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Whether you want to transfer money between two of your own accounts, send money to a friend or family member, or make a payment to a business, you'll need to figure out the best way to safely transfer money from one account to another.
The best way to do that will depend on the situation. You will need to consider a number of factors to decide what option is right for your transfer, including:
- The amount of money you are transferring
- The currency of the transfer
- Which country you are sending the funds to
- How quickly you want to send the money
Let’s explore your options, how they work, how much they might cost and what information you’ll need.
Interac e-Transfer is an easy way to send money to friends, family, or businesses within Canada. Transfers are easy to do – all you need is the cell phone number or the e-mail of the person that you're sending money to. If they have set up an automatic deposit, your transfer gets deposited directly to their account without them needing to accept it (or answer a security question). This setup is recommended to help you reduce the risk of fraud if there is an easy question and answer for the question or if your email gets compromised. However, if they have not set that up, you will need to create a security question with an answer that the transfer receiver will need to know in order to accept the funds.
Sending an Interac e-Transfer transaction is easy. You can send a transfer through online banking or your mobile banking app. Whether it costs you money will depend on the type of bank account you have that you are sending it from. While Interac e-Transfer can cost up to $1.50 per transfer, some banks offer accounts with unlimited free Interac e-Transfer transactions or a specific number of free transfers every month. They are free for most Scotiabank accounts.*
Interac e-Transfer transactions are usually instant but may take up to 30 minutes to be received by the recipient.
It’s important to know that they can only be sent in Canadian currency. You can confirm what your Interac e-Transfer sending limit is at your bank’s branch.
Do you need to send money internationally? Your bank may offer various options directly through your online banking and there are also a few transfer apps, such as Western Union, that will allow you to make international money transfers.
At Scotiabank, we offer the Scotia International Money Transfer. It’s a service that allows Canadian retail customers to send international money transfers directly to a recipient's bank account. Existing customers can send a Scotia International Money Transfer from eligible Canadian Dollar accounts by signing into online banking or Scotiabank’s mobile app.
Scotiabank customers can also make Western Union money transfers. You can send money through Scotia On-line or Scotiabank Mobile Banking with Western Union to over 200 countries and territories. Funds arrive at one of Western Union’s 500,000 agent locations, so your family can pick up the transfer at the location that’s most convenient for them.
If you are using an app outside of those offered by your financial institution, they each have a number of different options that will allow you to move money in different currencies to overseas bank accounts, as mobile money, or as cash to be collected at an international payment agent. The apps let you save recipients and track your payments and even get notifications about shifts in exchange rates.
However, some of these services charge high fees and it might take a while to find the right one for you. The cost to transfer money varies significantly between international money transfer apps. The time it takes to transfer money can be as little as one business day and as long as several days.
Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of money transfer apps that work in Canada. If you have American friends, they might talk about sending you a Venmo – but you won't be able to receive that money. In Canada, whether you're sending transfers to others or receiving them, your main options are Interac e-Transfer, PayPal or other services through your financial provider.
Another option to transfer money domestically is to do a third-party deposit to someone’s bank account (which you could do in a branch). You could also transfer from your account to someone else’s bank account if you and the recipients accounts are at the same bank. To do this option, you need to know the recipient’s transit and account number.
If you want to securely send money from your Canadian bank account in any major currency to a Canadian or international account, a wire payment is the best transfer service to use. Wire transfers are a quick and secure way to send money internationally. You can make a wire payment via online or mobile banking or in branch.
To send a wire transfer, you will need the recipient's full name, address and account number, the name of their financial institution, address of their branch, international bank number (IBAN), BIC, or SWIFT code. Make sure you always verify the details for the wire transfer with the individual that provided it to you.
Wire transfers can get quite pricey and may cost over $100 per transaction.
A wire transfer normally takes 1 business day to complete when you are sending money domestically and up to 5 business days when you are sending money internationally.
We don't often think about cheques as a kind of money transfer – but that's essentially what they are. By writing a cheque to a friend, family member, or business, you are giving your bank permission to transfer that amount of money on your behalf.
Cheques are an easy way to transfer money, but they take more time to both send and to clear. For example, you might need to mail a cheque to a friend across the country which could take a week to arrive. Once they deposit the cheque, which they must do at a bank branch or via a mobile app, it may also take a while to clear the money. Domestic cheques can take 5 or more business days to clear while international cheques make take up to 30 business days to clear.
Different banks have different policies and if the cheque doesn't clear, the recipient will be responsible for paying back the money including any overdraft fees they might have incurred. Make sure to watch out for cheque fraud and scams, which are a common reason for cheques not clearing. Read more about cheque fraud and scams here.
How much a cheque costs varies. There is the cost of the cheques themselves – which some banks provide for free whereas others charge for depending on the chequing account you use. Then there are the potential transaction costs involved for both the sender and the receiver. While some banks have an amount of free transactions or unlimited free transactions each month, it will depend on your bank's policies. Scotiabank’s Ultimate Package gives customers 100 free cheques per year.
Many financial institutions offer customers the ability to purchase a draft (which is a form of certified funds), instead of cheques. Purchasing a draft means that your bank debits your account for the funds immediately.
Depending on what method you choose, transfer times vary from immediate with some e-transfers to as long as 30 days.
The easiest, quickest and most cost-efficient way inside Canada to send up to $10,000 is through Interac e-Transfer. If you are sending money internationally, using Scotia International Money Transfer or Western Union are both speedy and cost-effective options. For sending larger sums of money within Canada or Internationally, you may consider sending a wire transfer. While this option may be a little more costly, it is a secure and fast way to send money in any currency. If those options don’t work for you – you can use the traditional way and send a cheque.
Ultimately which transfer method is right for you will therefore depend on who you're sending the money to, where they're located, how much you're sending, what currency you're sending the money in, what account details you have, and how much you're willing to pay to transfer the money.
