Interac Casinos with Instant Withdrawal (2024)
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If you're Canadian, or have at least resided in the country, you can't have not come across the name Interac. Whether you're making an electronic payment, transferring funds, or even buying a ticket on public transit, chances are you've used the services of Interac. This payment service is ubiquitous in the country аnd allows Canadians instant and cheap online payments and fund transfers. Of course, you can expect that if an online casino offers its services in Canada, it will have included this popular and convenient option in the list of available payment methods.
Interac is an interbank network that links financial institutions and other enterprises for the purpose of exchanging electronic financial transactions. Interac serves as the Canadian debit card system and the predominant funds transfer network via its e-Transfer service.
Currently, 83 local banks and other financial institutions participate in the Interac network. It also includes over 59,000 automated teller machines (АТМs) in the country, as well as over 450,000 merchant locations accepting Interac debit payments.
Interac isn't just the Canadian equivalent of debit cards like Visa and MasterCard. Interac offers three main services that allow payments to be made, including to online casinos that accept some or all of these methods – Interac Debit, Interac e-Transfer and Interac Online.
Interac Debit, or Interac Direct Payment, is a PIN-based system where the information entered on the PIN pad is encrypted and verified at a central server, rather than being stored on the card itself. Customers enter their personal identification number (PIN) and the amount paid is deducted from either their chequing or savings accounts.
Because of this, it is considered more secure than traditional signature or card-based transactions. But the system is not immune to the risk of a user's debit card being “skimmed” by a compromised ATM.
Another payment method you are very likely to find at online casinos operating in Canada is Interac e-Transfer. This payment method functions similarly to an e-cheque. The electronic transfer is not of a sum of money but of instructions on how the funds are to be retrieved. But unlike electronic cheques, payment by Interac e-Transfer cannot bounce, because funds are debited from the sender's account immediately upon initiating the transfer.
The sender opens an online banking session and chooses the recipient, the amount to send, as well as a security question and answer. The funds are debited instantly and without additional charges if the recipient is subscribed to online banking at one of the participating financial institutions. The sender sends the security answer separately to the recipient, usually through another medium outside of the e-mail as a secondary security measure. If the recipient's deposit account is not at one of the participating institutions or not subscribed to online banking at all, the funds are deposited within three to five business days, and a surcharge. The service provides for an Autodeposit option that allows the user to receive the withdrawn funds without answering a security question
The third payment method offered by Interac is Interac Online. This is an Online Banking ePayments service, Canadian version of Germany’s Giropay or iDEAL in the Netherlands. Because no financial information is shared with the online merchant, the Interac Online service is considered more secure than online credit card payments.
But while it's possible to come across a casino that still allows deposits and withdrawals via Interac Online, this payment system is now largely irrelevant. The reason is that many of the major banking institutions in Canada are phasing out this method. The reason is Canadian legislation that prohibits the banks from offering two forms of online payment with their debit cards. Many financial institutions prefer to direct their customers to online payments with Visa branded debit cards because it provides them with a higher share of transaction fees than with Interac Online.
As of 2023, the service has been dropped by all major Canadian banks except TD Canada Trust and the First Nations Bank of Canada. At the beginning of the year, Royal Bank of Canada became the latest financial institution in the country to announce that it will no longer support the option to pay for online purchases using the Interac Online Payments service.
In January 2023 the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation dropped all support for Interac Online. According to their site, “Interac Online is being phased out by major financial institutions and will no longer be supported as a payment option for deposits.
With this trend we can expect that in the future casinos offering their services on the Canadian market will stop offering this payment method. But the place of other options offered by Interac seems secure.
In June 2023 Interac Corporation was named Canada's most trusted financial services brand on the annual Gustavson Brand Trust Index for the ninth consecutive year. The company placed 12th in the overall national Most Trusted Brands listing.
The Gustavson Brand Trust Index (GBTI) is a significant research study of 407 national and global brands conducted by the University of Victoria's Gustavson School of Business that explores consumer trust, the factors influencing it, and the brands that excel in building trust.
The importance of this organization is underlined by its long history. This history begins in 1984 when five Canadian financial institutions jointly formed the nonprofit Interac Association. About a decade later, in 1996, the same group of financial institutions founded a for-profit counterpart organization, Acxsys, which launched additional Interac-branded services including e-transfers.
Between 2008 and 2013, there were several failed merger attempts that were blocked by regulators or dissenting network members. The combining of the two organizations took place in early 2018. Interac and Acxsys were merged in the form of a for-profit organization, Interac Corporation.
Interac then continued to expand its services. In 2019, the corporation acquired 2Keys Corporation, Ottawa-based digital identity and cyber security for governments, financial institutions and commercial clients. In 2021, Interac Corporation acquired the exclusive rights to the digital ID services for Canada from the digital ID and authentication provider SecureKey Technologies Inc.
Interac was in an ideal position to take advantage of the acceleration of the digital economy, which received a further boost during the pandemic. Interac's services play a growing role in Canadians' everyday lives as businesses pivoted to digital payments and adapted to consumer behaviors. The company provides streamlined digital experiences, ensuring instant transactions and the safety of personal data. These are of course also the main considerations of players depositing and withdrawing funds from online casinos.
One undeniable advantage of Interac is that transaction costs are very low. Currently, Interest charges $0.020-0.035 for a single contactless transaction under $100. For larger payments, you can again expect fees below $1.
It has become standard for online casinos to absorb transaction fees so that the player pays nothing when depositing or withdrawing funds. Because of the competitiveness of transaction costs, there will be an incentive for casinos to offer Interac as a payment method for their Canadian customers. From a Canadian player's point of view, transactions with Interac have every possible advantage – convenient, secure, instant and at no extra cost. Interac allows you to instantly transfer funds to your online casino balance and start betting without any fuss.
In most cases, withdrawals through Interac are also instant, but in certain situations and depending on the policy of the specific online casino, it may take up to 24 hours to process and complete the transaction.
If this payment method is available to you, Interac is not inferior and often has advantages over the alternatives. Interac allows you to make payments directly from your bank account, but is much faster and cheaper than a standard wire transfer. You can use Interac similarly to a Visa or MasterCard debit card, but unlike them, transactions are instant and costs are lower for both you and the merchant. Interac can also act as an alternative to popular e-wallets and other e-payment systems with all the advantages they have.
To be able to make payments with Interac, you must have a bank account with a Canadian financial institution that participates in the Interac Corporation network. As this applies to most banks in this country, the likelihood of not being able to use Interac is very small. However, you need to check your bank's website or request relevant information from customer support.
The next step is to register an Interac account, which is a simple process requiring only an email or phone number. After logging in to your account at your preferred casino, select the available Interac option in the Deposit menu, enter the required details and select a deposit amount. The funds should appear in your balance immediately and be available for betting.
The withdrawal procedure with Interac is generally just as straightforward, but there may be variations depending on the Terms and Conditions of the specific casino. For example, additional verification of identity or origin of funds may be required as an anti-money laundering and other financial fraud measure.
Of course, Interac has one obvious drawback, which stems from the fact that it is not an international payment system, but a country-specific one. Users outside Canada cannot use Interac's services. But if you are a citizen or resident of Canada you have every incentive to do so. With Interac, depositing and withdrawing funds at an online casino will be just as convenient and fast as any other online purchase or transfer you make in your daily life.
