Hurlabrick

An earlier and more primitive version of CHAPS. Canadian banks do not have a 'cross-bank' service like the marvellous UK BACS organisation and facilities (Interac is the closest we have to BACS).

Pulaski

A "wire" is somewhat similar to CHAPS in that it is money sent electronically, but a wire is broader and doesn't require the banks at either end to be a "member" of any clearing house or exchange, other than standard inter-bank communication systems. So if you need to send money to some with an account at a bank in Senegal or Papua New Guinea, you can go to your bank and tell them that you need to send the money, who to send it to, at which bank and in which city and country, and, rather like mailing a check, the bank will send it for you.

eversmannx

got it (somewhat :-))

so when tangerine say "Free Interac e-Transfer®" --- they are fine for regular online transfers like BACS here.
only complication is international transfers + any one of situations like Hurlabrick canadian house sale scenario.

from my personal experience in UK, a high street bank like natwest offer a good package for tenner a month with some perks, and i use a modern mobile bank like starling for day to day. I am picturing RBC + Tangerine the same way.
However, looking at RBC - they dont seem to have many outside perks (like mobile insurance, breakdown cover). Also assume there are no benefits in choosing the bank with other products like credit card in mind? (like going for Tangerine, and getting credit card with RBC).

Hurlabrick

Correct.

TW do not use the money markets to actually change 'your' GBP into CAD. Instead, the 'match' your GBP with corresponding deposits in their CAD account (from Canadian customers wanting to exchange into other currencies) and so pay the CAD directly from one of their Canadian bank accounts, so can use intra-Canada banking facilities to do this (I believe the 'behind the scenes', TW have CAD bank accounts with most of the major Canadian banks - Tangerine are affiliated with and use Scotiabank).

IF you did use on the of the 'true' FOREX companies (or a UK bank), they WILL use the money markets and will 'wire transfer your money to your Canadian bank account. Such a transfer would NOT work with Tangerine.

As regards Canadian house sales, IF the lawyer happens to use the same bank as you, then they can easily transfer the money as it is in the same banks systems. But often you will be using different banks, so their options are either use a bankers draft (common over here, very rare in the UK) OR do a wire transfer. Bankers drafts are pretty normal in Canada for larger transactions - I recently bought a secondhand car for the wife (very nice MX5) privately and had to use a bankers draft for the $8k it cost.

eversmannx

Congratulations btw! it's a fantastic car!!!