Canada’s CashApp

E-transfers are easy enough. Alongside Interac the Canadian Banks were about 10 years ahead of their US counterparts with regards to creating a secure infrastructure for a peer-to-peer payment system. All you need is someone’s email address and a few clicks later, they’ve received the money you sent. It doesn’t work like that in the US. That created the need for third party apps like Venmo (owned by Paypal) and CashApp (owned by Square) that allow people to safely transfer money to one another.

Since Canada had Interac E-transfers there was never really a need for a Canadian CashApp, so to speak. And then came WealthSimple Cash.

WealthSimple is a Canadian Online Investment service mostly known for their commission free trading. They also have a decent checking and savings account with comparable interest rates. With WealthSimple Cash, they’re providing an alternative to what is pretty much a monopoly.

WealthSimlple Cash (doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue) is a well thought out app with a user-friendly interface. The main difference between this system and e-transfers is you have a dedicated app for transferring and requesting money. There’s also a social aspect that WealthSimple have added, which allows you to have a profile picture and handle. This makes things a little less awkward when requesting money that your siblings, friends or co-workers “forgot” to pay you back.

While I don’t think it’s a game changer yet, I do believe it will provide small businesses and entrepreneurs with payment that is much quicker to process, since Paypal takes what feels like a fiscal quarter to deposit funds.

Right now WealthSimple’s Cash app is in beta, so while they test out the mechanics it’s invite only. If you’re interested in testing it out message me for a referral code (you’ll also get $5 for signing up).