debt | Financial Crooks

I’ve used Tangerine’s free email money transfers many times. I’d never used an INTERAC e-transfer from Tangerine or PC Financial, though, because they both normally charge a fee for the service. EQ Bank lets me send 5 INTERAC e-transfers per month for free, so I’ve sent a transfer once to see how it’s done. This month, June 2017, PC Financial is offering me a few free INTERAC e-transfers so I’m going to send some money to a deserving young relative to test how well it works.

Getting Ready to Make an INTERAC e-Transfer

First, I need the email address of the person that I want to get the money.
You need to decide which email address your friend will see when they receive your e-Transfer. If you only have one email address, that’s easy, but if you have several, decide which one to use in the “From” field of your transfer.
Then, I need to make a question that has a one word answer that will be the “security question” for the person receiving the money.
Then I need to make sure the money I want to send is in my PC Financial chequing account and not on hold. This part is a bit of a pain because it takes one business day to transfer money from my PC Financial savings account to my PC Financial chequing account.

How Do I Send an INTERAC e-Transfer from my PC Financial Account?

Sign in to your PC Financial bank account/s.
Make sure you have enough cash not on hold in your chequing account to send to the other person.
From the link list on the left side of the screen, click on: INTERAC e-Transfers
Read through the info about using the transfers, then click on the Get Started button.
Check and if desired change the “Name” that will be used in the “From” info for your transfer.
In the Email Address: field, type the email address to be shown in the “From” info for your transfer.
Read through the Terms and Conditions and if you agree to them, click to check the I agree box.
Click on the Continue button.

Oh great, I got an error message! “We’re sorry. We are unable to complete this request. Please try again later or contact President’s Choice Financial Customer Support at 1888 723-8881.” So much for impressing me!

Two days later….
I tried again two days later. Here’s what happened next:

“You do not currently have any recipients in your list. Please add a recipient in order to send money.
Click on the Add a Recipient button.
Type the person’s name in the Name: field.
From the drop-down list, select the person’s Language Preference: (The only choices are English and French as of June 6, 2017)
In the Email Address: field, type the address to which you want to send the money.
Click on the button: Continue

Add a New Recipient – Verification

Read the Add a New Recipient – Verification info. If it’s ok, click on the Confirm button.
Click on the Send Money button.

Your INTERAC e-Transfer Details screen

From the drop-down list, select the Recipient to whom you wish to send the money.
If desired, type a note in the Message to Recipient text field. Do NOT type in the answer to the security question!
Type the amount you want to send in the Amount field
From the drop-down list, select which account from which to remove the money.
If it all looks ok, click on the Continue button.

Your INTERAC e-Transfer Details screen

From the drop-down list select a Security Question or select Create your own question.
If so, type your desired question in the Your Question box.
In the Security Answer (no spaces) field, type the correct answer to the question.
If you want to check your spelling etc., click on the Show box to proofread.
In the Security Answer (please re-enter) field, type the correct answer a second time.
Click on the Continue button.

The Send Money – Verification page

Check the info on the Send Money – Verification page. If it’s ok, click on the Confirm button.
You should get a confirmation message. Make a note of the Reference Number in case you want to cancel the transaction before the recipient accepts the transfer.
If you’re finished banking, click on the button: sign out.
Clear your browser history and cache, and close your browser session.

You’re done!

When Will My Friend Get the Email About the Money I Transferred?

I was quite surprised. I checked my email 2 minutes after I sent the money, and the message was already in my inbox! So while it could take 30 minutes for the email to be sent, I guess it can be sent immediately.

How Long Does It Take for an INTERAC e-Transfer?

Unlike Tangerine email transfers, it can take up to 30 minutes for the email to be sent from PC Financial to your receiver.

Then, when they get the email and accepts the money, 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 and may depend on the receiver’s personal banking plan.

The money disappears from YOUR bank account, though, immediately.

Can I Cancel My President’s Choice INTERAC e-Transfer?

Yes, but

only if the recipient has not yet claimed the transfer and answered the security question AND
you will have to pay a fee.

How Else Can I Use My INTERAC e-Transfers?

Some people also use INTERAC e-Transfers to move money between their own bank accounts.

Related Reading

Join In
Do you use INTERAC e-Transfers to pay back friends? Do you like them? Please share your views with a comment.

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.