Is the Canada overdraft fee the same as the $10 NSF fee?

No. Overdraft protection is the fee and interest for paying an item when the account is short. The NSF fee is for returning an item. The NSF table is a different page.

Do Quebec accounts pay the same overdraft fee?

Often no. RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO, CIBC, and Tangerine each print a Quebec exception on the pages opened 17 October 2026. Read the sentence for your bank. Do not assume every plan is free in Quebec.

Why is there no interest percent for BMO or National Bank?

Those two pages did not print a percent. BMO points you to its rates page. This guide does not fill in a number the bank left out.

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Canada overdraft fees by bank

Overdraft protection is a service you apply for so the bank can pay an item when the account is short. The fee is often about $5, as a monthly charge or a per use charge, plus interest. A returned payment is a different fee. The NSF amounts are on Canada NSF fees by bank. Check your bank's current fee schedule before you rely on a dollar.

Last updated: October 17, 2026

Last checked: Oct 2026

Protection is not an NSF fee

An NSF fee, or insufficient funds fee, is what a bank charges when it returns a cheque, a pre-authorized debit, or another payment because the money was not there. For personal deposit accounts at many federally regulated banks, that return fee is capped, and the table is on Canada NSF fees by bank. Overdraft protection is the opposite choice: the bank pays the item, up to a limit it approved, and then charges its own protection fee and interest on the negative balance.

You usually have to apply. Approval is not automatic, and a limit is not a promise that every item will be paid. Several banks also say they may pay an item even when you do not have the service, or when you go past the limit, and then charge a handling fee. That casual overdraft is still not the NSF return fee. Match the words on your statement to the account you actually have. A monthly package fee is a third line, explained on monthly chequing account fees by bank.

Opened 17 October 2026. Dollars are Canadian, as printed on each bank's page. Interest is included only when that page prints a percent.
Bank	Fee the page prints	What else that page says
RBC Royal Bank	$5.00 per month, plus applicable Overdraft Interest	Monthly fee waived for VIP Banking and Signature No Limit Banking. Interest still applies if you use it. Footnote says this fee is not applicable to Quebec residents. Item handling is $5.00 each. A separate account disclosure prints interest of 22% per year.
TD Canada Trust	Pay As You Go $5 per use, or Monthly Plan $5 per month, plus 21% interest	Pay As You Go is at most $5 in one day and is not available in Quebec. Student Chequing monthly overdraft fee is $0 plus 21% interest. Limit $300 to $5,000.
Scotiabank	Monthly $5.00, or pay per use $5.00, plus 21% interest	Monthly fee can apply even in a month you do not go overdrawn, if you stay within the limit. Pay per use is not available in Quebec. From 7 August 2025 the monthly fee is not applicable to Quebec residents. No monthly fee with the Ultimate Package.
BMO	Standard $5 a month, or Occasional $5 each business day you create or increase the overdraft	Both fees are waived for Premium Chequing. Occasional is not available in Quebec. Coverage $250 to $2,500. A transfer from another BMO account is $5. The page does not print the interest percent.
CIBC	Monthly Fixed Fee $5.00, or Pay Per Use $5.00 per business day, plus interest currently 21%	Monthly Fixed Fee is not applicable to Quebec residents. Pay Per Use is not available in Quebec. Casual overdraft, if CIBC chooses to pay without the service, is $5.00 plus interest. Limit $100 to $5,000.
National Bank	$5 for the day the account is overdrawn and protection is activated	The fee does not depend on how many transactions that day. A transfer from a National Bank account, line of credit, or Mastercard is $5 a day. The page does not print an interest percent.
Tangerine	$5 per use, at most once a month, plus 19.00% interest	Charged if you are still overdrawn at 11:59 PM ET that day. No monthly fee if the account does not go into overdraft. Quebec residents are no longer subject to the Overdraft Protection Fee.
Simplii	$4.97 in a month you use it, plus 19% interest	Only on No Fee Chequing. Limits up to $5,000. The rate widget on the same page did not print a second percent.
Desjardins	Caisse transfer $5.00, annual interest 21% calculated daily	The caisse may advance the money for a cheque or pre-authorized payment. A returned cheque is a separate $10.00 line.

How the big banks describe the charge

RBC's additional account services table, opened 17 October 2026, lists overdraft protection at $5.00 per month plus applicable Overdraft Interest. The monthly fee is waived for RBC VIP Banking and RBC Signature No Limit Banking, and interest still applies if you use the service. Footnote 5 says this fee is not applicable to Quebec residents. Overdraft item handling is $5.00 each, plus a debit fee and applicable Overdraft Interest. If you or any co-owner is a Quebec resident, that handling fee for going past the limit is not charged. The additional services table does not print the interest percent. The Managing Your Account disclosure does. It says that when you are accepted you are charged $5.00 per month plus applicable Overdraft Interest when the service is used, and if that fee is already included in the account monthly fee you pay only the interest. It prints Overdraft Interest of 22% per year, calculated on the daily closing overdraft balance from the 16th through the 15th, and collected on the second business day after the 15th. Use both pages. Do not treat 22% as a number the fee table itself prints.

The same RBC disclosure says the bank can still refuse a cheque or a withdrawal even inside an approved limit. If you do not have the service and RBC allows the account to go negative, or if you go past the limit, a $5.00 handling fee can apply to each item, plus the interest, and you agree to repay within 90 days. Quebec residents are not charged that $5 fee for overdrawing the limit. You can cancel, and the cancellation takes effect for the next monthly cycle. You must be the age of majority in your province to apply. If the account is overdrawn, a deposit is required at least once a month to cover the interest.

TD's overdraft page prints two plans. Pay As You Go is $5 per use, and the most you pay in one day is $5, plus 21% interest per year. It is not available in Quebec. The Monthly Plan is $5 per month, footnote 1, plus 21% interest, regardless of how often you are overdrawn. TD also prints that fees vary for different TD Chequing Accounts, so the package on the account can change what you pay. The limit runs from $300 to $5,000, and the total maximum for all accounts is $5,000. You must apply. Overdrawn balances are to be repaid within 89 days. Interest rates are subject to change. A Quebec account that has the Monthly Plan cannot switch to Pay As You Go. If any holder's primary address is in Quebec, TD treats it as a Quebec account. The phone on that page is 1-866-222-3456. TD's fees at a glance page, opened the same day, splits the monthly plan by account. Student Chequing is a $0 monthly overdraft fee plus 21% interest. All-Inclusive, Unlimited, Every Day, and Minimum are $5 a month plus 21% interest, and Minimum drops that $5 to $0 when the monthly account fee is already $0 for the reasons printed there (Guaranteed Income Supplement, a Registered Disability Savings Plan beneficiary, Indigenous Peoples from Canada, or a newcomer in the first year). Pay As You Go on that table is still a $5 daily maximum and is not available on Quebec accounts. A separate payment coverage row says Quebec account holders with overdraft protection pay the interest and not the $5 fee.

Scotiabank's overdraft page prints a monthly plan of $5 a month. The $5.00 is applied at the end of the statement cycle no matter how many transactions there were, and even if the account did not go into overdraft that month, as long as the balance stays within the limit. Interest is calculated daily at 21% per year and charged monthly. Effective 7 August 2025, that monthly fee is not applicable to Quebec residents. Pay per use is $5 a use and is not available in Quebec. The $5.00 is applied the same day or within two business days every time an overdraft is created or increased. You do not pay the per use fee in a month you do not use it. Coverage is a minimum of $250 and a maximum of $5,000, subject to approval. NSF fees are not charged when the payment is inside the limit. The phone printed as 1-800-4SCOTIA is 1-800-472-6842. The personal fees page, opened the same day, also prints no monthly Overdraft Protection fee with the Ultimate Package, and it prints the same 21% interest on overdrawn balances. A notice of changes effective 31 July 2026 exists as a PDF. This guide does not quote that PDF.

BMO, CIBC, National Bank, and the no-branch banks

BMO's overdraft page prints Standard Overdraft Protection at $5 a month, waived for Premium Chequing. Occasional Overdraft Protection has no monthly fee and charges $5 each business day you create or increase the overdraft balance. That $5 is also waived for Premium. Occasional is not available for residents of Quebec. Coverage on both plans is $250 to $2,500. Overdraft Transfer Service is $5 per transfer on the next business day. The transfer fee is waived for the Premium Plan and for Student and Recent Graduate or Seniors Discounted Banking. The page does not print an interest percent. It tells you to see BMO's rates page, so this guide does not invent one. Deposit at least every 30 days, and do not carry a negative balance more than 90 days in a row. The balance has to be $0 or positive for at least one business day before you use the limit again. There is no fee if you cover the overdrawn account by midnight local time. The phone is 1-877-225-5266.

CIBC prints a Monthly Fixed Fee of $5.00 per month, not applicable to Quebec residents, and Pay Per Use of $5.00 for each business day, measured on end of day balances, when an overdraft is created or increased. Pay Per Use is not available to Quebec residents. The limit is $100 to $5,000 in total across accounts. Interest is currently 21% per year, calculated daily and debited monthly, and CIBC says it may vary. If you do not have the service and CIBC chooses to pay an item, casual overdraft is $5.00 plus interest at the current overdraft rate, and CIBC has no obligation to do it again. The Monthly Fixed Fee is not applied on up to 3 CIBC Smart Accounts for Tier 3 clients. Interest still applies. Bring the account positive at least once every 90 days, for one full business day. The phone is 1-866-525-8622.

National Bank's services page says a $5 fee applies for the day the account is overdrawn and the protection is activated, regardless of the number of transactions. Coverage can be a transfer from another bank account, an integrated line of credit, or a Mastercard cash advance, with permission. A separate row prints $5 a day per transfer from a National Bank account, a personal line of credit, or a Mastercard. Another row prints a $5 overdraft fee, in addition to interest, for a cheque, a pre-authorized debit, a payment instruction, a debit card purchase, or an ABM withdrawal. The page does not print an interest percent, so none is quoted here. The NSF return on that same page is $10 per 2 business days. That is the return fee, not the overdraft fee. Ordering cheques on that page says fees may apply, with no dollar. The phone is 1-888-835-6281.

Tangerine's bank fee schedule prints an Overdraft Fee of $5 per use, charged at most once per month, and interest of 19.00% per year. The $5 is applied on the day you go into overdraft if the balance is still overdrawn at 11:59 PM Eastern that calendar day. If the overdrawn amount increases in a later month, another $5 can apply on the day it increases. The bank may lower or waive the fee. Interest is calculated daily on the daily closing overdrawn balance and charged monthly. There is no monthly fee if the chequing account does not go into overdraft. Tangerine's overdraft FAQ says Quebec residents are no longer subject to the Overdraft Protection Fee. Simplii offers overdraft only on No Fee Chequing, with limits up to $5,000. The account page prints a monthly charge of $4.97 that applies only when you use the service, plus a fixed interest rate of 19% on overdraft balances. A rate widget on that page did not load a second percent, so this guide does not quote one. The phone is 1-888-723-8881.

Desjardins's personal service fees guide prints a caisse overdraft transfer of $5.00 and an annual interest rate of 21%, calculated daily. The footnote says an overdraft is when a cheque or a pre-authorized payment is made without enough money, and the caisse may, at its discretion, advance the sum. A cheque or pre-authorized payment returned for insufficient funds is $10.00, and the guide says that line can show as returned item charges. That $10 is the NSF line, not the $5 transfer. Personalized cheques are listed as the supplier's cost, with no dollar. Read the plan name on your own statement. Asking the institution to review a fee is a request, and it can say no. The steps are on how to ask your bank to refund a fee.

Upload the statement on Expenvo. The PDF stays on your device. Expenvo lists bank fee lines it recognizes so you can see the date, the name, and the amount before you call. It does not call the bank, and it does not promise a refund. How to ask is on how to ask your bank to refund a fee.

Questions

Is the Canada overdraft fee the same as the $10 NSF fee?: No. Overdraft protection is the fee and interest for paying an item when the account is short. The NSF fee is for returning an item. The NSF table is a different page.
Do Quebec accounts pay the same overdraft fee?: Often no. RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO, CIBC, and Tangerine each print a Quebec exception on the pages opened 17 October 2026. Read the sentence for your bank. Do not assume every plan is free in Quebec.
Why is there no interest percent for BMO or National Bank?: Those two pages did not print a percent. BMO points you to its rates page. This guide does not fill in a number the bank left out.

Sources

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