Exchange rates, Payment methods, How to, Transfer fees and much more
Are you looking to send an international money transfer from Canada? If so, you may want to consider Simplii Financial Global Money Transfer. From one of the top online banks in Canada, this is a fairly popular option for sending money to friends or family overseas.
Firstly, what is Simplii Financial? It’s a Canadian bank that operates completely online. It offers services through its website and app with no fees or minimum balance. It’s an easy way to bank and benefits from its association with CIBC, a leading bank.
In 2019, it launched its Simplii Financial Global Money Transfer service. This international money transfer option reaches a network of over 75 countries globally.
If you have a Simplii Financial account, you may send money abroad with the following accounts or lines of credit:
Simplii Global Money Transfer requires a transfer to be at minimum of 100 CAD. You can send a maximum of $30,000 CAD in a 24 hour timeframe. Do note that there may be a limit in your recipient’s country on how much they can receive. In particular, China has a limit of CAD $6,000. For Indonesia and Vietnam the transfer limit is CAD $5,000 per transfer.
Simplii does not cap how many transfers you can do in a day, so send as many as you like.
Simplii Financial boasts that its global money transfer allows clients to “send money internationally with no transfer fees”. But is this accurate?
In fact, there is no fee for sending a transfer through this service once you have an eligible Simplii bank account. Simplii is able to offer this as it makes money in another way, i.e. by charging a margin on the exchange rate it offers. In some cases there is also a fee charged by the recipient’s bank for receiving the transfer.
Pros
No fees for online banking
Tracking transfers through online banking and app
Ability to do all your banking and money transfers in same place
Large number of countries covered
Cons
Customer service can have its issues
Must have a Simplii Financial bank account to send
No physical branches
Exchange rates are not transparent
Here's a breakdown of how it works:
Simplii’s international money transfer exchange rates are not published, but it is known that the bank does not use the real exchange rate.
The real exchange rate is also called the mid-market rate. It is the rate used by banks globally among themselves for large transactions. You may see it quoted when you search for today’s exchange rate in a search engine. However, when banks like Simplii exchange money for you, they do not use this rate.
Simplii takes security seriously, although it has had a major security breach in 2018 when hackers were able to access some accounts’ information. This is probably the reason why it now has a high standard of encryption for access to the service.
In practice, this means that your confidential information and data is scrambled when connecting to the bank's server. This way no outside parties can decipher it. Simplii also makes it mandatory for your browser to use 128-bit encryption. This is the highest level available. In addition to all of this, Simplii has a Digital Banking Guarantee, so if you are a victim of fraud you can get your money back.
You can contact Simplii Financial in several ways.
Telephone 1-888-723-8881Email:
[email protected]
Chat:
You can chat with a live agent on www.simplii.com
If you already have an account, sign in to chat securely. Online chat is available Monday to Friday from 7 am to 12 am ET and on Saturdays, Sunday and holidays from 9 am to 6 pm ET.
By Post:Although Simplii has no physical branches, you can mail to Simplii Financial, P.O. Box 603, Stn. Agincourt, Scarborough, ON M1S 5K9
Simplii Financial started in 2017. Although this seems like a short time to have been in operation, it actually isn’t that new.
Simplii is owned by the bank CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce). CIBC and Loblaws were partners previously. As part of their partnership, Loblaws operated an online bank called PC Financial. PC Financial, or President’s Choice, was founded in 1996 as a low cost banking option. As with Simplii today, the customers of PC Financial could use CIBC ATMs at no charge.
When these two partners split, CIBC took control of the bank and rebranded it as Simplii Financial.
It does not offer small business or other accounts, but is primarily geared towards individuals who need simple banking services.
You may be surprised to hear that Simplii is actually rated as one of the top banks for new immigrants to Canada. It is also rated a top Canadian bank by Forbes magazine. Since CIBC owns Simplii, you get the benefit of having free access to CIBC ATMs. It also frequently has offers for new signups, such as a bonus for signing up for a new chequing account. If you choose to sign up for a savings account, you will have access to a high rate of interest on your money.
For international students there is a special International Student GIC Program offered by Simplii. It helps students in the Student Direct Stream (SDS) get their study permit. The account also has no fees and you can apply for it before you arrive in Canada.
The two ways to sign up are either by calling or applying online. If you choose Simplii remember you will need to be able to understand how to do all your transactions online. There is a large help section on the bank’s website to make this easier. The bank’s services are also not available in Quebec.