Interac e-Transfers are a common and easy way to transfer money. You can transfer your money from one bank account to another and all you need is access to online or mobile banking through your financial institution. People use e-Transfers for a lot of things: paying rent, paying a friend back for lunch, paying fees for a sports club, and the list goes on! Here are some facts from the Interac website that you may not know…
1. To send an e-Transfer to someone all you need is their email or cell phone number.
If your bank account is a participating financial institution, you simply log in to your online bank account, navigate to the section from Interac e-Transfers and follow the instructions to add a recipient and start sending the money. The person you are trying to pay receives a notification by text or email and then itâs their turn to log in to their online bank account to complete the transfer.
2. e-Transfers are a lot like paying with cash.
While e-Transfers are a secure form of payment, you cannot cancel or reverse a transfer that has already been deposited. The financial institution authorizes each payment, and guarantees payment to the merchant. You should only send money transfers to people you know and trust because you do not have some of the same protections offered by a credit card.
3. E-transfer scams exist.
Be wary of unexpected e-Transfers from people you do not know. Scammers have been using e-Transfers to phish information from consumers. Scammers pretend to send an e-Transfer to you and then try to collect your personal/financial information. If you are ever unsure about an e-Transfer, contact the sender to ensure they have initiated your transfer.
Each financial institution is different. If you have specific questions about how their Interac e-Transfers will work for you, you may want to contact them directly.
About Consumer Protection BC
We are responsible for regulating specific industries and certain consumer transactions in British Columbia. If your concern is captured under the laws we enforce, we will use all the tools at our disposal to assist you. If we canât help you directly, we will be happy to provide you with as much information as possible. Depending on your concern, another organization may be the ones to speak to; other times, court or legal assistance may be the best option. Explore our website at www.consumerprotectionbc.ca.
How do we collect from a tenant that pulled at our heart strings calming to be a single mom that no body would help her? Jer son had damaged tje washer and it wouldnt drain.she new the property management would have charged her anyway as it was her fault likely. She wanted to look after the issue herself. We obliged & helped. She told us she would pay no problem. Guaranteed there would be no issue.
She then decides not to pay. Now is requesting we only contact her via written corespondance
form.
At least now we have confirmation she was and has received our emails from an email account we had to find for ourselves. We have voice mails, mutual texts and pictures of the work we did. She was conveniently away and trusted us to attend her home to repair the washer. Let us in via intercom that was connected to her cell and she buzzed us up. She confirmed she was reading out texts.
We complete work order. All the while with pics that were sent to her at the time. From being to end of servoce call we logged our time required.
She didn’t pay as she said she would. We wait 1 week. 2 weeks nothing. We finally are able to talk to her and she says she sent an etransfer. We tell her to please accept our appologies in advance and we will look into this right away. Not true. It’s a lie. We have confirmation that no funds for this invoice have been forwarded. She then stops responding to our multiple texts and emails and calls. Her vmail box always full. Not once did she contact us to prove she had paid anything. We were kind and offered many solutions. Nothing. We feel we have been taken advantage of by a Rouge consumer who is working the system.
And then just ignores us and doesn’t pay. We have offered her every opportunity to talk to us and explain why she wasn’t paying as she has promised. I get the impression this individual took us for a ride and is using the consumer protection act as a Kleenex. We are in full support of consumer protection branch and understand its value to society what I don’t understand is how individuals can have a repair done with proof ,pictures, confirmed text and still not be responsible for paying. It really leave small businesses no other choice than to seek legal counsel it’s nuts. Where can we find a consumer protection and a business protection act that can save us from individuals like this one?
Help. We need a resolution and would like to arbitrate if possible.
Many thanks in advance for your time.
Regards
Hi Carlos, thank you for taking the time to reach out to us and explain your situation. While we are responsible for regulating certain industries and overseeing specific consumer protection laws, we donât have any authority when it comes to landlord and tenant issues.
You may be interested in contacting the Residential Tenancy Branch, who are responsible for overseeing issues of this nature. They have a legally binding arbitration service through dispute resolution. Here is a link to more information on that: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/residential-tenancies/solving-problems/dispute-resolution.
I hope this helps and best of luck!
If I accept an e-transfer for an item I am selling, is there a way that the sender of the e-transfer can get my banking info thru that process somehow if all they have is my email address?
Hi Leigh, thanks for reaching out to us here. It’s my understanding that e-transfers are a secure method of payment, but as the blog post mentions, this is not our area of authority. Additionally, each financial institution is different. If you have specific questions about how your bank’s Interac e-Transfers work and how secure the payment method is, you may want to contact them directly. I hope this is helpful and best of luck!
I pay rent by check. Is it more secure to pay by e-transfer and why? For example, if my landlord claims I didn’t pay rent on time what is my recourse if I use e-transfer payments.
Hi Jenny, thanks for your question. Itâs my understanding that e-transfers are a secure method of payment, but as to whether or not they are more or less secure than a cheque, I’m not sure. E-transfers and banking are not our area of authority and each financial institution is different. If you have specific questions about how your bankâs Interac e-Transfers work and how secure the payment method is, you may want to contact them directly. I hope this helps!
Warning to all INTERAC E-Transfer Users
Do NOT think this service is as safe or secure as it states it is , As a longtime sender and recipient using the same email even had it registered as my profile (sender email) as my bank did not offer auto deposit . Saturday morning was expecting 2 Transfers I regularly get from the same people at 8am , 8:15 still nothing I call them up only to find out that they both got confirmation emails that a â BARBARA HAMILTONâ has successfuly deposited there transfers one at 8:04am the other 8:09am , 24h earlier I had still been able to recieve payments , in that time frame some stranger managed to by pass these so called â security mesuresâ in place and add an email that is not theres and is associated to a totally differant name and bank account as there own auto deposit email , meaning they dont even need the security password to any transfer recieved it automaticly gets deposited to there account !! Any transfer any amount straight to the fradulent account .
I call in to make a complaint was told everything will be resolved in a couple buisness days and that i will get my money was told 2x â you will get your moneyâ someone will call you monday , tuesday the latest , all lies , no call got an email saying tell the senders to go make a complaint to there banks were interac we dont hold any money we cant do anything. !!! This is what there â The fast, secure way to send, request and receive money* service they provide is all about , basicly they have nothing close to secure of a service , if this was paypal i would already have my money back and the person that pulled this off would have zero access to the funds he got by manipulating the system .
Interace etransfer not secure not safe no garantees you get scammed good luck your on your own
Paypal has yet to decieve me secure , safe garanteed and insured .
Hi Nicola, that sounds like a frustrating situation! Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.
Thank you for being so honest now I will read every word with anything when it comes to my bank account as is myself and my husband and my sister have had problems already and we all use TD bank of Canada
Now I am gonna read every word I pray everything works out for you
TD Bank is the most horrible, not just bank but the company, I have ever had to deal with. They have taken thousands from me and when confronted offer no excuse and literally changed or denied records to hide it. I urge every customer to request secondary statements from TD and have them checked by your own accountant, especially if you have a mortgage with them. If they take care of your property taxes with the mortgage payment I would suggest taking responsibility for it on your own as they use the account to pay for many things labelled “other” as well, without your knowledge. After over a year of using the complaint procedures, I was told the problem had been resolved with me months ago. I think I would remember that and had been in correspondence with them the whole time. If you find a problem go directly to a lawyer as TD will hide any issue you bring to them and make it harder if not impossible to use the law later on. Lies and more lies. Switch Banks to anyone other than TD. I can’t believe they are even allowed to operate.
Iâve had two clients e transfer for salon services. I have auto deposit. The rent came out of their accounts but never came into mine. Help
Hi Nak, thanks for reaching out to us here. We have no oversight when it comes to e-transfers in BC, so we won’t be able to sort this out with you. The best people to talk to about this would be your bank. I hope this helps and best of luck.
Sadly this is the same response I received when looking for help from organizations and regulators alike when it comes to TD bank. Alway told to talk to the bank about the issue. WORST idea ever. It’s like telling someone to hand over their wallet to a thief. The best advice is to seek legal counsel if the amount is great enough to warrant the cost of a lawyer. Otherwise, you are most likely in for a lot of wasted time and headaches.
Do not Etransfer until the banks come up with a better way. Emails are not secure.
Interac e-Transfers CAN be reversed if the sender’s online bank account has been compromised.
This article is incorrect.
Hi John, thanks for your comment. Like the article suggests, we sourced this information directly from the Interac website. Here’s the link to the FAQ section where we sourced it: https://www.interac.ca/en/interac-e-transfer-faq.html#faq_210. Under the second question, you’ll find the part that says “Once a transfer has been deposited, it cannot be cancelled or reversed.” Perhaps there are situations where this is not the case, however, generally speaking e-transfers cannot be reversed and must be treated similarly to cash. Thanks for your input!
If bank finds the transfer was fraudulent then they can freeze your account and get the money back. SO although you can’t reverse it the bank will never be out the money.
That is not rhe as, they can be reversed and it doesn’t take much either. No real investigations into why you can recieve money for something then all of a sudden lost it and had accounts frozen without an investigation with a conclusion onbhersay information by a scammer thay now has your money and products and as a partig gift now ypu can’t do any banking because of frozen accounts. Horrible service, avoid etransfers!!!!
not afraid of the road, only afraid of short.
I have a tenant who paid rent by e-transfer until the following happened:
Tenant sent e-transfer; I open the Interact e-transfer email and find a message that the funds had already been deposited but obviously not by me and not to my account. Sender’s bank gave her the name of the person who deposited the funda, as well as the name of the bank and the branch address. In a formal letter the bank advice the sender that they will not refund her because she had given her personal banking information to some else, including her online banking PIN. The sender has accused me of scheming to defraud her.
Hi Bowen, thank you for sharing your experience here. Is this issue active? If so, you may want to contact the Residential Tenancy Branch of the government (link here) and they have the dispute resolution platform online. You can explore and see how you may be able to resolve the issue there.
I have a friend who accepted an etransfer for a friend they were contacted from their Bank saying that you transfer was meant for something for sale that they did not have and it wasn’t even there any transfer their account is now frozen are they responsible to pay back this e-transfer
Hi Elaina, as this blog post suggests, e-transfers are a lot like cash transactions so there are not many protections, unlike credit cards. Your friend may want to contact the bank and see why the account is frozen and what they can about that. Whether your friend is obligated to pay back is not something we know as we do not oversee financial institutions.
Same, it’s a scam to get a product and your money, it’s done by thieves and i just fell victim to it.
Hi I did an e-transfer to a friend but then found out his bank isn’t in the option. But now the $250 I sent came out of my account. How is that possible. Doesn’t the person have to have one of the banks listed in order to receive the money and it come out of my account?? Thanks I appreciate the help.
Hi Diana, this does sound odd. The best course of action at this point may be to contact your bank and see what happened to the money. You can phone the customer service line and they might be able to help you figure out where the money is at. I hope you will be able to sort this out quickly!
Hello, my bank account has been hacked 2 weeks ago and someone did 2 e-transfer to an unknown email address of $1,450 so I lost $2,900.00. I call my BMO bank, they cancelled my card, changed all passwords, re-activated the 2 step SMS verification that was disabled from the scammer on my account. The bank says that the person used my password and got my security question right the first time therefore they don’t want to pay my lost money, any ideas what I can do to get my money back from the bank since they advertise a 100% 100% Security Guarantee
We will reimburse you 100% for any losses to your personal bank accounts from unauthorized transactions. Can someone please help me or guide me to the right entity to complain about this situation. Thanks
Hi John, thanks for reaching out. I suggest you reach out to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. They are responsible for regulating banks in Canada and may be able to help with your situation. I hope this helps!