Looking For Halal Investment Opportunities

In Germany there are many opportunities to invest money. But for a Moslem like me, finding a Halal option is not an easy task.

After intense Internet searches and countless hours, I stumbled across two companies that seem to offer halal products:

• INAIA GmbH
• Halalcheck4u.de

The first one specializes in creating gold saving plans. The second one is a sort of personal finance focused company that analyses contracts and guides the customer to Halal alternatives.

Here is my experience with both of them.

INAIA Gmbh experience

After booking a meeting I received a confirmation E-Mail with a link to a Zoom web conference. All details were there. The day of the meeting I found no issue dialing into the call. The voice quality was bad. The financial advisor did not wait a second and asked me to call on my mobile phone.

The conversation went on both channels simultaneously: voice went on the phone, and the video presentation on Zoom.

Since I have done my research, I was familiar with 75% of the presentation. I challenged the advisor by asking some dark questions. And to my surprise, I got logical answers. No catch. I appreciated the transparency.

During the conversation I sensed no urge to close a contract with the company. The advisor was very friendly and seemed to take his time to clarify every aspect I wanted to know. We went on discussing for 3 hours!

The presentation ended with an open invitation from the advisor to get in touch whenever I had any question. Indeed, I contacted him on Nov 13 on a question that – according to him- has not been asked before. To my surprise, he contacted the headquarters and provided me with an answer.

Halalcheck4u experience

Just like with INAIA, I got an Email telling me that I will receive a separate Email with the invitation link. Till the day of the presentation, I got nothing.

A day before the call, I got a call from a junior advisor. He asked me some general questions and invited me to change the meeting time, with the excuse that a senior advisor will do the presentation instead! OK…

On the day of the planned call, I waited and waited. No E-mail came. 2 Minutes after the meeting time I received an Email with the link. I logged in and started a conversation with the advisor.

We started by analyzing my income and expenses. Then I was introduced to some good practices in personal finance. I liked the exercise very much.

Then I was recommended to open an account with KT Bank, which was fine for me too, as long as it is Halal. And I trusted the advisor.

I was exposed to two products from the company: a gold saving-plan and a restricted investment circle called “Halal Community”. I got an idea about both products. the Halal Community is not a bad idea at all.

I was excited at first. Going into my head, I realized that the process structure sounded a bit hurried. It sounded like a selling proposition. For both of the products, I was quickly asked if I wanted to sign the contract.

I did not like the way things went after that.

I asked for some time to think, and a copy of the contracts. I got a copy of the Halal Community contract, yes. But instead of receiving a copy of the contract for the gold saving plan, I received an Email with credentials telling me that I had signed a gold saving contract!

The Support team told me that the SMS that I received during the presentation was an equivalent to a signature! What the fuck!

I contacted the support team. They replied, that I should clarify this with the advisor, and that I need to book another meeting. What??

I tried to contact the advisor. No response. I sent an Email now and I am waiting for a clarification.

That does not sound good.