Update: "INTERAC e-Transfer Service Update Statement"
After significant progress made overnight in addressing the internal technical issue affecting the INTERAC e-Transfer service, we anticipate that we'll be able to bring the service back online later today. Our top priority is making the INTERAC e-Transfer service fully operational and stable as quickly as possible."
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People who rely on the Interac e-Transfer service to pay their rent and other bills were greeted with an error message (like the one above) when accessing the service from apps or websites hosted by their respective financial institutions.
At 9 a.m. on Saturday, Interac posted the following via Facebook: "INTERAC e-Transfer update: Our teams have made progress overnight and continue to work around the clock to bring the service back online so that we can again begin processing transactions efficiently. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused while the service remains offline. We will provide more detailed updates as we receive them."
The service was shut off Friday at 4:15 p.m. "to allow us to best address technical difficulties with the service," according to a service update on the Interac website, and has blocked transactions ever since. Some customers claim that Interac knew of the problem well before that time and should not have accepted transactions and the fees associated with them.
Interac e-Transfer users are hopping mad. Posted Jessica Baum, "Can't believe it's been over a day with their services down over a holiday and at the end of the month while people need to desperately get paid and pay bills and rent with still no progress this is absolutely ridiculous so frustrated my whole weekend is ruined because of this."
Amanda Nagy-Durante added this post to the Interac Facebook page: "I have a child to feed, rent to pay and a car payment! Not only will I get dinged for not making my payments on time I'll also get dinged NSF. Thanks interact [sic]! Happy Canada day!"
Another user, Steven J Taylor wondered what would happen to the transaction fees and other associated costs with the interruption in service, stating that the technical problems began as far back as Thursday evening. "At 18:39 Toronto time on June 29, 2017, Interac tweeted that they're having technical difficulties and the service was offline. Even though they knew that there was a problem, they still let people attempt to transfer funds knowing full well that most, if not all, of them, would not be able to be retrieved by the recipient.
"They have taken in all of these transaction fees and not completed the transactions. Now the senders can't even cancel their money transfers and people have their money held in limbo. A lot of these people, senders and recipients alike, are incurring fees for bounced payments or no way to pay their rent or other bills."
The Interac service update also states: "This is an internal technical issue which has resulted in transactional delays, causing a number of transfers to be suspended. The system and data remains secure.
"Financial institutions will not be able to process any transactions while we have the system offline, nor will consumers be able to send or receive any Interac e-Transfer transactions.
"Our top priority is making the Interac e-Transfer service fully operational as quickly as possible. We are working closely with our technology partners and making every effort to bring the platform back up so that we can again begin processing transactions efficiently. Any transfers currently in transit are secure and will be processed when the system is back online."
