Talk:Interac

message: Friends in Canada tell me that Interac does not allow Canadians to use their debit cards for internet purchases; certainly the Canadian Amazon site won't take them. If this is indeed so, it ought to be mentioned in this article (probably under "Services not offered..."), since it's a fairly major restriction; in a number of countries (such as here in Britain), debit cards are extremely popular for online shopping. Loganberry (Talk) 23:54, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Interac can be used online. Interac Online  Sample list of online retailers Participating Retailers Ice-Wolf 17:09, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: "Interac Online" is not the same product as "Interac" (the core-brand debit card system) or the Certapay e-mail transfer, even though they're promoted by the same firm. Every Canadian bank issues the debit card, but only some of the big five (and almost none of the small institutions) support this "Interac Online" - a very rarely-used service available at far fewer retailers. The core-brand product is an ATM-style debit card with a chip; it's inherently for card-present transactions only. It has pretty much killed supermarket-issued "cheque cashing cards" (the grocer has no reason to take a cheque if they can get paid in real time) but does nothing for MOTO vendors. K7L (talk) 02:48, 27 June 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: The problem with a classic and obsolete type of debit card like Interac is that it is a regular batch ID card with whatever bank logo painted on it; it does not carry VISA nor MASTER logos, neither has those capabilities. Therefore, it does not have the convenience of a more secured and modern debit card like the ones I have used and seen from Bank of America in the USA and banks from DEVELOPING COUNTRIES in Central America. This is why these Canadian banks' Interac debit cards are not accepted for purchase over the internet; and they may not be welcomed at a merchant's POS machine overseas. These Interac debit cards are the type that Christopher Columbus used when he discovered Canada (a joke because he never did). I believe the main reason for local banks in Canada to protect their Interac system to the detriment of their own customers is because they do not want to pay royalties for using Visa or Mastercard; by this, they leave you no option but to apply for one of their Credit Card, which of course it is a much better business for them. One more thing I would like to add in case you have no credit at all, the only option left is the expensive rated Prepaid Credit Cards offered by banks like Bank of Montreal. Josh Selva (Montreal, Quebec; Canada)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Joshselva (talk • contribs) 16:15, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Chargex and MasterCharge take a percentage of each transaction from the merchant, not just a fixed fee. Vendors selling large items on narrow margins (such as desktop PCs) competitively resent the added cost. They tolerate Visa/MC because they have to, but (like shoplifting) everyone pays. K7L (talk) 02:48, 27 June 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Most major Canadian banks now have Visa debit cards that can be used online.  They are connected to bank accounts via Interac and work exactly the same way as a credit card, only funds are withdrawn from bank account immediately.  Works handy dandy  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.157.171.231 (talk) 19:58, 15 June 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Online purchases? 

message: I came to this article looking for the English training company from Japan. I was going to make a disambiguation link, but there's no article to link to and all I know about the company is that it exists.--Dustin Asby 20:40, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Interac Japan 

message: I've removed the "Criticisms" section from the article and moved it here for discussion. The removed text is as follows:"One criticism of debit cards is that they slow down checkout lineups overall.  When using a PSTN-based Interac terminal, the steps required to swipe the card, enter the PIN, and have the transaction verified and approved remotely can sometimes be significantly slower than a cash transaction, even when change must be fumbled with, or even a credit card transaction. Some merchants, such as Tim Hortons, openly refuse to accept IDP in most provinces for that reason.Another criticism of debit cards is that they actually do not help with money management and actually mask the act of spending money.  Consumers don't give or receive a tangible monetary device like paper or coin money and thus may find difficulty in tracking funds.  Coupled with in some cases banking fees for using debit transactions, consumers may find it less significant to make several little electronic purchases throughout the day. The true cost is not fully appreciated until they receive their bank statement at the end of the month."This section has no citations, borders on original research (re: wait times), and - as with most "Criticisms" sections - is open to abuse. Please don't interpret this as an attempt to censor critical assessments of the system - they certainly have a valid place in the article. However, such analysis, as with any information in a Wikipedia article, needs to come from a verified third-party source. Thoughts? --Ckatzchatspy 00:26, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Works for me. --GreenJoe 00:59, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: One problem... by removing the "criticisms" and leaving a rather long laudatory section, the article is now imbalanced in such as way as to be tagged as "this section unduly promotional". K7L (talk) 02:42, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

text: The bit about "wait times" is *not* original research... Timmy's at one point was prominently posting in-store signage claiming to not accept card payments for this very reason. That said, Tim Horton did reverse their stance when the RFID "tap and go" functionality was introduced, and Interac did buy adverts touting this fact. I've had at least one local merchant complain that RFID tap-and-go was actually costing them more per-transaction than chip-and-PIN on the same cards, but any discussion of point-of-sale debit for small (buck or two) transactions will need to be updated, with RFID "tap" transactions as the supposed game-changer. 66.102.87.40 (talk) 06:10, 31 March 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removal of the "Criticisms" section 

message: From the article:
:Since its national launch in 1994, Interac Direct Payment has become so widespread that, since 2001, more transactions in Canada were completed using debit cards than cash.
This line appears to directly contradicts the statement from the Bank of Canada in 2011 when they launched the new $100 banknote <http://www.bankofcanada.ca/2011/11/speeches/bank-note-launch/>:
:Reports of the death of cash are greatly exaggerated: Our research shows that cash is used for more than half of all shopping transactions.
While not explicitly stated, "our research" is presumably in reference to the 2009 Methods of Payment survey commissioned by the bank; an overview of which can be found at <http://www.bankofcanada.ca/2012/09/publications/research/discussion-paper-2012-6/>.  From that paper:
:Cash prevails for transactions up to $25, accounting for 76 per cent of all transactions below $15, and for 49 per cent of those in the $15 to $25 dollar range.  Debit cards do not dominate in any transaction range, whereas credit cards clearly dominate payments above $50.
The cited article merely says that "IDP surpasses cash as Canadians' preferred way to pay for purchases."  It doesn't seem to follow from the citation that more transactions in Canada were done using Interac than with cash. Draconx (talk) 17:51, 9 October 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Interac used for more transactions than cash? 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Interac. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20070930222329/http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/December2005/26/c3811.html to http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/December2005/26/c3811.html
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thread_title:  External links modified