Kangaroo Service Review

How Kangaroo Service Works

Kangaroo Service lacks an online utility for directly completing money transfers. Instead, funds are deposited into Kangaroo Service's bank account, with details provided on the main page. Money comes from either Australia or Indonesia.

To get started, you’ll need to register by printing, completing, and mailing the registration form. It asks for your contact and financial information as well as that of up to two beneficiaries. Information transfer on paper takes longer and is obviously vulnerable to security breaches such as people intercepting and opening mail.

To make a transfer, you deposit your money directly into the Kangaroo Service bank account and then email Kangaroo Service with the payee’s account details. This process is another major security risk because the transfer is not automatically initiated. Human error should be eliminated wherever possible in financial dealings, especially internationally.

Upon receipt of transfer instructions, the money is transferred to the recipient’s account. You cannot negotiate or wait for an exchange rate; it’s simply a matter of keeping track of daily exchange rates between the Australian dollar and the Indonesian rupiah.

Sending and Receiving International Transfers

All international transfers must be routed through Kangaroo Service's bank account. Once you have an account set up with Kangaroo Service, depositing the money only takes a single business day to complete.

After the deposit confirmation, send an email to provide your financial and account details. It then takes up to 3 days for the next part of the transfer to initiate.

Payment Methods

The only available payment option is a direct online debit from your bank account. Third-party transfers and other methods of payment are not accepted. This limitation might prove difficult for those without Internet access or who are used to banking offline.

At this time, Kangaroo has no plans to change or update its payment methods.

The maximum amount per day to transfer from Australia to Indonesia is AUD 5,000 per day. Transferring from Indonesia to Australia has no upper limit.

Accepted Currencies

Because Kangaroo only deals with Australia and Indonesia, the Australian dollar (AUD) and the Indonesian rupiah (IDR) are the only available currencies. Kangaroo Service plans to expand its service area to include Malaysia and Singapore, so will include those countries’ currencies as well.

Is It Safe?

Based on the procedures outlined, Kangaroo Service does not seem as safe as it could be. When sensitive personal and financial information is sent through the mail, identity theft is a major concern. The Kangaroo website does have SSL security. Beyond this, the company does not seem to pursue security measures as stringently as would be expected.

Even if no incidents have occurred, Kangaroo’s practices still come off as risky and inconvenient. Most people conduct sensitive business online because digital communication can be made more secure than paper communication.

Fees

The only fee you have to pay is a 10 AUD fee for transactions up to 1,000 AUD. There are circumstances under which this fee is waived. For instance, if you are sending to a verified charity organization in Indonesia, you are not required to pay the fee. Also, students receive a waiver for every third transfer they make. If you are a student, show a photograph of your current student ID.

Transferring from Indonesia to Australia, on the other hand, has a more detailed fee structure. Transfers up to 10 million IDR have a 25,000 IDR fee attached. From 10,000,001 to 100 million IDR, the fee is 30,000 IDR. Anything higher costs 35,000 IDR. Use a currency calculator to find those amounts in Australian dollars if necessary.

Services for Businesses

Kangaroo Service does not have any special promotions or incentives for business owners. The company appears to focus on personal transfers between Australia and Indonesia.

Exchange Rates

The exchange rate offered by Kangaroo Service changes every six hours. If you receive a transfer confirmation sooner than 10 minutes after the rate changes, the higher one applies. After that period, you receive the new exchange rate. You can keep track of the exchange rate via an Android or iOS app, or by using the real-time tracker on the website, Facebook, or Twitter page.

Conclusion

Kangaroo Service currently has too narrow of a scope to be useful. With only a two-country corridor of trade, it does not lend itself to growth and investment. Should Kangaroo establish itself in Malaysia and Singapore, it may see more growth.

The biggest problem with Kangaroo is the reliance on snail mail for account registration. Including sensitive documents in the mail is just too risky to condone. The other chief concern is having to manually request funds to be transferred to your recipient via email. Email messages can be lost or misread. By setting up a robust online app as other transfer services do, Kangaroo would make serious strides in upgrading its security.

The charity and student incentives are a good idea but coupled with the drawbacks they do not seem to be enough. If you only need to make the occasional small transfer to Indonesia or Australia, Kangaroo Service fills that niche. They offer similar exchange rates to other services rather than the higher ones associated with large banks.

On the website, you can view the exchange rate history, but it does not provide any insight to where the market is going. Live support and certified brokers would be helpful.