3 Reasons to Offer eTransfers

Canada’s email money transfer (EMT) service, commonly known as eTransfer and owned by Interac, has beensteadily growing in popularity since its launch in 2003. By allowing Canadians to send money to another person’s email or telephone number through their financial institution, Interac simplified the process of making payments digitally long before Venmo or CashApp came along for our American neighbours.

Here are 3 main advantages to offering EMT for your customers:

High Rate of Adoption:

Payments Canada reported that online eTransfers as a form of payment increased by 469% in 2021 and that trend continues to this year. Unlike using a credit card, eTransfers use money you have in your bank account making them a more fiscally responsible option for your customers.

Fast Settlement Time:

EMTs settle in minutes if not seconds. Unlike electronic funds transfers (EFTs) or Bill Pay which can take 1 business day to settle, eTransfers offer a quick way for your customers to push a payment to you in near real-time.

More Secure Against Fraud:

When your customer pays you via EMT, they are logging into their bank account and pushing the payment to your business. For this reason, they are a much more secure method of payment than EFTs where you are using their account information to pull the funds. In Canada, every financial institution is required to return EFT funds if an individual claims the funds were taken in error or maliciously within 90 days of the transaction. We have seen this 90-day claw-back regulation being misused by fraudsters to buy online goods and services (for example) via EFT, only to claim that the EFT was taken in error and have their funds returned to them after receiving the goods – then they are in the wind with both the goods and their funds. We have security measures in place to ensure these instances of EFT claw-backs do not halt your transactions, but they can negatively impact your bottom line in cases of fraud as assessed by the financial institution.

With Apaylo’s merchant account, you can set up your business to accept payments via eTransfer right on your app or website. This versatile, secure method of payment can help you scale your business and appeal to a growing swath of the Canadian market.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business grow!