When I previously had to send money from Ireland to Canada used to take me around four if not five business days.
It was a disaster, especially if I needed the money urgently.
When I arrived in Vancouver, I sent some money over thinking that it would only take 1-2 days as it does for sending money from Ireland to Oz but how wrong I was.
I have used CurrencyFair since 2013 and you will see it mentioned quite regularly on this site.
It was still WAY cheaper than banks and if you are still using a bank to bank transfers then shame on you.
I don’t want to lecture anyone, but you are literally losing hundreds of valuable drinking $’s on fees and crappy exchange rates.
So recently, I was delighted to hear that CurrencyFair has reduced there transfer times from the long three-day mark to less than one day(depending on the time you transfer it from your CurrencyFair account).
This makes it much more convenient to send money from Ireland to Canda.
Here is what happened recently when I was sending money from Ireland to Canada:
So I sent €1000 from my Bank of Ireland account on Monday morning Irish time, it arrived later that day in my CurrencyFair account.
- Total cost so far $0
Once it arrived in my Currencyfair account, I exchanged it to CAD(the Euro is doing pretty well right now!).
- Total cost so far $0
Got an excellent rate at the time and pressed transfer to my CIBC bank account.
- Total cost $5 (fixed transfer fee in CAD no matter how much you send)
Voila, Tuesday afternoon(Canada time) I got the money in my account *Mind blown*.
Usually, I would get it Thursday/Friday if I was lucky. It was really bad.
Delighted it only takes this long now.
Sign up here, and you can get your first ten transfers for free!
A few things to keep in mind when you send money from Ireland to Canda:
- If you send money, say after 3 pm(I think) Irish time it won’t get sent to CurrencyFair until the next day.
- So technically the money should arrive latest Tuesday at some stage.
- If you send money Friday the market closes and you can’t exchange your currency until Sunday 4 pm.
- If it is your first time with CurrencyFair, you can get your first ten transfers for free with this link.
- Keep in mind it can take a few days once you first register as you need proof of ID, address, bank details and all that jazz.
The other thing to keep in mind is as you will be sending it from your Irish account you will need to add a new PAYE.
- This is a pain if you are already in Canada and don’t have your Irish sim card, anymore.
- With most banks, you need a text verification(dose). So just make sure that you set up everything before you get to Canada or expect to add a day or two ringing banks and all that.
- Trust me once you get set up you can do everything from your phone in less than one minute(it literally takes that long!).
- You can also set up an auto transfer which I have done in the past. It automatically exchanges and transfers the money to your account as soon as it is available.
- I haven’t used this yet as I think you have to be logged in on a computer to do it. But I’d imagine it would be even faster!
- Another note on text verification: If you set up your CurrencyFair account in Ireland remember that to access it in Canada you will probably need a text verification.
- However, if you select remember this device it normally will not require a text verification.
- Just do it on both laptop and phone as sometimes the phone can expire and then you have to call them and change your number, the joys of it.
- The above are all little things, but when you need to the money as fast as possible, it is a bi**h to have to stress about text verifications or not having your bank account added.
- I haven’t needed to send money from Canada to Ireland yet, but I know with CIBC that they certainly won’t make it easy. I think you have to go into the branch or something. They have relatively backwards banking in fairness.
What else do I need to know about how to send money from Ireland to Canada?
Good question!
My advice to you is just to get it all set up day 1, and when you need to transfer the money from Ireland to Canada(or pretty much anywhere in the world), it will be a million times easier and less stressful.
Their customer support is excellent and if you try and call them in Ireland and customer service is offline I find I can always get through on their Australia number with the different time zones.
I have used to them to send money from Australia, Ireland and to Canada, saved myself $1000’s over the years.
Once you use them, you will wonder why oh why did I use banks in the past!
Sign up here get yourself set up, and you will also get your first transfer for free saving an incredible $5(haha it all adds up I suppose)
You might also want to read Irish Around Oz’s money transfer guide or Sunset Traveller’s have a great post on sending money to Canada.
What if I am not with Bank of Ireland or CIBC :O
I have only tested it personally on my own accounts, but I am sure it will be similar to all the others.
Below is the message they sent out to me at the beginning of October:
We’ve partnered with a new payment provider to give you access to quicker and cheaper Canadian transfers.
What does this mean for you?
1. No more additional fees on transfers into Canadian Dollars
This means when transferring Canadian Dollars to a Canadian bank, you will no longer be subject to intermediary costs and receiving bank charges. So the amount you transfer is the amount received.
2. Same day transfers now available to all major Canadian banks
This new payment provider works with all major Canadian banks which means we can offer same day transfers to our customers. So as well as no more additional 3rd party fees, now your transfers arrive sooner!
On a final note about how to send money from Ireland to Canada
Yes, there are other companies like Transferwise, OFX etc. They aren’t bad by any means. I just personally use CurrencyFair and found that even when I compared the rates with TransferWise on day one, it was still cheaper.
It was only a few $’s but still why pay more for something that does the same thing lol.
If you are doing transfers in the $5k+ mark, I would suggest OFX as they give you a dedicated broker who gives you a more personal trade. Plus valuable advice on how the market is doing. You can get free transfers for life over $1000 with this link.
That’s all folks, sorry the blog hasn’t been updated in so long, but I am getting around to it. 🙂
Good luck and hope this has helped clear any confusion you had about how to send money from Ireland to Canada.
Be sure to leave your comment below on your own experiences or join my new Irish Around Canada Facebook group here.
All the best,
Stephen