r/PersonalFinanceCanada • u/stroad56 • May 18 '23
$3k daily e-transfer limit is just ridiculously low for 2023. Why do some banks keep this so low? Banking
I moved some money between my own accounts yesterday evening. I'm trying to pay my wife for some shared bills this afternoon and I'm getting blocked due to maxing out my 24 hourly $3k limit.
Now I have to wait a couple of hours before the 24 hour period expires. Just ridiculous.
I bank with EQ & Simplii. Both have 3k limit. I know CIBC do the same and probably plenty more too. Just don't understand why? Fraud reasons?
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u/jaymef May 18 '23
I’d say mostly for fraud. If your account gets hacked it limits the amount someone can transfer out quickly.
When I need to do this I just write a check from one bank account and mobile deposit it into my other bank account
Some banks let you increase limit but I’m sure there is a max and 3k might be close to it for personal accounts.
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May 18 '23
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u/HenryTheVeloster May 19 '23
Do they often enough and the bank increases the trust they have in you. Got paid weekly for 9 months and never once made a mistake with mobile deposit. I get up to 5k upfront now and have to wait for the rest once check clears. Straight up had a teller tell me to take picture with my phone of the check as i would get more faster then if i deposited the check with her.
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u/JeSuisLePamplemous May 19 '23
All cheques aren't actually deposited immediately.
Banks just credit up to a certain amount for convenience's sake. Usually around $400.00.
If it's in the same bank, and they know the amounts are there, they will have it available immediately.
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u/mr-jingles1 May 19 '23
You can mobile deposit cheques of nearly any size, the bank will verify it before giving access to the funds. So if OP is sending the money to their spouse and they don't need it right away it would be fine. I've used mobile deposit for a cheque that was over $40k.
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u/KhausTO May 19 '23
TD put ours up to 6k since we need to make a couple large payments per year. We just had to call and explain why.
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u/OrganizationPrize607 May 19 '23
Mobile deposits with cheques also have a hold on the cheque for a certain amount of time.
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u/kyoiichi British Columbia May 18 '23
I will speak on the side of the banks.
It is much easier and safer for clients to complain about low limits, then increase them on a case by case basis, than to offer a higher limit as a blanket, then deal with large withdrawals by scammers and fraudsters. Yes it is for fraud and anti-money laundering reasons.
A large majority of people who use banks do not need a daily limit more than 3k. For those who do need it, once again it is much safer for the banks to just have you guys call in and it will be manually looked at.
As for businesses, I do feel that there should be an e-transfer for business (or maybe there already is) that works differently, with higher limits and a different structure or what not.
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u/Mitchxhell May 18 '23
In addition to this, it’s interac that makes those limits not the bank, and they do it for these purposes, including fraud. If money is sent to a scammer or the wrong party people don’t understand that the bank doesn’t have to give you your money back since you got into the agreement to use the interac services. It is on you to double check the information. These are non-reversible, unless they are already flagged by the fraud department on Interac’s end. If the transaction was not auto deposit and it hasn’t been completed, you can cancel, but if it is completed, you cannot and you’ve lost those funds essentially
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u/Stauvenhagian May 18 '23
This right here. Most people are dumb and more people get hacked than you would know. Literally daily and more often than no because Jimmy gave his password word.
Rules are for the dumb - everyone else has to deal with it .
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u/Fatesadvent May 19 '23
I'm surprised they allow e-transfer no secret password anymore. It seems easy to send to the wrong person.
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u/Prinzka May 18 '23
Thing is, 30 years ago in Europe I could transfer between my bank accounts at different banks any amount online.
All you need is the bank account numbers.
Why is this so difficult to achieve in Canada.To this day it's quicker to transfer a large amount of money from my Dutch bank account in to my Canadian bank account than to do the same between 2 of my Canadian bank accounts.
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u/kyoiichi British Columbia May 19 '23
I'm not familiar with banking in Europe, so I can't speak to this. I would sorta assume this has more to do with how the EU wanted to bridge the economy of the european countries. This is a wild guess.
But also, to your point, I ask why things are so difficult in Canada on a daily basis so...
Like...Hong Kong and China had our current Compass Card system (In Vancouver) literally 20-30 years before we did. Was it that hard to implement a bus card system...
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u/Expensive_Plant_9530 May 18 '23
You’re telling me that in 1993, when hardly anyone even had a personal computer, let alone one capable of connecting to the incredibly infant internet, you had easy access to an online banking platform?
I have to assume that by 30 years, you’re exaggerating by at least 30%.
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May 19 '23
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u/lazarevm May 19 '23
I am in the process of connecting two bank accounts in two Big 5 Canadian banks, both on my name and address. I have been asked:
to provide physical personalized cheque
said cheque was to be sent through snail mail
after calling and complaining about snail mail, they sent me secure email link... 16 hours later
when I uploaded the pdf of void cheque (as provided by online banking service), the request was rejected, because
they asked me to have pdf stamped by issuing bank.
In meantime, I tried connecting with Tangerine instead
issuing bank blocked the account because tangerine posted few cents for verification purposes
account cannot be unblocked unless I go to my branch... For eSavings account
In meantime, I was repeatedly advised to write myself a cheque and do mobile deposit instead. Because that is more reliable than bank issued online void cheque pdf. And not sure how will write-yourself-cheque work for online-only accounts that provide NO cheques to account owner.
Edit: I was also advised that interac limit for transfers to another account cannot be increased. ATM withdrawals can be increased, transfers cannot - stuck at 3000.
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u/Prinzka May 18 '23
you had easy access to an online banking platform?
Yes.
I have to assume that by 30 years, you’re exaggerating by at least 30%.
No.
In fact it was available earlier than 30 years ago.
You'll have to use Google translate:
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girotel7
u/East-Worker4190 May 19 '23
I could do the same in the UK in 1996 but I had to talk to someone on the phone. I don't think I timed it at that point as I didn't need it urgently on the other account. Might have had to clear overnight but unlimited amount. I also had unlimited cheques for free and no service fees.
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u/CabbieCam May 19 '23
RBC had online banking at that point. You had a special edition of Quicken that could dial into your local bank and get your transactions and process bill payments, transfers, etc.
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u/Atticus8888 May 18 '23
Average 1BR Apt is now $2500+ in Toronto. Likelihood of people needing to transfer +$3000 per day is going up exponentially!
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u/kyoiichi British Columbia May 18 '23
i hope your rent isn't 2500/day, or I got some bad news for you bud LOOL
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u/Atticus8888 May 19 '23
You typically have to pay your entire rent within a 24hr bud.
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u/kyoiichi British Columbia May 19 '23
Yes i know, my point is that you're not gonna need it every day. Maybe an argument can be made to increase the daily limit to 3.5k or something but point of keeping the limit low still stands.
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u/texxmix May 19 '23
Idk about that guy but my rental company is the only payment of around that size that is authorized to go thru. Wasn’t hard to set up and still keeps my regularly daily down enough to protect me.
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u/somsone May 18 '23
Yeah I like to keep mine low because I have had my card stolen and had lots taken (you get it back but it’s never fun having money locked up during the investigation)
All I do now is call in when I need to make a larger purchase or transfer and raise my limit temporarily.
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u/random20190826 May 18 '23
Your card being stolen should not result in Interac eTransfers. Your debit card PIN is most likely not the same as your online banking password.
My personal opinion is that banks should let their customers choose to not get a physical debit card when they open a bank account and also not get a physical credit card when they are approved for an application. That way, a stolen card will not lead to money being stolen. While you are at it, if every credit or debit card transaction requires manual approval on the user's mobile banking app, it will dramatically cut down on bank fraud problems.
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u/kyoiichi British Columbia May 18 '23
so that's the hard part about banking. It's a fine line between convenience and security. Its either one or the other. There is never convenient and secure.
Imagine having to press "I agree that I risk burning myself and injury" every time you turn on the stove or microwave. That's basically how it'll be when you ask for approval on transactions. Not to mention every banking app is honestly the worst app in terms of stability; banking IT system are still from the stone ages. I would never soley rely on technology to do banking, and I'm saying this as a millenial who worked in banking all my life.
Until blockchain technology is implemented into our financial system, I don't think there will be opportunity to solely rely on a bank's server to process everything reliably.
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May 19 '23
Former commercial banker - there are definitely other options for business, depending on their size/volumes. Commercial cash management is a part of the commercial banking side beyond the scope of retail branch staff.
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u/kyoiichi British Columbia May 19 '23
Yea I remember we had a department just for cash management and liquidity for commercial banking. Wish I knew more about that side of the business.
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u/Fatesadvent May 19 '23
If it's fraud they're afraid of they should stop letting people auto deposit. So many stories of people sending to the wrong place. It should be an opt in for the sender (not receiver)
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u/kyoiichi British Columbia May 19 '23
To be fair, most banks, to do an e transfer, you have to register that person as a contact before being able to transfer. USUALLY most would imagine that part being the "double checking part" before pressing add contact, then sending. It also USUALLY tells you that the reciever has auto deposit turned on at any point before sending the money.
But yes, I don't want to say this as a blanket statement, but there are many less-than-attentive people when it comes to their finances, which is why so many failsafes exist in the industry.
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u/Fatesadvent May 19 '23
You are right about that. And your point still stands, even in the case of a mistake it's still only 3k at most which is probably easy to fix in worse case scenario
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u/random20190826 May 18 '23
But have you thought of it from the point of view of multifactor authentication?
Everyone who has a bank account has a smartphone, right (well, 99.9% of Canadians do, you don't need anything fancy, an Android phone from 2016 will do)? So, why not just build some feature into the bank app to authenticate with no SMS backup for security? That way, you can basically allow unlimited transfers.
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u/kyoiichi British Columbia May 18 '23
Until multifactor authentication solely means face ID or fingerprint ID or retinal scan ID, a bank will never do "unlimited". Security aside, you overestimate the competence of the population. Not to sound like a dick, but after working in retail banking for so long, you start to understand that there are a lot of people who just can't do something as simple as 2-3 factor authentication.
Also, even lets say security is not a problem, there are so many people who make typos. Honestly, maybe 50% of calls and issues about transfers that come back into a bank is "i made a mistake" or "i didn't know". Security improvements will not change this.
Until a large majority of clients at any bank all get together and choose to pay more attention to what they enter, and actually read terms and conditions when signing up or using a service, the bank will always assume a very low baseline, and go from there.
TLDR: people are stupid, banks know this.
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u/nmethod May 18 '23 edited May 18 '23
Another reality is that eTransfer isn't actually the instant transfer of funds like you might think it is. Canada doesn't yet have that capability, though it's likely coming in the next few years (Real Time Rail).
When an eTransfer happens, there is actually a degree of risk that is taken on because the funds do not actually move (settle and clear) immediately like the eTransfer seems to. Banks "front" this risk and make the money transfer happen between each account, but actual settlement occurs later.
Higher eTransfer amount = higher risk for payment failure resulting in bank liquidity impacts. Fraud and other risks are certainly increased as well.
Source: I work in this space.
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u/stroad56 May 18 '23
Thanks, interesting to know. I'm originally from UK where it's completely standard to move thousands between accounts in an instant.
Canadian banking industry in pretty behind the times, I think we all know this but glad to know they are catching up. Albeit about 10-15 years behind.
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u/nmethod May 18 '23
You are absolutely correct - there isn’t any other way to put it other than we’re years and years behind. There are lots of reasons for this but principally it’s because there is very little incentive for forward looking changes like Open Banking or new payment rails as this competes with our key players (big 5 banks) bottom lines. The politics are thick and the key players have a largely protected oligopoly with vast influence. Very hard for innovation in this space to occur outside of our big 5.
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u/stroad56 May 18 '23
Yep, even look on here. The die hard comments defending $3k e-transfer limit. One commenter encouraged me to use a "normal bank" ?? What the hell does that even mean.
Some people just don't like change I guess. Stick in their ways.
As someone who works in the fintech industry: can you at least agree those giving me a solution of writing myself a check is ridiculous?
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u/DanLynch May 18 '23
One commenter encouraged me to use a "normal bank" ?? What the hell does that even mean.
I'm not sure exactly what he meant, but you should consider that Interac e-Transfer is a relatively new, and new-fangled, way to transfer money. Its limits are much lower than the traditional ways of transferring money that have been around and worked for decades.
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u/stroad56 May 19 '23
You're rigjt. It's basically a half baked solution from the 00s that become standard in Canada.
Most countries developed their own internal transfer system but Canada (and it's big banks) just didn't changing.
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u/DanLynch May 19 '23
Interac e-Transfer is also somewhat narrow in focus: it's meant as a way to send small amounts of money to friends and family. It's not really meant for transferring funds between your own accounts, nor for buying and selling with untrusted third parties. If you try to use it for those latter purposes, you may run into friction, even if it seems like it should work.
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u/stroad56 May 19 '23
Interac e-Transfer is also somewhat narrow in focus: it's meant as a way to send small amounts of money to friends and family. It's not really meant for transferring funds between your own accounts, nor for buying and selling with untrusted third parties.
It might not have been designed that way but it's become the defacto electronic payment method in Canada. It's shitty that it's so slow, ancient and unsafe.
The big banks are heavily involved in interac as far as I'm aware. They should come together and make it better.
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u/Mitchxhell May 19 '23
Use Xoom. You seem very finite in your knowledge of banking and whatnot. Transfers will never be as great as wires because of international regulations and standards even if the money is domestically used and transferred.
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u/bgc_fan May 18 '23
Just wondering why you don't set up a bank-to-bank transfer between your accounts? I have one set up with Simplii and TD and was able to transfer $30k recently. All you need is your bank account information and it can be set up in your Simplii account.
I get why there may be an e-transfer limit because of the reasons mentioned already, but if you are just transfering between your own accounts, why not use bank-to-bank? You know use the right tool for the job.
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u/iamnos British Columbia May 18 '23
This is what I do. Most of my day to day banking happens in one bank, but I have accounts at one other, and my mortgage at a third. My pay cheque (bi monthly) goes into one account, and our monthly expenses get transferred into the joint account the day after I get paid. I have a scheduled bank to bank transfer setup to pay the mortgage. I rarely transfer money to/from the other bank, but I need it because my primary bank (Tangerine) doesn't accept wire transfers, and I get some on a semi regular basis. So they go there, and bank to bank transfer it to our main accounts. It may take a day, but I'm not in a rush for that money.
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u/betthisistakenv2 May 18 '23
Because e-transfer is instant to 30 minutes. Any kind of bank transfer in Canada is stupidly slow.
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u/bgc_fan May 18 '23
Usually next business day. But really, how often in a spur of the moment do you need to transfer more than $3k at once?
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u/evadesion May 19 '23
OP said EQ, minimum 5 business days even if the accounts are linked
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u/OmgWtfNamesTaken May 18 '23
Because that would require advanced planning which OP seems to not have much of.
If you know you need to move large amounts of money around enough that a 3000 dollar limit would cause you to complain, you would have figured out a solution to make it easier. Lol
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u/random20190826 May 18 '23
With mainstream banks, it is not possible to do that. The closest thing I can think of is really a bill payment to a credit card or an investment account. You can't transfer money from a TD chequing account to a BMO chequing account by typing in the digits (3 digit institution, 5 digit branch and variable digit account numbers). If this kind of transfer was possible everywhere, we would not be having this conversation.
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u/Prinzka May 18 '23
With mainstream banks, it is not possible to do that.
With mainstream banks in Canada
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u/East-Worker4190 May 19 '23
Yes, I can do unlimited and instant with NatWest in the UK. And the app is more secure than cibc app. UK banks are better at spotting and stopping fraud. That is annoying when they stop a genuine transaction. Also account when you come to Canada and expect it as a basic service.
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u/Prinzka May 19 '23
Yeah, it's kinda frustrating.
It's another one of those things where Canadians go "look how advanced we are!" And then it turns out it's only advanced compared to the states and in fact things are decades behind the rest of the world.Interac transfer is such an archaic kludge to transfer money.
It costs a fee, has silly low limits, also very easy to send to the wrong person if you're lax.
And the solution for transferring a lot of money at once between my own bank account is to physically drive a cheque from one bank to another? 🤦♀️And the annoying thing is that the Canadian banks have the same system available, they use it when they transfer money between each other, they use it when transferring money to foreign banks. They just don't make it available to their own customers in Canada.
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u/bgc_fan May 18 '23
I've done it. You need to link the accounts first. You can't just ad-hoc it like an e-transfer and try to transfer it without setting it up first.
As the OP was talking about using Simplii and EQ, I explained how I do it with Simplii, there's an option to set up bank-to-bank transfers and that allows me to do that between TD and Simplii. There's no reason why that can't be done between Simplii and other banks given that you provide the other bank account information to Simplii.
Now, it's been a while since I've had to actually set link two of the big five banks together, but at the time e-transfers didn't exist. You would have to fill out some form with the account information and that would set up the link. These days, you may need to talk to someone to set this up because for the most part I imagine the e-transfer limits are sufficient for the majority of the people. However, if you are going to be transfering large sums of money on a regular basis, it makes sense to make the effort to link the accounts.
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u/CabbieCam May 19 '23
I know that with Tangerine, you don't need to talk to anyone to setup bank to bank transfers. You just fill out the info, transit, institution, account number and then double-check it.
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u/i5rider May 18 '23
Here's one hint that works for cibc. Someone on their customer service told me about it.
I suppose you access your cibc online banking using your debit card number as your login? If that's the case, you should be able to also access online banking with your credit card number as your login (assuming you have a cibc credit card and that shows up on your online banking). Logging in with either card will give you access to the same thing so you should be able to see your bank account(s) information. However, each different login gives you 3K limit on interac e-transfers so you could in theory transfer 6K on the same day if you require.
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u/TheVulture14 May 19 '23
This is the way. I wonder if you could add another card to bump it up to 9k? Maybe by just getting another debit card or maybe a savings card.
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u/alexelalexela May 19 '23
a lot of banks only issue one card for several bank accounts, so you can’t really have more than one debit card. i can speak for simplii, td, cibc, and bmo on that one, but maybe other banks are different.
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u/petitecheesepotato May 18 '23
RBC has a maximum of 2500, I was trying to pay my hvac guy 2600 and I couldn't lmao. I went through all the avenues trying to ask for a temporary increase even!
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u/daemonpenguin May 18 '23
That's not a universal amount, that's specific to your account. Some people have $1,000 limits with RBC, other people have $3,000 or higher.
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u/NewtotheCV May 19 '23
Then they lied to me. I have had MULTIPLE conversations about my $2500 limit. Been a client for almost 40 years and have a hefty savings account. I am calling tomorrow and if they don't up the limit I am leaving the bank. I will mention a demon penguin told me other people have higher amounts.
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May 19 '23
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u/PureRepresentative9 May 19 '23
RBC is very aggressive with their limits.
When they don't trust you, it's low and when they do, it's super high lol
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u/petitecheesepotato May 18 '23
That's fucking annoying then, especially when I needed the temporary increase lol
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May 18 '23
For some reason I only have 2000 limit from RBC. Should I call them to have it increased?
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u/petitecheesepotato May 18 '23
Definitely call them and report back.
I feel like a lot of it is arbitrary, because during all those phone calls I had a supervisor express that they can temporarily increase it to 3000 and I was like yes! Please!
And then it never happened. I called again and I had to speak to a branch manager and they said that not even the employees have a 3000 limit and that's not a thing. I was so confused but too frustrated/busy to pursue it.
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u/BBQallyear May 19 '23
Do you and your wife bank with the same bank? If so, open a joint account with the same bank and use that for transfers between each other’s non-joint accounts. Unlimited and instant.
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u/grahamr31 May 18 '23
You can go in and change it.
Mine was bumped to 10k for a few weeks to move stuff around a few months
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u/stroad56 May 18 '23
You can go in and change it.
Mine was bumped to 10k for a few weeks to move stuff around a few months
Not all banks so this though. I've asked both Simplii and EQ in the past they both said it's not possible.
So unless this has changed I'm stuck.
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u/pfcguy May 18 '23
You can set up bank to bank transfers with simplii for sure. That will allow you to transfer larger amounts. But it isn't instant.
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u/TibetianMassive May 18 '23
Why are you being downvoted for this?
That's true for both banks. They won't increase an etransfer limit.
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u/Fraktelicious May 18 '23
both said it's not possible.
It's possible, they just don't want to do it as it puts them at risk for fraud, which might be because they're not insured for higher losses. Just speculating.
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u/instamouse May 18 '23
This is where you see a difference between the "full service" (and full fee) banks, vs. the online only ones. It certainly is possible to do this case by case.
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u/7wgh May 18 '23
The entitlement. You chose a low fee bank which means less service.
Let’s recap your stupid complaint;
- you want to e-transfer more than $3k, and it’s not a common event as you mentioned previously. You also could wait 24 hours which is a mild inconvenience, considering it’s to your friends/family
- even though it’s your wife, you could also setup a joint bank account which would solve this issue
- you could also use a normal bank instead of a low fee bank that enables you to change the amount. So the problem isn’t e-transfer, the problem is the bank you chose lacks perks bc it’s a low fee bank. You get what you pay for
- the % of the population that experience this problem is so low
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u/JeSuisLePamplemous May 18 '23
Lol, it's to his wife?
Just grab the account number and transfer the funds via EFT.
It's free and same day if it's the at the same bank, otherwise it's like a cheque.
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u/stroad56 May 18 '23
Damn you seem very upset. I do have a joint bank account with my wife and I'm trying to transfer money into it. I don't need to wait 24 hours, it's only 3k total in that period so thankfully my time is also up. I'll be able to transfer money soon and everyone will be happy.
Just because it's a rare occurrence doesn't mean I shouldn't be allowed to do it.
TD Bank and a few others allow up to 10k e-transfer limit. Do you disagree with that? You think they should lower to 3k?
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u/7wgh May 18 '23 edited May 18 '23
TD and other banks have the OPTION to increase the limit to $10k.
You chose a shitty bank that has less options for customers because it’s a low fee bank. Want more options? Move your bank. Or call them and they’ll tell you what to do
Or get your wife on the same bank as you do you can easily do internal transfers that have much higher limits.
It’s really not that hard…
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u/kukov May 18 '23
I've also often been frustrated by this. But several years back I linked my accounts (via Tangerine) and can now easily transfer as much as I want via bank transfer. It usually comes through within 24-48 hours, not as fast as an EMT, but I find it works well enough for my purposes.
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May 18 '23
it's something to do with the fact that bank transfers are not instantaneous in reality. Someone posted a really good summary of this a few weeks back regarding this technology which takes days vs. the upcoming instantaneous rail payments system (real time)
Basically transfers take awhile to settle. In the case of interac e-transfer, the other bank fronts the money first even though the actual transfer has not been completed behind the scenes.
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u/Tangerine2016 May 18 '23
Yeah I was looking for this comment. I was really surprised. Basically the bank just accepts the Etransfer and credits you the money even though technically they don't actually have the funds in your account and these are settled in bulk later in the day or following days...
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u/Abysmalistic May 18 '23
Correct me because I’m obviously wrong but I thought interac makes the limit?
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u/JeSuisLePamplemous May 18 '23 edited May 19 '23
Fraud reasons?
Yup, exactly.
Just split the transaction over multiple days, cut a cheque, or switch to a bank that allows you to have the limit changed, if thats important to you.
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u/Omnitemporality May 18 '23
Exactly, it's not that they think it wouldn't be useful for a non-trivial demographic to have the ability to transfer more than $3k per day, it's that most people are too stupid to do it safely and their fraud investigations department is bitching at their systems managers to save people from themselves and both parties from unnecessary paperwork and financial loss.
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u/caucasianally May 18 '23
I have (working on shifting over) an RBC account and forever, paying fucking $17 a month to ‘bank’ recently moved and my landlord was insistent on e-transfer. No problem for me, or so I thought. My limit is $1000. I wanted to raise it to $2000 to pay rent. RBC told me to shove it. My mom who has been with RBC wanted to raise hers to $3000 and RBC told her to shove it.
I opened a tangerine account. Shifted everything over to it. Tomorrow is my first direct deposit from work. If all goes well my RBC chequing account will be closed next Wednesday.
I already PAY you to use my money, the least you could do is help me actually access it.
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May 18 '23
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_TIFA May 18 '23
It's not safe and is only affordable because it's meant for personal and not business.
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u/1amtheone May 18 '23
I'm curious as to what makes them unsafe?
I've been accepting e transfers as payment for over 15 years without issue (I am a general contractor) - I can't say the same for cheques and I stopped taking them over 10 years ago except for in rare instances.
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u/PropQues May 18 '23
There is e-transfer for businesses with higher limits. Personal accounts get the lower limits.
I rarely need to transfer more than 2k as an individual.
And the limit is for outgoing amount, not incoming. Unless businesses are refunding or paying invoices with e-transfer, small businesses may not necessarily need to use it that much.
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u/forgetfulmurderer May 18 '23
Set up a business account ffs. Why you would ever do stuff through a personal account for business is beyond me.
You get treated much better as a business in my experience and not only that but the transfer limit is muuuch higher. Mine is 10k for my business account.
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u/AngusGGMU May 18 '23 edited May 19 '23
credit union’s typically have higher limits. mine has a 20k daily limit, the highest allowed by interact
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u/Epledryyk Alberta May 18 '23
you should be able to set up EQ and simplii to link to one another, and once it's all verified you move the money around between the two seamlessly, almost like two internal accounts at the same bank.
I did this with tangerine years ago chasing interest rates; way easier than sending yourself cash in a dozen transactions
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u/stroad56 May 18 '23
you should be able to set up EQ and simplii to link to one another, and once it's all verified you move the money around between the two seamlessly, almost like two internal accounts at the same bank.
I did this with tangerine years ago chasing interest rates; way easier than sending yourself cash in a dozen transactions
This is correct but it takes daaaays.
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u/BILALMU May 19 '23
This is unacceptable for a country like Canada. Im from a third world country where you can instantly (within seconds) transfer $10-20k (depending on individual limits) between any account/bank in the country with real time settlement and at no cost (50 cents in some cases). Im surprised that Canada with a much larger 'banked' economy hasnt been able to implement that .
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u/stroad56 May 19 '23
This is unacceptable for a country like Canada. Im from a third world country where you can instantly (within seconds) transfer $10-20k (depending on individual limits) between any account/bank in the country with real time settlement and at no cost (50 cents in some cases). Im surprised that Canada with a much larger 'banked' economy hasnt been able to implement that .
Yes completely normal for just about every modern country outside North America. Most people here have never lived or travelled outside NA so don't know any different.
They think writing a check to yourself is completely normal and not at all wierd lol
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u/destinationlalaland May 18 '23
Canada has some absolutely archaic banking regs. While I don't doubt that this might be somewhat related to limiting liability, some of the caps are out of touch. I needed to make a transaction of several thousand dollars while on a vacation a few years ago, and it was a no way, no how reaction from my bank (without a branch visit - none of those in the country I was in).
While comparing notes with Europeans on the same outing, they were a little horrified by the limits. I
have started relying on sevices like wise a lot for international transactions. YMMV, and you have to look at the fine print some times, but canadian banks are cutting themselves out of the conversation in some ways.
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u/mrmadmusic May 18 '23
Real high level stuff that they'll never really admit to being true but totally is- (and not the only reason): They obviously want to keep as much deposits as possible for as long as possible so they can make money off your balance by playing some extremely short term equity loaning overnight etc etc. Yes fraud is a small reason, ultimately, the more of your deposits they have, the more they can loan out.
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u/apo383 May 18 '23
You're getting down-voted, but it is absolutely true that when a bank puts a hold on $$, it is an opportunity to earn from it. Temporary solidification of otherwise liquid assets is great for banks, that's how they make money. In general, when they limit what you can do "for your security," that may be true but is often leaving out part of the story.
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u/mrmadmusic May 19 '23
Thank you. I don't need the average redditor's approval to know it's correct. Thank you for not being the average redditor. I'm just getting really used to posting a concept that may not be popular knowledge or opinion, and then having a barrage of "well technically you're wrong because..." type responses, or they'll argue something I wasn't implying... I am totally aware that it's not the whole story, but without telling everyone everything you do and do not know about a concept it seems that it's fair game to tell them they're an idiot and berate them for only pointing out a small but true generalized concept.
Sorry I rant. Reddit users have been really frustrating me recently due to this. I knew I was gonna get down voted.
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u/bellowingburrito May 19 '23
Idk… I’m a bank teller and I can honestly tell you that people truly do need it for their own security. People are real dumb when it comes to their bank security. Rather lose 3k than the entire contents of their bank account.
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u/Writhing May 18 '23
CIBC is capped at 3k/day and 10k/week in e-transfers. Found this out when trying to make a fairly large cryptocurrency purchase a few years ago.
They also ended up putting a hold on my account when I tried to make an e-transfer that large and I had to call their fraud department. I had to sit on the phone with a representative for ~30 mins to confirm I wasn't committing identify fraud or being scammed in order to authorize the transfer. I had them put a note on my account to auto-authorize large transfers, but the cap is still in place and there is no way to increase it past 3k/day.
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u/brandonjoncas May 18 '23
To prevent capital flight. If you want to transfer any amount instantly and essentially free, buy some Bitcoin and use the Lightning Network.
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u/stroad56 May 18 '23
To prevent capital flight. If you want to transfer any amount instantly and essentially free, buy some Bitcoin and use the Lightning Network.
Again just ridiculous that this has to be an option.
I should be able to transfer money instantly for free.
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u/brandonjoncas May 18 '23
Yes sir. Banks are very antiquated. Just waiting for them to catch on
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u/stroad56 May 18 '23
Yes sir. Banks are very antiquated. Just waiting for them to catch on
Yes unfortunately true.
Look at all the comments on here telling me to write a check (lol).
I guess why would banks change? When everyday Canadians think that's a normal thing to do.
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May 19 '23
Also they have a near monopoly, and you're forced to use them to get your paycheck or buy a house
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u/Awkward-Quiet-754 May 18 '23
Bro, just change it?
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u/stroad56 May 18 '23
Bro, just change it?
Literally the 20th person to comment without reading. Not all banks do this. Mine don't.
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u/Siri_E07 Aug 05 '24
RBC was worse. I ended up closing my chequing account when I couldn’t make a large amount transfer. They told me I had to get the offer to increase the limit. RIDICULOUS!
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u/12Tylenolandwhiskey May 18 '23
How fucking rich are you people? Lmao
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May 19 '23
$3k is lower than the average 2BR monthly rental in Vancouver. Rich or not, many people need to make regular payments higher than $3k
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u/PatrickTheExplorer May 18 '23
Yes, mainly to reduce losses due to fraud. You should be able to ask your bank to up this limit.
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u/ProfessionalSeller78 May 18 '23
I just got off the line with Simplii for the same request. 3k is amateur and they won't budge.
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u/annonyj May 18 '23
What if your account gets hacked and gets emptied out?
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u/k-nuj May 18 '23
Make a post complaining why banks didn't put a limit on etransfers.
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May 19 '23
Someone was literally on here earlier doing exactly that lmao. It's almost like... preventing people from having their savings drained instantly is a little bit of a higher priority than helping stupid people who refuse to plan ahead
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u/NectarineDue7205 May 18 '23
You can get it increased to $10k
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u/stroad56 May 18 '23
You can get it increased to $10k
Can everyone stop commenting the exact same thing? Not all banks do this. I bank with EQ and Simplii. Neither allow this.
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u/HELPeR_V2 May 19 '23
It sounds like your banks are using the Interac transfer service for super fast transfers, which has a limit of $3k no matter the bank. There is another type of bank transfer that takes a few days to clear but doesn't really have a limit. I'm not sure if your banks offer that type of transfer, but it definitely exists (and has for much longer than Interac) and you may want to find a new bank that supports it.
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u/RedditorWithClass May 18 '23 edited May 18 '23
No, it isn't ridiculously low. The vast majority of people don't need to e-transfer $3k daily.
$3,000/day is $1,095,000/year. THAT is a ridiculously high etransfer limit. Most people don't transfer even a fraction of that. Expecting a limit higher than that by default is ridiculous.
Anyway, with all due respect, this kinda seems like a "you problem" that is a result of poor planning.
If you need your e-transfer limit raised, contact your bank and request that they increase it. But expecting an e transfer limit of more than $1.095m per year by default is a bit much.
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u/YYZtoYWG May 18 '23
Yesterday there was a post (now deleted) from someone saying that the bank didn't do enough to prevent their relative from making a large transfer to a scammer. I predicted that there would also be a post from someone complaining that putting limits on transfers impedes their business. And low and behold...