Cash App is a popular and convenient financial management and money transfer app. We know it’s available in the US, but is Cash App available in Canada?
Cash App isn’t available in Canada. It’s only available in the US and the UK. Will Cash App ever be available in Canada? There is some possibility, but there are no signs as of yet.
Although Cash App isn’t yet available in Canada, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t excellent alternatives that are probably even better than Cash App. But before I show you some excellent Cash App alternatives, let’s answer a few more questions about Cash App in Canada.
Why is Cash App not in Canada?
Some Canadians might want to see Cash App in Canada, but there’s no need for them here. You see, Canada has a robust banking market with more and more digital banks cropping up every year.
More importantly, Canada has the Interac e-transfer system that defeats Cash App’s primary purpose – instant and free money transfers. E-transfers are a great way to send money to personal and business accounts across Canada.
Although e-transfers aren’t free per se, many banks do not charge them or even reimburse them if a third-party institution charged you. The fees themselves are minuscule if you are charged.
To recap, Cash App isn’t in Canada because there’s no real need for them here. Their main purpose – instant money transfers, are already widely available to Canadian people in the form of Interac e-transfers.
Who can open a Cash App account?
Only US and UK residents that are at least 18 years old can open a Cash App account. Additionally, people opening Cash App accounts will also need a US or UK-based phone number, respectively.
There’s really no going around these facts. Even if you manage to open a Cash App account from abroad, you might get it blocked or deleted soon after.
Will Cash App expand to Canada?
Cash App expanded to the UK in April 2018, so maybe there’s some hope for Canadians that want to use the app? If you have American friends who use Cash App and need or want to send money to them frequently, it would be great for you to use the app up north.
And yes, although Cash App has expanded to the UK, they probably won’t extend to Canada anytime soon, if ever. Unlike Chime, another mega popular money management app from the US that recently opened a Vancouver office and started hiring people ahead of their expansion to Canada, Cash App didn’t make or even announce any such moves yet.
Does Canada have Venmo or Zelle?
The answer again is no. Both Venmo and Zelle, although super popular across the border in the United States, are not available in Canada. The answer lies in the fact that Canada already has instant and (mostly) free money transfers.
Venmo and Zelle are so popular in the US that users even coined the term “Venmo me” which entered the mainstream. But, as I already mentioned, they’re not available in Canada.
Cash App alternatives in Canada
Why ask for Cash App when Canada has so many great alternatives. The country’s banking and money transfer apps are abundant, and we’re going to have a look at the best and most popular ones.
PayPal
PayPal is a financial juggernaut with more than 360 million active users worldwide. Yet, it’s suitable for some transactions while really bad for others.
For instance, there are no fees for buying products or services, or if you’re sending or receiving money from friends or family in the same country, ie. Canada.
However, there are fees when there’s currency conversion involved, i.e. from CAD to USD. There’s also a fee when you send a payment to someone in another country or if you receive a payment from someone in another country. In that case, it’s better to use a different service from our list, like the next one on our list.
Wise
- Free personal and business accounts
- Send money to more than 70 countries
- Low and honest fees
- Pay at the real exchange rate
- Card accepted in 200+ countries
- Withdraw money from 2.3 million ATMs
Wise, formerly known as TransferWise, has an intelligent way of moving money abroad. They don’t use an intermediary but instead have an extensive network of offices around the world that they use to send and receive your money.
This makes it possible for them to charge the real mid-market rate. The one that you see when googling for exchange rates. There are no hefty fees and markups. Just a small upfront cost that is clearly visible before making the transfer.
Apart from transferring money without charging you an arm and a leg, Wise offers much more. They have multi-currency accounts for personal and business use, especially for freelancers.
You can get a local account in ten currencies, including the Canadian dollar. And, you can hold and convert money in 54 currencies. With direct debits in the UK, Europe, US, and Canada, paying your bills and subscriptions across currencies is easier than ever.
All in all, it’s a solid account for travelers and people that use multiple currencies or send money abroad frequently.
Read more in our Wise review.
KOHO
- Free, Premium, and Joint account
- Metal card
- Cashback rewards
- Budgeting and analytics
- Early payroll
- Credit building program
- Free e-transfers and ATM withdrawals
KOHO is a digital bank that was founded in 2014 by Daniel Eberhard (CEO), Jonathan Bixby, Joshua Bixby, and Mike Benna. They aren’t a bank but rather an e-money institution.
For that reason, they have partnered with the Peoples Trust to offer free spending and savings accounts coupled with a prepaid Visa card, early payroll, cashback, and a fancy metal card.
With KOHO, you also get free and unlimited Interac e-Transfers. And if you need to send money abroad, they charge only a 1.5% fee, and if you join their Premium account ($9/month, 30-day free trial), the foreign transaction fee is waived altogether.
EQ Bank
- Personal savings accounts
- US dollar account
- Mortgage marketplace
- Invest in GICs
- International money transfers via Wise
- High interest rates
- No monthly or hidden fees
- Free transactions
EQ Bank was founded by Equitable Bank in 2016. Canada’s first digital bank now has more than $6 billion in deposits under its belt. They’ve often voted the best bank in Canada because of their savings accounts with a solid interest rate, no monthly fees, no minimum balances, free bill payments, and free transfers.
EQ’s Savings Plus Account offers one of the highest savings rates in Canada. Its non-promotional savings rate is 1.25%.
It’s an excellent way to diversify your portfolio by investing short or long-term or as a way to hold your funds without any fees in a CDIC insured bank.
Tangerine
- No monthly fee
- Free ATM deposits and withdrawals
- 0.50% interest rate
- No minimum balance
- USD savings accounts
Tangerine is another popular digital bank in Canada that began as ING Direct in 1997. In 2012, ING Direct was acquired by Scotiabank, prompting the name change from ING Direct to Tangerine.
They offer a full range of financial products comparable to traditional banks. Everything from chequing and savings accounts, business accounts, GICs, credit cards, mortgages, lines of credit, and much more. There are also unlimited free e-transfer transactions.
As you can see, you can do everything and then some with this capable digital bank.
Alterna
- Easy to open an account
- 1.00% savings interest rate
- No-fee checking account
- No minimum balance
- Free unlimited e-transfers
- 3.300+ ATMs
Alterna is a great alternative to Cash App and the big five banks of Canada. They offer a no-fee eChequing account, no monthly account fees or minimum balance. Alterna also offers all sorts of savings accounts.
The company developed Canada’s first end-to-end digital mortgage – a convenient way to apply without going through brokers.
All your deposits in various chequing and savings accounts are insured to a maximum of $100,000 by the CDIC.
The bottom line
Although Cash App isn’t available in Canada, there’s plenty of great alternatives on the market that offer far more features than Cash App does. You also get CDIC deposit insurance with most of them which is not the case with Cash App.
