HaChukim 2710 of 18 March 2018. The two shekel figures below are the figures as enacted on that date 5. Treat them as the enacted baseline rather than as today's number. The Law is administered by the Israel Tax Authority, which publishes a guide to it, last updated 1 January 2025; that guide is where to confirm which figure applies today before you rely on one 12.
| Who is paying or receiving | From what amount, as enacted | Whose name must be on the cheque |
|---|---|---|
| A business (osek), giving or receiving in the course of its business | Any amount | The payee's name, as payee or endorsee, section 4(a) 5 |
| A person who is not a business, receiving | Above 5,000 ILS | His own name, section 4(b) 5 |
| A person who is not a business, paying a business in the course of that business | Any amount | The business's name, section 4(c) 5 |
| A person who is not a business, paying another person who is not a business | Above 5,000 ILS | The payee's name, section 4(d) 5 |
| Anyone endorsing a cheque, and any endorsee receiving an endorsed one | Any amount | The endorser's name and ID number, section 4(e) 5 |
Every row above is about a payment for a transaction, wages, a donation, a loan or a gift, which is the scope section 4 sets 5.
Two riders. It makes no difference whether the person paying by cheque is the drawer, an endorser or somebody else entirely 5. And the Second Schedule adds a second bar on the bank's side: an endorsed cheque above 10,000 ILS as enacted may not be paid where the endorser's and endorsee's names and the endorser's ID number are missing, or where the cheque was endorsed more than once; that second limb carries four exceptions, among them a transfer to a bank, the Postal Bank or a licensed deposit-and-credit provider for payment after the first endorsement 5.
Put those two together with the security cheque at the top of this page. While that payee line stays blank, no bank may pay the cheque at all 5. What the Law does not say is anything about who may write a name into the line afterwards, so the blank line is not a safeguard for you either: it is a cheque that becomes payable to whoever fills it in. Fill the payee in yourself, and mark it lemotav bilvad.
What does this look like from where you came from?
### United States
Three separate deltas, and the third is the uncomfortable one.
Post-dating does not carry over, as above: a US bank may pay a post-dated cheque before its date unless you file a formal post-dating notice, possibly for a fee 7. The consequence of a bounce is different in kind too. The OCC's position is that a bank may assess a non-sufficient-funds fee when a cheque overdraws your account "as long as this practice was previously disclosed", which points you to your deposit account agreement 8. Israel stacks something on top that a fee schedule does not describe: a count that, at ten, publishes your account number, bank and branch on the Bank of Israel's website, rides your credit report for the restriction period plus three years, and closes cheque-drawing accounts 1.
And say the third one out loud, because it is uncomfortable: the cash cushion this page tells you to keep is the thing that pushes you over the FBAR line. A US person must file FinCEN Form 114 to report a financial interest in, or signature or other authority over, at least one financial account outside the United States if the aggregate value of those accounts exceeded 10,000 US dollars at any time during the calendar year, and whether the account produced taxable income is irrelevant; that threshold was confirmed on the IRS FBAR page as at 23 August 2026 9. The shekel buffer you now have to hold against outstanding post-dated cheques is itself held in a foreign financial account. The prudent move and the reporting duty are the same act.
### United Kingdom
Qualitative only, and the point is about habit rather than law. You may not have written a cheque in a decade. You are about to be asked for two dozen, in a country where they are ordinary infrastructure for rent and for anything a landlord wants held in advance, and where a bounce is counted against the account itself 1. Treat cheque-writing as a skill you are relearning from scratch, not one you already have, and treat the count in this page as the thing that actually has teeth.
### Canada and South Africa
Same framing, no figures. Whatever cheques did or did not still do in your day-to-day life before aliyah, assume nothing transfers. What matters is not how familiar the instrument looks but that the Israeli consequence of getting it wrong includes a count that restricts the account at ten 1, that the count runs on the account rather than on the signature, so a joint account with a spouse puts both of you in it 1, and that it stays visible to lenders for the restriction period and three years after 1.
What to do next
Ask your bank where you stand on a pinkas, and while you are at the branch confirm the phone number and address it will use for the same-day deposit notice. Then take everything recurring off cheques: read Standing Orders (Hora'at Keva) Explained and move every recurring payment you can onto a standing order. A payment that leaves by hora'at keva (הוראת קבע, standing order) cannot become refused cheque number one, and the fewer cheques you have circulating with future dates on them, the smaller the buffer you need to hold and the shorter the list of things that can go wrong while your money is still crossing an ocean. If Hebrew paperwork is the wider problem, Signing Hebrew Paperwork You Cannot Read covers the habit.
This page is general information and comparison, not financial, tax or legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
A chequebook is not part of opening an Israeli account; the Bank of Israel says issuing cheques sits at the bank's business discretion. One bounce does not restrict you: the trigger is ten or more cheques returned for insufficient funds in twelve months. Credit on a cheque you deposit is final only three business days after the deposit day.
No. The Bank of Israel's guide sets the ordinary trigger at ten or more cheques drawn on one account and returned for insufficient funds within a twelve-month period, under section 2(a) of the Checks Without Cover Law, 5741-1981 [[1]][[4]]. A warning is due once five have come back, and the guide adds a carve-out for a cluster of returns inside fifteen days that its English and Hebrew versions word differently [[1]][[2]]. One bounce is not a restriction.
Not necessarily. The Bank of Israel states that issuing cheques and credit are not services a bank must provide a customer; they are provided at the bank's business discretion [[1]]. Because it is discretion rather than an entitlement, the answer comes from your own bank on your own file, so ask before you promise anyone twelve post-dated cheques.
The guide answers a narrower question than that, and the narrow answer is the one to work from. A cheque deposited before its payment date is one of the exceptional return reasons, so a cheque returned on that ground is not counted among the refused cheques in your account even if the balance was short [[1]]. It does not go on to say a bank must refuse to pay an early-presented cheque when the funds are there. The US position differs in kind: the OCC states that banks may pay cheques before the date written on them, because a cheque is payable on demand unless you submit a formal post-dating notice, possibly for a fee [[7]]. The date protects your record; your balance protects your rent.
Credit for a deposited cheque is provisional and becomes final only three business days after the day it is deposited, and the Bank of Israel recommends depositing at least four business days before the day your account is expected to be debited [[1]]. The determining balance is your balance at the end of the business day the cheque was presented in the beneficiary's account, not the date you wrote on it [[1]]. An international transfer with no guaranteed landing day is exactly the case this recommendation was written for.
In a joint account, cheques are counted for both members even if only one of them signed [[1]]. The Bank of Israel also states that when being added to a joint account, the state of the existing account applies to the added customer as well [[10]], and Directive 430 permits a warning to a partner interested in joining a restricted account, or one whose restriction ended recently [[1]]. Ask what the account's cheque history looks like before you are added to it. One thing does not spread: an ordinary restriction does not attach to a holder of power of attorney, even where that person signed the uncovered cheques [[1]].
Yes. Cash, deposits and any action other than drawing a cheque continue in the restricted account, and under Proper Conduct of Banking Business Directive 422 a bank is required to issue a debit card to any customer, including a restricted customer, for the immediate execution of payments, with narrow exceptions [[1]]. What closes under an ordinary restriction is cheque-drawing on that account and opening a new cheque-drawing account at any bank in Israel; another account you already hold that is not restricted can still be drawn on [[1]]. It is the aggravated tier that reaches every cheque account in your name [[1]].
The person holding it. The bank on which the cheque was drawn must give the recipient of an unpaid cheque, for any reason whatsoever, the account holder's name, ID number and registered address, plus the same details for whoever actually signed where the bank believes it can identify them [[1]]. From there they may ask the Enforcement and Collections Authority to execute the cheque, in a shtarot ve'hamcha'ot file, or sue civilly [[1]][[6]]. For a newcomer the exposure is not only financial: the address on file is often still a temporary one.
An Israeli bank is barred from paying it while that line stays blank. The Second Schedule to section 5 of the Law for the Reduction in the Use of Cash, 5778-2018 provides that a banking corporation, the Postal Bank or a licensed deposit-and-credit provider shall not pay a cheque where the payee's name is not stated on it [[5]]. That item carries no amount threshold and does not depend on the cheque having cover, and it has been in force since 1 July 2019 [[5]]. Nothing in the Law stops a name being written into the line afterwards, so fill it in yourself and mark it lemotav bilvad.
By appealing to the Magistrate's Court under section 10 of the Checks Without Cover Law within twenty days of the bank sending the notice, filed in the jurisdiction covering the branch the cheque was drawn on [[1]][[4]]. The court can only remove cheques from the count, not rule the restriction unjustified, and five statutory grounds are available, including bank error [[1]]. Start earlier than the notice: the application must be in writing on the prescribed form and must include a copy of your own request to the bank to remove the cheque from the count together with the bank's reply [[1]]. If the bank itself admits the error, it notifies the Bank of Israel and no court is needed [[1]].
It can. A US person must file FinCEN Form 114 to report a financial interest in, or signature or other authority over, at least one financial account outside the United States if the aggregate value of those accounts exceeded 10,000 US dollars at any time during the calendar year, and whether the account produced taxable income is irrelevant; that threshold was confirmed on the IRS FBAR page as at 23 August 2026 [[9]]. The buffer this page recommends and the reporting duty are the same money. This is general information, not tax advice.