Informally, a senior banker once told me that Interac E-transfer reduces bank transfer costs to less than a penny each. The $1-1.50 fee is pure profit, hence the availability of unlimited transaction plans.

For comparison, Square, which usually charges 2.65% of each transaction only charges a flat 10 cents for contactless Interac payments. Not technically e-transfers, but one imagines that the pricing model is roughly the same per transaction.

I should point out that Interac as a method of direct payment to online merchants by clicking a button on your vendor’s website/invoice has not had as much success. Only two banks and a handful of credit unions supported Interac Online Payment when I last checked, while basically all banks and credit unions in Canada now support Interac E-transfer. Going to a website and clicking Pay and signing in with your bank account to initiate the payment isn’t supported by most banks. Instead, the Interac E-transfer has to be initiated or responded to via the bank’s website. It also has nothing to do with the bill payments system, which often uses “EFT” (the Canadian version of “ACH”) to pay utility bills, etc.