Interac expands email transfers to cellphones

You daughter needs money at the mall? Your son needs extra cash at university? Or you want to repay a friend who bought you tickets to the theatre.

Canada’s largest debit-card payment network said Tuesday it’s expanding its email money transfer product to allow consumers to be notified by their mobile phone number when funds are being transferred.

“By expanding Interac e-Transfer into the mobile space, we are giving consumers more flexibility to make person-to-person payments quickly and securely,” Mark O’Connell, president and chief executive officer of Acxsys Corp. and Interac Association said in a statement.

Two credit unions, one in B.C. and one in Ontario, are the first to adopt the new functionality of Interac e-Transfer, a product Interac has renamed to reflect the fact that it expanding its existing email money transfer service to include mobile phone numbers.

“This is the logical evolution of mobile banking and as more retailers and financial institutions adopt mobile payments, the potential impact for consumers is virtually limitless,” says Oscar van der Meer, chief technology officer for Central 1 Credit Union.

Before Tuesday’s announcement, some customers of some banks could access Interac’s email money transfer product through a web-enabled phone if their bank had developed a mobile application for the bank’s online services.

Only a third of the 22 million wireless accounts in Canada are attached to smart phones such as the BlackBerry or iPhone, according to Central 1. That means there are a lot more people who could benefit from a service that can be retrieved with a text message, van der Meer said.

The Interac e-Transfer service will be free of charge at Hamilton-based Teachers Credit Union of Ontario until June 30, when a fee, likely of $1, will be introduced, said marketing manager Jane Morreale.

A demo on the Teachers’ credit union web site explains how the service works: Ben logs onto his mobile banking on his smart phone and selects Interac e-Transfer. He identifies the recipient, Sandra, by her email address or mobile phone number. Ben enters the amount to be sent, selects the account and confirms the transaction.

About 30 minutes later, Sandra receives an email or text message or both notifying her that the funds are available. Once she answers a security question, the funds are deposited into her account. She does not have to be a customer of the same financial institution.

Interac’s e-Transfer is integrated with existing web-based banking and is a secure way to make payments, Interac said.

The money doesn’t travel by email or text message. The sender’s and recipient’s financial institutions transfer the funds using established and secure banking procedures.

Personal information such as the address, phone number or bank accounts are not shared and remain private.