automatic savings program | 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

Join In
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.

Well, as I said in earlier articles, I applied to open a savings account at Zag Bank for their temporary 2.5% interest rate and then at EQ Bank for their 3% for-a-while interest rate. I’m not actually able to use the accounts yet, though, and I’m starting to wonder exactly how long it will take to open my accounts at Zag and EQ Banks.

What’s Happened With My Application to Zag Bank?

OK, I’ll admit that part of the delay with Zag Bank was self-inflicted. Because I did not receive an email telling me how I could deposit my first cheque using their app, I decided to mail in my first deposit cheque. Unfortunately, I made a fatal error: I made the cheque payable to myself, not to Zag Bank. (I didn’t read their instructions carefully enough.)

I applied to open the account on January 12 and mailed the cheque on January 13.

On Friday January 22 I received an email saying they had not received my cheque and giving me a link to use their app to make a photo cheque deposit. It said if I had mailed a cheque to ignore the message, which I did, although it had been 7 business days already.

On Tuesday January 26, Zag phoned me in the evening. They explained how I had not sent in a cheque they could use so I would have to start over again.

On Thursday January 28, I called them back to ask for more information, specifically:

What were they going to do with the cheque I sent in payable to myself?

If they were mailing it back to me, I would wait, correct and initial it, and send it back in.

Well first they said they don’t return the cheque unless I specifically request that. Second they said they wouldn’t accept a corrected cheque anyway. Bizarre! I’ve never had a problem with fixing and initialing a cheque with any other bank. Third they said they weren’t even sure if my cheque had already been shredded or not, although they were sure images of the cheque would be available if the cheque had been destroyed.

So I asked if they would keep the cheque and deposit it in my account once the account was properly activated by sending in a second cheque properly made payable to Zag Bank. Nope. They wouldn’t do that, even though the cheque sent in was payable to me.

Sigh.

So I used their app and the photo cheque deposit feature to submit a new cheque on Thursday January 28.

It has not cleared my bank account as of February 2. Nor as of February 19.

UPDATE 2016 02 19: Something is seriously wrong with my deposit to Zag Bank. They have no record of the cheque images so they cannot deposit the cheque. But I cannot use the App to send in new photos because it says I have already submitted the photos. For now, I believe this account will never be opened.

What’s Happened With My Application to EQ Bank?

I sent my first deposit cheque to EQ Bank using their photo cheque app. I sent it in on Monday January 25.

On Friday, January 29, I received an email from EQ Bank advising me that due to the huge demand from new customers processing of new accounts was slower than expected.

Then, on Tuesday, February 2, the cheque cleared my bank account. In theory that means in 5 business days, the time they need to be sure the cheque is fully cleared by my bank, they will complete opening my account. So early next week I should be able to tell you what happens when I try to deposit or transfer more money into the account.

UPDATE: On 2016 02 10, I received an email from EQ Bank saying my account is now fully active. I signed in, set up my security questions, and I’m now successfully using the account.

Which Bank Is Easier to Set Up a New Savings Account At: Zag or EQ?

Overall, my impression of EQ Bank is more favourable than my impression of Zag Bank but that’s possibly coloured by my own stupidity in sending in the wrong cheque to Zag. I did like that EQ Bank wrote to advise customers of a possible delay. Anyway, time will tell if either bank is significantly different than each other.

UPDATE: 2016 02 19 So far EQ Bank is way, way superior. It’s set up and I’m using it in various ways. I still have not got an account at Zag Bank because the images of my cheque for deposit did not arrive successfully at Zag and they don’t seem to have any way for me to send new images.