Interac e-Transfer: How to Send, Receive and Request Money, Fees and Timing

Interac e-Transfer is a way to send money to anyone in Canada from online or mobile banking, using the recipient’s email address or mobile number, and the participating bank or credit union moves the money. Interac says the transaction limits are set by your financial institution, and that any institution may change its service plans and fees. This page covers sending, receiving, Autodeposit, the security question, Request Money, what each bank says it charges, how long a transfer takes and why one fails.

What is Interac e-Transfer?

The service carries Interac’s name, but the money moves between the sender’s and the recipient’s financial institutions over existing payment networks. To send one, you need online banking at a participating bank or credit union. The email or text message is the notice, not the payment: Interac says “Money never travels by email or text”, and the message carries the deposit instructions.

Interac also says it “does not hold funds and is unable to trace funds”, so a problem with a transfer is reported to your own financial institution, which holds the account. Interac’s own explanations are on interac.ca.

How do you send an e-Transfer?

Interac’s help page gives the steps this way:

1. Sign in to your bank’s or credit union’s online or mobile banking.
2. Choose the Interac e-Transfer option for sending money.
3. Add the recipient’s email address or mobile number.
4. Enter the amount, within your bank’s limit (compared on e-Transfer limits by bank).
5. If the recipient isn’t registered for Autodeposit, set a security question and its answer: the sender sets the question when sending the transfer.
6. Send the transfer.

One bank’s send page says the money is withdrawn from the sender’s account as soon as the transfer is sent (the bank’s page).

How do you receive an e-Transfer?

With Autodeposit. If you are registered for Autodeposit, Interac says money sent to you is deposited into your account automatically. How that works is under Autodeposit.

Without Autodeposit. You deposit the money through online or mobile banking: click the link in the notice, choose your financial institution, sign in and pick the account it goes into. You answer the sender’s security question along the way.

Declining. To decline, open the link in the notice, sign in, answer the security question and choose to decline. Interac says “A decline is irreversible”: the sender gets a notice and is asked to deposit the money back into the original account. Someone with no online banking at a participating institution can tell the sender they won’t accept it, and the sender can then cancel the transfer and reclaim the money.

What is Autodeposit and how do you register?

Interac says whether Autodeposit is offered, and how you register, varies by financial institution. The usual route, in Interac’s description, is to sign in to online or mobile banking, open your Interac e-Transfer profile settings, add the email address or mobile number you want to use, choose the account the money goes into, and confirm the verification request you receive.

Registration is for that email address or number: money sent to it then goes straight into your account, while a transfer that arrives another way goes through the question and answer. One bank’s page adds that the same email address or phone number can’t be registered for Autodeposit on more than one account (the bank’s page).

How does the security question work?

The sender writes a question and its answer when sending the transfer, as what Interac calls “an additional security measure to validate that only the sender’s intended recipient can collect” the money. Interac says the answer may be passed on by phone or in person and should never be sent by email or text message.

Two rules from Interac’s help page: answers are “not case sensitive”, and they “cannot contain special characters”, such as @ or &. A recipient registered for Autodeposit isn’t asked the question. One bank lists a recipient who can’t give the right answer among the reasons a transfer comes back, covered under when a transfer fails.

How does Request Money work?

Request Money is an Interac e-Transfer feature that lets you send a request for funds. Once the request is paid and the money is in your account, Interac says you get a notice by text or email. Someone who receives requests can opt out of requests from one requester, or of the service completely, from the page where the request is paid.

Interac says your bank or credit union may charge a fee for Interac e-Transfer Request Money. CIBC’s row in the fee table covers sending money or a request. A notice you weren’t expecting that money has been sent can be a scam; see e-Transfer scams.

What does an e-Transfer cost at each bank?

Interac says depositing an Interac e-Transfer through online banking at a participating financial institution has no fee; any financial institution may change its service plans and fee structure at any time, and your bank or credit union can tell you about potential fees. Whether sending costs anything depends on the bank and the account: some banks include it in an account or plan and list a fee otherwise, and at Scotiabank a sent e-Transfer counts toward the debit transactions included each month. The table gives what each bank says, linked to its page.

Checked against each bank's page on October 19, 2026.

At BMO, sending is included at no additional cost in its Bank Plans (two plans have transaction limits) and the fee schedule lists a per-transfer fee; at CIBC it is included with select accounts and a per-transfer fee is listed otherwise; TD’s per-transfer fee doesn’t apply on the accounts and plans its row lists. Neo’s row gives its fee before January 1, 2027 and the fee it has announced from that date. How account plans and their included transactions work is on bank fees.

How long does an e-Transfer take?

With Autodeposit, Interac says the money is deposited into the recipient’s account automatically. Without it, the money waits until the recipient deposits it, and a transfer nobody picks up within 30 days expires (see when a transfer fails).

For a transfer that seems stuck, the sender’s or recipient’s own bank or credit union is the one to look into it, since Interac says it cannot trace funds. Interac gives every transfer a unique reference number, used to identify and track it.

Why did an e-Transfer fail, bounce or expire?

One bank’s send page lists four reasons a transfer may not be processed, and says the money then goes back into the sender’s account automatically, which may take up to 30 days (the bank’s page):

• The recipient declined it. Interac says a decline is irreversible, and the sender is asked to deposit the money back into the original account.
• It wasn’t deposited in time. If a transfer is not picked up within 30 days, the sender receives a notice that it has expired and instructions on how to reclaim the funds.
• The contact details didn’t work: the email address or mobile number entered for the recipient was invalid.
• The recipient couldn’t answer the security question correctly.

How much each bank lets you send is on e-Transfer limits by bank.

A transfer that hasn’t been deposited may be cancellable, covered at cancelling a payment. Money deposited by the wrong person is covered at money sent to the wrong account.

How much can you send?

Interac says the transaction limits are set by your financial institution. Interac says it cannot assist with limit increases and points customers to their financial institution. Each bank’s e-Transfer limits, and what it says about changing them, are compared on e-Transfer limits by bank.

e-Transfer scams

Scams can imitate an e-Transfer message: Interac says fraudsters send authentic-looking emails or texts that appear to come from legitimate companies, and to be suspicious of a notice you weren’t expecting. Interac’s advice for a notice you weren’t expecting is to contact the sender, and if you can’t confirm it, to forward it to [email protected]; Interac also says it does not hire transfer agents. The kinds of e-Transfer fraud and what to do after one are on banking fraud protection.

Related pages

• e-Transfer limits by bank
• Ways to move money
• Cancelling a payment
• Wire transfers
• Bank drafts and certified cheques
• Sending money abroad
• Pre-authorized debits
• Bank fees
• Banking fraud protection