What you need to know about Interac e-Transfer

An Interac e-Transfer is a fast, secure and convenient way for BC Hydro to send you money from within the security of your online banking service. It uses email for fast notification that your reward payment has been sent, while the participating financial institutions transfer the funds using established and secure banking procedures.
 

Please note the following to ensure you get the most out of the Interac e-Transfer experience:

• If you don't have online banking set up, we recommend avoiding a setup fee for the Interac transaction by setting up online banking at your banking institution in advance of selecting the Interac option.
• For your security, we do not have access to the Interac e-Transfer security question or the password you created.
• Make your security question clear, but not obvious. It's vital to the security of your transfer. Security question answers must be a minimum of four characters long, with no spaces, but aren't case sensitive.
• Do not you use special characters (e.g. &, $, @, #, “) in your password. The Interac system does not recognize these special characters and replaces them with a space. This creates a discrepancy between the password in the system and what you thought was your password.
• If the password is entered incorrectly three times or if the rebate payment is not accepted within 30 days, the payment will fail and will be issued using an alternate method.

Alternative payment methods in situations when Interac e-Transfer payment fails

If the rebate value is equal to or greater than $300, or is funded by FortisBC, payment will be issued via cheque. If the rebate value is less than $300, the rebate amount will be applied as a credit on your BC Hydro bill. This may take between six to eight weeks to show up on your bill based on your billing cycle.

Team Power Smart reward

• We'll pay the Team Power Smart reward to the administrator of the account. That's probably you, but there's a chance an account viewer – usually someone else in your household – may have been given access to the account to track electricity use. If so, contact the account administrator to ensure they're aware they'll be receiving the Challenge reward.
• If you choose the Interac e-Transfer option, the administrator of the account will get an email from Interac within a week that includes a link to quickly and securely transfer the reward amount to a bank account. Note that Interac e-Transfers of Team Power Smart rewards are only done through email, and not by text, and that you can never make payments to BC Hydro via Interac.

Home Renovation Rebates Program – rebate payment

• Applications may take up to 90 days to process from the date the completed application package is received.
• We’ll pay the Home Renovation Rebates Program rebate payment to the program participant noted on the application form.
• After your application has been reviewed and approved and if you choose the Interac e-Transfer option, the program participant will get an email from Interac that includes a link to quickly and securely transfer the rebate amount to a bank account. Note that Interac e-Transfers of Home Renovation Rebate Program are only done through email, and not by text, and that you can never make payments to BC Hydro via Interac.

Appliance Rebate Program – rebate payment

• Applications for rebates must be received by BC Hydro within 60 days of purchase.
• If Interac e-Transfer is selected as the rebate method the transferred money goes to the bank account of the customer, who in most cases is also the account holder. Once your application has been reviewed and approved it will take up to one-week to receive your Interact e-Transfer payment email.

A note about scams and BC Hydro

You can never use Interac to pay your BC Hydro bill, and you'll never get a text message of any kind related to BC Hydro from Interac, which only uses email for BC Hydro transactions. Please note that BC Hydro also does not use cash gift cards or Bitcoin ATMs for payment of BC Hydro bills.

• See the latest information on recent scams in which fraudsters pose as BC Hydro customer service agents.
• See the Canadian Bankers Association's excellent advice on how to spot a fraudulent email (phishing).