How to Email Money from Your Tangerine Chequing Account for Free

Have you ever lost a bet with your wife and needed to send her the money since you were out of cash? OK, maybe I’ve lost the bet to my husband, but a girl can dream right? Anyway, say you need to pay someone back and you’d like to transfer them the money straight from your bank account to theirs. With Tangerine you can move the money by using email for free from your chequing account to a friend or relative’s bank: Here’s how.

Before You Email Any Money

First, make sure the person you are sending the money to is ready to receive it. I can just imagine my Mom’s panic if I emailed her cash. She’s not keen on technology and doesn’t use internet banking. It also wouldn’t be a great idea to email money to someone who turns out to be away for a three-week unplugged vacation.

Email them first and ask if this is a good time. It’s a good way to check that you are planning to send the money to the email address they’d like to receive it in. They may suggest another email address is better.

And the person receiving the cash does not need to have internet banking set up. They only need access to a website and some information about their own bank account. For more details, please see the companion article How to Accept an Email Money Transfer Sent from Tangerine.

How Long Will It Take to Transfer Money From Tangerine Using Email?

NOTE: No matter whether you use Interac or Email to transfer your money, if you use the choice Send Now, the amount will be taken out of your chequing account immediately!

When you look at the choices:

  • Free! Tangerine Email Money Transfer (2-3 business days)
  • $1.00 Interac e-Transfer (Instant)

You can probably guess that the email transfer will not be “instant.”

Actually, if you use the email money transfer to send money from your Tangerine account to another person who has a Tangerine account, it is an almost “instant” transaction. If the person is ready to receive your email, they can accept the transfer and receive the money within a few minutes. (I tested this.)

If you email money to someone who is not a Tangerine client the wait will be 2-3 business days.

I tested how long it took to transfer money by email from a person with a Tangerine chequing account to another person with a Tangerine Savings account.

  • The email transfer was sent at 9:30.
  • The money was deducted immediately from the Sender’s Tangerine chequing account.
  • The email was received and the transfer was accepted at 9:32.
  • The money appeared immediately in the Receiver’s Tangerine savings account.

I am testing how long it takes to send money to someone who does not bank with Tangerine. I’ve sent a transfer, the person has received the email and completed the information to permit the transfer.

  • The Tangerine part of the transfer was done on July 14 at 2 p.m. ET.
  • The email was received and the data entered to accept the transfer on July 14 at 2:05 p.m. ET.
  • It’s now the morning of July 15 and it’s not there yet.
  • The cash showed up in the bank account on July 16 [updated when it arrived].

How Much Money Can I Email? How Little?

Tangerine has some restrictions on its email money transfer. The program says:

  • Minimum transfer $5
  • Maximum amount $3 000. 000 Yes, for some reason it has three zeroes after the decimal!
  • Daily maximum $3 000
  • Weekly maximum $10 000
  • Monthly maximum $10 000

I think those daily, weekly and monthly maximums are probably for all of your email transfers, not for only the transfers to one friend. I don’t think you can send $10 000 to each of three friends in the same month. Fortunately, not too many of us need to.

I can see where that might be a problem, though, if you were trying to transfer university tuition to 3 of your children in September. So I’ll check with Tangerine for the details.

Back again after a quick telephone call to Tangerine:
Yes, the maximum is $10 000 a month total, not per recipient. So if you’re trying to transfer large amounts in the same month, perhaps to cover children’s tuition fees, you’ll probably need to write some cheques as well as use the email transfer system. Unless they’re all going to schools with reasonable tuition fees like McGill.

How to Email Someone Money Using a Tangerine Chequing Account

  1. Sign in to your Tangerine Chequing Account.
  2. From the list of choices at the left side of the screen, click on Email my money.

The Email My Money Page

If you’ve never emailed money to this person before, below the To field, click on the Add recipient link.

The Add Email Recipient Popup Window

  1. In the First name field, type the person’s given name.
  2. In the Last name field, type their last name.
  3. In the Email address field, type the complete email address.
  4. In the Email Money Transfer question field, type the question they must answer to get the money.
  5. In the Email Money Transfer answer field, type the answer they must give to the question to get the money.
    • The answer has to be only one word.
    • There cannot be any spaces between characters.
    • The answer can’t use numbers or special characters.
    • If the answer is a swear word it may be rejected.
  6. In the Email language field, click to select the English or French button.
  7. Click on the Add button.

The Email My Money Page, continued

Once you’ve set up the person to receive an email money transfer, you can send the money.

  1. For the Transfer type, click to select the radio button beside Free! Tangerine Email Money Transfer
  2. In the Amount field, type the number of dollars.
    I typed 200 000 000. OK, maybe I didn’t.
    When you get ready to use this field you will be shown a list of restrictions.
  3. From the drop-down list in the From Field, select the chequing account from which to take the money.
    (You may have a chequing account and a joint chequing account.)
  4. From the drop-down list in the To field, select the person to whom you want to email the money.
  5. Your email address will be automatically filled in based on your account settings.
    Your Email Money Transfer question and Email Money Transfer answer will be filled in with the information you created under the Add recipient link.
    You can change either the question or the answer though by editing the text.
  6. You can type a message of up to 250 characters to include in the email if you want.
    I typed: I still think the answer was Pineapple.
  7. In the When section, click on the Now or Later button.
    NOTE: If you select Later, the money will NOT be taken out of your chequing account immediately. Be sure to make yourself a note that you have less money than you think you have! Until the transfer comes out.
    If you select Later, you can choose the date from the calendar.
  8. Click on the Next button.

The You’re almost done…here’s what’s going to happen: Page

Review the information on the page.
If it looks ok, click on the Next button.

The You’re Done Page

Make a note of the confirmation number in case you need to discuss the transfer with Tangerine.

Click on Continue Banking.

The View My Accounts Page

Click on the View my Accounts link at the left side of the screen.

You’ll notice your chequing account balance has already dropped by the amount of the transfer, unless you set up a transfer to take place Later.

If you’re finished banking, click on the Log Me Out link.

For increased security, clear your browser cache and close your browser session.

What You Have To Do to Receive Money Sent by an Email Transfer from Tangerine

Now, of course, the person you sent the money to has to receive it and deposit it into their bank account. You can read the details in the companion article How to Accept an Email Money Transfer from Tangerine.

How To Change Your Tangerine Email Money Contacts

You can

  • add new recipients,
  • delete old ones, and
  • change their email addresses and
  • change their transfer questions and answers.
  1. From the list of links on the left side of the screen, choose Email my money.
  2. At the bottom of the screen, click on the blue link: Manage my email money contacts.
  3. To edit the information for a recipient, click on the pencil button in the row with the
    person’s name.
    You can then change their

    • first name,
    • last name,
    • email address,
    • email money transfer question,
    • email money transfer answer, and
    • the email language choice of French or English.
  4. Or to delete a recipient, click on the garbage can button in the row with the person’s name.
    To confirm you want to delete the person from the list, click on the Submit button.
  5. Under the Receiving tab, you can choose where to deposit money received from a sender.

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Join In
Do you email money to your friends, family or colleagues? Do you prefer it to writing a cheque? Please share your views with a comment.
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How Is Defaulting on Your Credit Card Debt Different Than Robbing a Bank?

I’ve never thought of myself as someone who is highly ethical or ‘honourable’ but as I read more stories of bankruptcies and people trying to dodge paying their bills, I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps I am. I was raised by parents who believed that if you borrowed money you paid it back. To them, defaulting or not paying back your credit card debt is not different than robbing a bank.

Would You Rob a Bank If You Could Get $65,000 for Free?

Let’s say you’re not a violent person. You would never stick a gun or knife in a teller’s face; you would never threaten to detonate a bomb; you wouldn’t even use an explosive to blow open a safe after hours.

But what if you came into a branch and realized you could vault the counter, clear out a till, vault back, and get away. What if you knew the cameras were deactivated and that the only person working was unable to see you enough to recognize you again. What if it was in a town you would never pass through again and from which you could escape from with no problem immediately.

Would you take that jump?

If not, what would stop you from putting all those crisp (well, actually slippery plastic if you’re in Canada) bills in your pocket and running?

Is Refusing to Pay Your Credit Card Bill, Personal Loan or Overdraft OK?

I understand that people can end up in bad situations temporarily due to illness (mental or physical), job loss and various catastrophes. They may be unable to pay their bills or even pay the interest on their loans while they steer through the storm.

Fine.

In time, many of these people successfully navigate back to calmer waters. Once a person is well again and has income coming in again, slightly above what is needed to survive, they need to decide how to handle their debts.

The ones like me would work to put a plan in place to gradually pay off those old debts. It’s the right thing to do. It may take a long, long time. It may mean not getting to follow my dreams. But when I borrowed that money, I knew it wasn’t mine to keep and once I could pay it back, that’s what I’d do.

So I find it quite surprising to read that others have a totally different viewpoint.

Is the Only Reason to Settle Your Debts to Repair Your Credit History So You Can Borrow More?!

I’ve read several anecdotes on financial advice chat boards that made me read them a second time to make sure I wasn’t missing something. (And yes, I know anecdotes can be fake: but the details of some of them suggest they aren’t all lying.)

The common thread is the writer is upset that they have a terrible credit rating because they skipped out on their bills. Usually they had a (somewhat) reasonable reason for going into default. Now that times are better, though, they aren’t interested in setting up a repayment plan. They want to know:

  • How long does it take for their past bad behaviour to become invisible on their credit reports?
  • How little can they offer to pay the companies holding their debts to get them discharged?
  • Can they “buy” a clean credit report by paying some “credit repair firm” to send in letters saying it was all a misunderstanding?

These are people who admit they could pay off the debts in full. They want to get these black marks off their records *so that they can borrow more money!*

How can they justify this to themselves? Don’t they think they should pay back what they owe? Don’t they think future lenders should know the bad way they’ve handled their loans in the past?

Defaulting on Debt Is a Victimless Crime

It’s pretty obvious that these people don’t care that they have stolen money from the businesses from which they borrowed.

Perhaps they justify it to themselves by reading about the “obscene” profits banks make. And the “outrageous 1%” salaries that the bank executives earn.

They may even justify it by saying that credit cards deserve to get ripped off since they charge 20% interest a year on outstanding balances.

I think quite a few of these people would never consider walking into a bank and robbing a teller. But to them, refusing to pay their debts isn’t the same. It’s a victimless crime.

But Just Whose Money Did They Steal?

There’s a common general feeling that “banks have huge amounts of money.” They certainly hold and manage huge amounts of money.

But it’s not *their* money. That mortgage money the bank lent you is actually my money that I invested in GICs at that bank. That credit card loaned you money which you were supposed to pay back when you received your statement. If you don’t pay it back right away, the institution backing the credit card is using money loaned to it by investors to cover your debt.

Banks aren’t using their own personal money to manage debt. They’re balancing what people invest in and through them with what they loan.

When someone defaults on their credit card bill, they are in a real sense robbing the rest of us.

Why Do You Think Credit Cards Can Charge 20% a Year on Balances?

Believe it or not, credit card interest rates actually are reviewed by the government. It may seem like they can charge whatever they want but they actually can’t. (Which is why one of the Payday Loan type places in Ontario is being forced to shut down: they were trying to charge too much money to customers by disguising interest charges under fancy names like account set up fees; account access fees; repayment processing fees, etc.)

The reason the government is permitting these outrageously high credit card interest rates is because the card issuers can show proof of the huge number of people who default on their bills and never pay them.

That’s right. If you are one of those people who skip out on your credit card bills, you are part of the reason why everyone else in the country is stuck with these high interest rates even though they are gradually paying off their own bills.

It’s not a “victimless” crime. It’s a crime that hurts all of us.

Do I Think Credit Card Companies and Banks Are Innocent?

No. I understand that they grant too much credit too easily to too many people. That is a recipe for defaults.

When I was in university, you couldn’t get a credit card until you graduated unless you had a proven steady job.

Now, students are flooded with offers for free credit cards even though they have no steady stream of income to pay them back.

I also see people making minimum-wage being given credit limits in the thousands of dollars. Some will manage that credit very carefully and well. Some will end up impoverished by it.

But I don’t think bad management choices by credit card companies give anyone an excuse to default on their debt.

If you borrowed money and promised to pay it back, you should stick by your word.

What About You? Would You Rob a Bank? Would You Default on Your Loan? How Are Those Actions Different?

I’m genuinely interested in hearing other people’s opinions on this. Do you think it’s ok to default on your credit card or personal loan debt? Do you really think that any reference to that poor behaviour should be removed from your credit history so that future lenders don’t know?

Is it significantly different to rob a bank than to default on credit? Why? How?

Please share your views with a comment.

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