Finances | Financial Crooks

I’ve used Tangerine’s free email money transfers many times. I’ve never used an Interac e-transfer from Tangerine or PC Financial, though, because they both charge a fee for the service. EQ Bank lets me send 5 Interac e-transfers per month for free, so I’m going to test how it’s done by sending some money to a friend to deposit into his BMO bank account.

What Do I Need Before I Send an Interac e-Transfer?

You need to know the email address of the person that you want to send the money to.

You will need to think of a question that has a one word answer that will be the security question for the person receiving your money.

That person will need to know three numbers for their own bank account:

the bank account number
the bank branch transit number
the bank’s “institution” number

Many people don’t know their bank’s institution number. You may have to help them figure that out.

How Do I Send an Interac e-Transfer from my EQ Bank Account?

It wasn’t immediately obvious WHERE to start to send an Interac e-Transfer. By wandering through the menus, though, I found the link.

Click on the tab: Pay & Transfer

From the drop-down list for the From: field, choose your EQ Bank account from which you are going to send out the money.

From the drop-down list for the To: field, choose: Send Interac e-Transfer

Creating Your Sender Profile

If this is your first e-Transfer, you will be prompted to Create Your Sender Profile.

Check the following information is correct or change it:

Name
Email address
Mobile phone number, if applicable

Receive notices by, choose

Email or
Email and mobile phone

Click on the Create Profile button.

Making a Transfer

From the list on the left side of the screen, click on: Transfers

The Send Interac e-Transfer Page

Beside the phrase Transfer To, click on the link Add New Recipient

The Add New Recipient Page

Type to fill in the following fields

Name
Email
Mobile Phone Number (if applicable)

From the drop-down list, select the Preferred Language from English and French

From the drop-down list, for Send Transfers By select

Email;
Email and Mobile Phone;
Mobile Phone

In the Security Question field, type of question that only your recipient will know how to answer. The question must have a one word answer.

In the Answer field, type the one word answer

Click on the Add Recipient button.

Review the info. If it’s correct, click on the Confirm button.

Now the Transfer To: field has the email address of your New Recipient.

The Send By field has the type you selected for that recipient.

From the drop-down list for the Transfer From field, select the bank account from which you wish to send the money.

In the Amount field, type the amount in dollars and cents.
For example, I typed: 4.47

If desired, you can type a short note in the Message field.
I typed: testing the e transfer system

Click on the Continue button.

Rats
“An error occurred with your transaction, please check your account or try again later (code 942)
If you require further assistance please call 1-844-437-2265 (844-4EQ-BANK) or email our technical support at contact@eqbank.ca.”

I clicked on the Search Transfer History link to the left, but found no transfers listed.

I clicked on the View/Resend/Cancel Pending Transfers link on the left, but found no transfers listed.

I clicked on the Logout button.

I signed in to my EQ Bank account to try again!
(I think it may just have timed out because I was typing out instructions instead of working steadily on sending my transfer.)
Ah ha!

This time, I selected the recipient, and the method of transfer, and from which account and typed in the amount and clicked Continue

And I’m on to a Confirm screen.

I read the info.

It says it will take out the money I am sending and a fee of $0.00.

It all looks OK so I clicked on the Confirm button.

It says the Interac e-Transfer has a status of Completed. Success!

Make a note of the Confirmation Number in case you need to cancel the transaction or discuss it with customer service.

It is not yet listed under pending transactions.

However, it is listed as an account transaction item, showing the debit of the $4.47 I sent by email Interac e-Transfer.

Click on the Logout button.

If you are finished banking with EQ Bank, click on the Sign Out button.

Clear your browser history and cache, and close your browser session.

As expected, I have not yet received the email with the transfer information. I’ll check again in a while.

Well, I didn’t get a chance to check for quite a while, but the email is dated 5:31 p.m. so it took about half an hour to be sent by EQ Bank.

How Else Are People Using These Free Interac e-Transfers from EQ Bank?

I’ve read online that some people are using their Interac e-Transfers to move money between their own bank accounts.

Why? Although you can link your chequing accounts to EQ Bank by calling them first, then depositing a cheque, that link takes time to create. It’s also not possible today, April 4, 2016, to link a savings account to your EQ Bank savings account.

So by sending yourself an Interac e-Transfer, you can move your own money out of EQ Bank and into one of your other bank’s accounts.

How Long Does It Take for the Interac e-Transfer to Take Place?

Unlike Tangerine email transfers, it can take up to an hour for the person you send the Interac e-Transfer to, to receive the email notice with the security code.

Then, after the person receives the email and deposits the money into their bank account, there may still be another delay. Most banks put a hold on funds received by Interac e-Transfer and other types of electronic transfers. The length of the hold will depend on that bank’s terms and conditions. For example, BMO usually puts most Interac e-Transfer deposits on hold for 2 business days, although there can be exceptions.

Oops! Can I Cancel an Interac e-Transfer?

Not if the person you sent it to has already deposited it. So be careful!

If the receiver has not deposited it, and the transfer has not reached its expiry date, you can cancel it.

What Are the Limits for Sending Out Interac e-Transfers from EQ Bank?

You can only send 5 for free each month.

If you want to send more that month, it will cost you $1.50 per Interac e-Transfer, as of April 5, 2016.

As of April 5, 2016 there are also some maximums to watch out for:

There is a daily maximum for sending out money by Interac e-Transfers of $2 500 per day.
There is also a weekly maximum of $10 000.
And there’s a monthly maximum of $20 000.

If you’re thinking: hey, 5 x 2 500 = $12 500 which is below the monthly maximum, remember you can send additional e-Transfers if you pay a fee of $1.50 per transfer. You will still be capped at the $20 000 per month, though, even if you pay for more transfers.

Next I’ll have to have my friend deposit the e-Transfer and see how that works.

Related Reading

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Do you use Interac e-Transfers to send money around the city or the country? Do you like them? Please share your views with a comment.

Sometimes a company’s stock value decreases enough, or a company’s cash reserves increase so much, that the company decides it will re-purchase or buy back its own shares from its shareholders; this happened recently with a company whose stock I own in one of my BMO InvestorLine accounts: Here’s what I did.

How Did BMO InvestorLine Advise Me That a Company I Held Ownership In Had Offered to Buy Back its Own Common Shares?

I first heard about this share buyback program when I received a package in the mail from BMO InvestorLine. I owned shares in this company in my self-directed RRSP. BMO InvestorLine is my agent and holds the actual shares in its name on my behalf. So they sent me the information and asked for my instructions.

I next heard about the program via an email note sent to the email address I provided for correspondence about my BMO InvestorLine account. That email message directed me to look for details in my secure MyLink email at InvestorLine.

When I signed in to my InvestorLine account, I checked the secure email service MyLInk and there were details provided there about how to reply to this offer to purchase my shares and what my choices were.

How Did I Advise BMO InvestorLine Of My Decision Regarding the Share Buy Back Program?

The MyLink and regular mail information provided about the share re-purchase plan made it clear that I could not advise BMO InvestorLine on how to act on my behalf by providing instructions by email or fax. I had to telephone InvestorLine with my orders.

So, I called the InvestorLine 1- 888 number.
I typed in my ID password and account number on my phone.
I selected 0 to speak to a representative.
I confirmed the account and my name to the representative.
I advised the representative of which of the Options I wished to select.
The representative repeated my instructions for the recording and to ensure they were correct. The rep also confirmed that I only held the shares in that one account. (The rep would have asked for instructions for other holdings in other accounts if applicable.)
We agreed on the instructions and ended the call. It took 15 seconds on a Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Done!

What Types of Choices Were On my Share Buy Back Offer?

The company made me a variety of offers for their common share purchase program.

No fees would be charged to me for any sale.

I could offer to sell the entire amount of my holdings or only a portion.

I could offer to sell them for a fixed price between the two limits of the offer made by the company. (For example, they were offering to buy the common shares back at a price between $17 and $20.) I could choose that fixed price in 10 cent increments. (For example, I could choose to offer my shares for sale at $17.20.)

I could offer to sell them for a price to be set by the company when it bought the shares, which could be any price between $17 and $20.

I could choose not to offer any of my shares. I this case I would just continue to hold them as usual.

Why Would I Let the Company Choose the Price at Which to Buy My Shares?

It seemed odd at first to think someone would choose to let the company set the price at which they would buy the shares. Wouldn’t that mean I’d only get the lowest value for the shares?

Not necessarily. To get the lowest possible price, then enough Sellers would have to offer their shares for sale at the floating price. The Company was bound to set the purchase price as “the lowest price that enables it to purchase the maximum number of Shares properly tendered and not withdrawn pursuant to the Offer having an aggregate Purchase Price not exceeding $250 million.”

Still, you’d be taking a risk of getting the lowest price or close to it.

Did I Offer to Sell My Shares?

Nope. I have no reason to think this Company won’t continue to perform very well. I don’t need the cash. My commission at BMO is so low it would not be a factor in deciding to make a commission-free sale. So I’m holding onto my shares.

It’s probably a good decision, since the stock is already trading higher than the upper price limit. I suspect the entire buy back offer may expire unused!