Disclaimer

Rates, fees, amounts, and terms vary by lender, by province or territory, and by your creditworthiness. Any figures or examples on this site are illustrative only. They are not quotes, and they are not offers. We do not guarantee approval, and we do not promise any particular rate, amount, or term. Approval and pricing always depend on the lender assessment of your application. We avoid publishing lender-specific rates unless we can attribute them to a published source.

Some legal facts are worth stating plainly, because they set the outer limits of what a lender may charge. The federal criminal rate of interest is 35% per year, expressed as an annual percentage rate, and it has been in force since January 1, 2025, down from roughly 48% before that. Payday loans sit in a separate category. Federal rules cap a payday loan at $14 per $100 borrowed, with a maximum of $1,500, a term of no more than 62 days, and a dishonoured-payment fee of no more than $20. Nine provinces have their own payday regimes, and Quebec effectively bans payday loans. These facts are drawn from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada and the Criminal Interest Rate Regulations.

Rules change, and provincial rules differ. Before you sign anything, verify the current rules with the lender and with the consumer protection regulator in your province or territory. Read the lender disclosure and the loan agreement in full, confirm the annual percentage rate and the total cost of borrowing, and ask about any fee you do not understand. If an offer seems to exceed the legal limits, or a lender will not put the terms in writing, treat that as a reason to stop.