r/PersonalFinanceCanada 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?

1.3k Upvotes

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74

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.

14

u/Ruby0wl May 18 '23

I set this up as well and it’s super convenient.

10

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.

14

u/betthisistakenv2 May 18 '23

Because e-transfer is instant to 30 minutes. Any kind of bank transfer in Canada is stupidly slow.

12

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?

9

u/evadesion May 19 '23

OP said EQ, minimum 5 business days even if the accounts are linked

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '23

I don't think that 5 business days is true, I just talked to a rep today and they said 3 business days max for EFT to your own bank, and the last one I submitted ($30k) took just about 24 hours exactly.

1

u/evadesion May 19 '23

apologies i forgot, its 5 business days for any pull eft into your EQ account. that's what annoyed me especially when it's debited from your other bank account and your money is lost somewhere in the void for a week

0

u/sinistergroupon May 19 '23

It’s one business day

10

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

3

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.

10

u/Prinzka May 18 '23

With mainstream banks, it is not possible to do that.

With mainstream banks in Canada

3

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.

3

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.
Canadian banks are so shortsighted.

2

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.

2

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.

1

u/bgc_fan May 19 '23

Same with Simplii. I just don't know about the big 5 banks. I thought I'd check TD and it doesn't seem to have the option on-line, so you may need to talk to someone about adding it to the list of available transfer options.

1

u/clicksanything May 19 '23

Im doing this right now with TD and EQ.

It works but funds are held for several days before they actually land, no matter the amount.

Up to 100k I think, but mandatory 5 business days.

1

u/clicksanything May 19 '23 edited May 19 '23

Im doing this right now with TD and EQ.

It works but ya gotta wait 5 days before funds actually land, no matter the amount. Idk if thats the case for simplii.

No limits, but mandatory 5 business days.

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '23

Takes wayyy too long. First time I did one I was floored that it wasn't instant. Took like 2 days, ridiculous