You deposit a cheque, you watch the balance go up, and then you find out you cannot actually touch most of it for the better part of a week. If rent is due, that gap is not an inconvenience, it is a problem.
The good news is that the wait is not open-ended and it is not up to the teller's mood. Canadian law sets a hard maximum on how long a federally regulated financial institution can hold funds you deposited by cheque, and it also forces the bank to give you some cash immediately. Most people never find out either number.
The short answer
Four to eight business days, depending on the size of the cheque and how you deposited it. On top of that, the first $100 has to be available to you right away.
The day you make the deposit does not count. The clock starts the day after.
| Amount of cheque | Deposited in person with an employee | Deposited any other way (ATM, mobile) |
|---|---|---|
| $1,500 or less | 4 business days after the day of deposit | 5 business days after the day of deposit |
| More than $1,500 | 7 business days after the day of deposit | 8 business days after the day of deposit |
These are maximums, not targets. A bank is free to release your money sooner, and for an established account with a clean history many do. If yours never does, that is worth a conversation, because the hold policy is a competitive difference between institutions and not a law of nature.
For the maximums to apply at all, the cheque has to be an ordinary Canadian paper cheque. Specifically, FCAC states it must be in Canadian dollars, drawn on an account at a financial institution's branch within Canada, paper-based (which includes a cheque you deposited by taking a photo of it with your phone), encoded with the magnetic ink that makes the numbers along the bottom machine-readable, and undamaged enough for a processing machine to read it.
The first $100 you are owed immediately
This is the part almost nobody knows, and it is the part that matters most on a bad week.
Federally regulated financial institutions must make the first $100 of all funds you deposit by cheque available for withdrawal. If the cheque is for $100 or less, they must make the entire amount available.
When you get it depends on how you deposited:
- Immediately, if you deposit the cheque in person with a teller or other employee at one of the institution's branches or points of service.
- On the business day after the day of the deposit, if you deposit it any other way, such as at an ATM or with your phone.
That difference is a real reason to walk into a branch rather than use the app when you are short. Same cheque, same bank, and you get your hundred dollars a day earlier.
Why banks hold cheques at all
A cheque is a promise, not money. When you deposit one, your bank credits your account before it knows whether the other bank will actually pay. The hold is the window in which it finds out. FCAC lists the reasons an institution may hold funds deposited by cheque:
- To make sure the person or company who wrote the cheque has enough money to cover it.
- To make sure they have not put a stop payment on it.
- To check the details with the cheque writer and confirm it has not been altered.
- To make sure the account the cheque was written on is still open.
Sometimes a bank will release the money before the cheque clears. That is not generosity in the legal sense. FCAC is blunt about it: if the institution does that, it is extending credit to you. If the cheque then bounces, you owe the money back, and if it is already spent you can land in overdraft and pay for the privilege.
The eight exceptions that switch the maximums off
The maximum hold periods, and in most cases the first $100 rule with them, may not apply if:
- The account has been open for fewer than 90 days.
- The cheque has been endorsed more than once.
- The cheque is deposited six months or more after the date written on it.
- The cheque is not issued in Canadian dollars.
- The cheque is issued from an account at a bank branch outside Canada.
- The institution has reasonable grounds to suspect the deposit is being made for illegal or fraudulent reasons.
- The cheque is not encoded with magnetic ink for character recognition.
- The cheque is damaged.
The first one catches an enormous number of people, and it is the single most useful thing on this page if you are about to switch banks or chase an account bonus. A brand new account has no protection from the hold maximums for its first 90 days. If you are opening an account and you expect to deposit a meaningful cheque into it, do not assume the four-day limit protects you, because for three months it does not.
Small and medium-sized businesses have all of the above plus more. The maximums may also not apply to a business account with a negative change in credit score or other behaviour scores, an escalating overdraft balance that is not being reduced by deposits, an unexplained change in the history of cheques deposited, a high number of deposited cheques returned as dishonoured, or a notice of bankruptcy or creditor action against the business.
Cheques drawn on a bank outside Canada
If the cheque writer or their financial institution is outside Canada, the Canadian maximums do not apply, and the cheque can take much longer to clear. FCAC states that financial institutions often hold foreign cheques for 30 days. If the cheque does not clear, your institution withdraws the money from your account.
Your institution may also return the cheque to the issuing bank and ask for it to be replaced with a secured method of payment such as a bank draft or a cashier's cheque, then wait for that to arrive. That adds more time again.
If someone abroad owes you money, ask for an electronic transfer instead of a cheque. A month of hold on funds you have already earned is a bad trade for the sender's convenience.
Government of Canada cheques are different, and better
If you are holding a cheque from the Government of Canada, you have rights that ordinary cheques do not carry. FCAC states you may cash a Government of Canada cheque:
- For free at any bank. Not just yours.
- At a bank where you are not a customer, if the cheque is for $1,750 or less and you show acceptable identification.
Note that figure. A number of Canadian articles still quote an older $1,500 limit for cashing a Government of Canada cheque as a non-customer. The current FCAC guidance says $1,750.
A bank may refuse only if there is evidence the cheque was altered or is counterfeit, if the cheque is for more than $1,750 and you are not a customer of that bank, or if it has reasonable grounds to believe there has been illegal or fraudulent activity in relation to the cheque. If it refuses, it must tell you in writing and give you its complaint procedure, the contact information for the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, and FCAC's mailing address, website and telephone number.
What is changing, and what is not law yet
The access to funds rules are over a decade old, and the government has said so. Here is the honest status as of today, because this is an area where it is easy to read a headline and assume a rule already applies to you.
What has happened: Bill C-15, the Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1, received royal assent on 26 March 2026. It amends the Bank Act to raise the amount of funds that can be withdrawn immediately after a cheque deposit, and to remove the delay that currently applies when a cheque is not deposited in person.
What was proposed: Budget 2025 proposed raising the first amount of immediately available deposited cheque funds from $100 to $150, and removing the timing distinction between deposits made in person and by other means. The government also announced its intention to make regulations to reduce the number of days banks may hold deposited cheque funds, and to raise the current $1,500 threshold below which the shorter hold periods apply, so that more cheques qualify for earlier access.
What is still true today: the figure in force is $100, and the hold maximums in force are the 4, 5, 7 and 8 business days in the table above. FCAC's guidance still states $100, and the consolidated Bank Act still reads $100 and those day counts. Many of these changes depend on regulations that set the prescribed amounts, and those had not been finalized when the government announced them.
You are entitled to the policy in writing
A federally regulated financial institution must give you a written copy of its cheque hold policy when you open an account. It is either part of your account agreement or a separate document that comes with it. You can also choose to receive it electronically.
That policy has to tell you the maximum time the institution may hold funds for a cheque drawn on an account at a financial institution in Canada, and the maximum time it may hold funds from a cheque that is not subject to the legislated maximums. That second number is the interesting one, because it covers the exception cases above, and it varies between institutions.
If the policy does not specify whether a hold applies to your accounts, the institution decides when you deposit the cheque.
If the policy changes
Your institution can change its hold policy, but it must tell you before applying the change:
- If you get a regular statement in the mail, it must send a written notice explaining the change at least 30 days before applying it to your account.
- If you use a passbook that you present when you make a transaction, it must display a notice in your branch for at least 60 days before applying the change.
If your bank breaks the rule
If a federally regulated institution refuses to honour the maximum hold periods, or will not let you withdraw the first $100, it must give you written notice. If you did not get it, ask for it. Banks must also disclose their complaint procedure, the contact information for the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, and FCAC's mailing address, website address and telephone number.
Step 1: Ask at the branch, and name the rule
Say that the hold appears to exceed the maximum cheque hold period for a federally regulated financial institution, or that you have not been given access to the first $100, and ask for the written notice. Note the date, the amount, and who you spoke to. Most of these are resolved here, because front-line staff often apply a default hold without checking whether an exception actually applies.
Step 2: Use the bank's complaint process
Every bank must have a complaint-handling process available on its website and at its branches in Canada. File through it. The bank must provide a detailed written response within 56 calendar days of when you first made the complaint.
Step 3: Escalate to OBSI
If the bank has given you its detailed written response and closed the file, or more than 56 days have passed, you can take the complaint to the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments. OBSI is free and independent. FCAC oversees whether institutions comply with their legal obligations, but it does not resolve individual complaints or get your money released, so OBSI is the route for a personal remedy.
Full contact details and the timelines OBSI works to are in our guide to what to do when a bank refuses to open your account, which walks the same complaint path end to end.
The reliable fix: stop receiving cheques
Everything above is about how to survive a hold. The better outcome is not being subject to one.
Funds that arrive electronically are not cheques, so cheque hold rules simply do not apply to them. FCAC's own advice on this page is direct: instead of using cheques, consider having deposits made to your account electronically, which may let you access the funds right away.
In practice that means three things worth setting up before you need them:
- Direct deposit for pay and government benefits. This is the single biggest one. A payroll direct deposit lands as available funds, not as a cheque with a five-day tail. Government benefits can be switched to direct deposit as well.
- Interac e-Transfer for money from people. If a family member or a client is writing you a cheque out of habit, ask for an e-Transfer instead. It costs them nothing at most institutions and it saves you the wait.
- An account you can actually get paid into fast. Some accounts release payroll deposits early and none of them hold an electronic deposit the way a cheque gets held.
An account built around electronic deposits
If cheque holds keep catching you short, a no-fee account that takes direct deposit and e-Transfers is the practical answer. KOHO is a Canadian prepaid Mastercard account with no monthly fee on its free plan, and it supports direct deposit and Interac e-Transfer, so money arriving that way is not subject to cheque hold periods. It is not a chequing account and it is not designed for depositing paper cheques, so it is a complement to your bank rather than a replacement for it. Check current plan features and any fees on the provider's own page before you sign up.
See how the account worksFive things to take away
- 4 or 5 business days under $1,500, 7 or 8 above it. In person is always a day faster than the ATM or the app.
- The first $100 is yours right away if you deposit with a human, and the next business day otherwise.
- A new account has no protection for 90 days. Plan any large cheque deposit around that.
- The hold expiring does not mean the cheque was good. The bank can still claw the money back if it is returned.
- Written notice is mandatory when a bank refuses the maximums or the first $100. Ask for it, then use the complaint path.
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Frequently asked questions
No. FCAC states the maximum cheque hold periods do not include the day you deposit the cheque. A four business day maximum on a cheque deposited Monday in person runs from Tuesday. Weekends and holidays are not business days, so a deposit late in the week stretches out on the calendar even though the business day count is unchanged.
As neither in person nor a special case. In person means depositing with an employee at a branch or point of service. A mobile deposit is any other manner, so it gets the longer column: 5 business days for a cheque of $1,500 or less and 8 business days above that, with the first $100 available on the business day following the deposit rather than immediately. Depositing by phone is convenient and it costs you a day.
The legislated maximums apply to paper-based cheques and other paper-based instruments that meet the criteria: Canadian dollars, drawn on a branch in Canada, magnetic ink encoded and readable. Certified cheques, bank drafts and money orders may or may not be eligible for particular services such as mobile deposit, and FCAC advises checking with your financial institution. A certified cheque is not automatically exempt from a hold, so ask before you rely on the money being there.
Yes, into a retail deposit account. If the cheque is for $100 or less the financial institution must make the entire amount available, immediately if you deposit in person with an employee, or on the business day following the deposit if you deposit any other way. This does not apply to deposits by eligible enterprises such as small and medium-sized businesses.
Because an account open for fewer than 90 days is one of the listed exceptions, so the maximum hold periods and the first $100 access do not have to apply. This is legal. It is also the reason to open an account well before you need to deposit anything significant into it, particularly if you are switching banks or chasing an account bonus.
Not as of 19 July 2026. Bill C-15 received royal assent on 26 March 2026 and amends the Bank Act to raise the immediately available amount and remove the in person versus other timing distinction, and Budget 2025 proposed the figure of $150. The amount is a prescribed amount set by regulation, FCAC guidance still states $100, and the consolidated Bank Act still reads $100. Treat $100 as the number in force until the regulations are made.
The Bank Act maximums bind federally regulated financial institutions. Most credit unions and caisses populaires are provincially or territorially regulated and are not covered by them, so FCAC advises asking your credit union directly about its policy on holding funds deposited by cheque. Federal credit unions are federally regulated and are covered.
Related guides
- NSF fees in Canada are capped at $10: the 2026 rules
- A bank refused to open your account: your rights and the complaint path
- Low-cost and no-cost bank accounts in Canada: the $4 rule
- What a void cheque is and how to get one
- Setting up direct deposit in Canada
- How to avoid overdraft fees in Canada
Disclosure: Some links on this page are referral links, and Bremo may earn a commission if you open an account, at no cost to you. This does not change what we recommend. The rules, figures and dates on this page were verified on 19 July 2026 against the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada pages "Cashing a cheque" (last updated 17 October 2025) and "Cashing a cheque: know your rights", sections 627.2 to 627.25 of the Bank Act as consolidated on the Justice Laws website, and the Department of Finance Canada news release "Budget 2025 introduces measures to promote competition and affordability". These rules apply to federally regulated financial institutions. Provincially regulated credit unions and caisses populaires follow their provincial regulator's rules and set their own hold policies. This page is educational general information, not legal or financial advice. Confirm current terms with your own institution before acting.