ATM fees

From: Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

Types of ATM fees

There are different automated teller machines (ATM) fees you may need to pay.

Regular Account Fee

Service charge imposed by your financial institution to withdraw money at any ATM. A service package offered by your financial institution often covers this fee.

Network Access Fee

Fee charged by your financial institution when you withdraw money at an ATM that your financial institution doesn’t own. Your financial institution adds this fee to the regular account fees.

Convenience Fee

Fee charged by privately-owned ATM operators and by financial institutions where you don't have a bank account.

Your financial institution adds the convenience fee to the:

network access fee
regular account fee

ATM fees you may need to pay

You may need to pay fees when using automated teller machines (ATMs) in Canada. Additional fees may apply if you use ATMs outside of the country.

Table 1: Comparison of ATM fees
Who owns the ATM you're withdrawing money from	Regular account Fee	Network access fee to the INTERAC or other network	Convenience fee (charged by another financial institution or a private operator)	Total transaction cost
Your own financial institution	$0 to $2.00	—	—	$0 to $2.00
A financial institution where you’re not a customer	$0 to $2.00	$0 to $2.00	$1.00 to $5.00	$1.00 to $9.00
A private operator	$0 to $2.00	$0 to $2.00	$1.50 to $5.00	$1.50 to $9.00

Last modified: August 2022

Note: Some ATMs are not owned by a financial institution such as a bank or caisse populaire. These ATMs are usually located in non-traditional locations and display no major bank labels on the machine. These machines are independently owned and operated.

Institutions

The fees in Table 1 were collected from Canadian financial institutions.

These include:

Alterna Bank
Alterna Savings
BMO Bank of Montreal
CIBC
Desjardins
HSBC
Laurentian Bank
National Bank
RBC Royal Bank
Scotiabank
TD Canada Trust
various credit unions

Information you must get about ATM fees

When you open a bank account at a federally regulated financial institution, it must give you information about all charges applicable to the account, including ATM fees.

Learn how to open a bank account.

When you don’t have to pay ATM fees

There are some fees you may not have to pay.

For example, some credit unions are also members of THE EXCHANGE network. This is similar to the INTERAC network. Members of THE EXCHANGE network don’t charge customers of other member institutions convenience fees. However, network members may charge their customers a network access fee for using THE EXCHANGE network.

Check with your financial institution to see what fees you’ll have to pay.

Tips to save when withdrawing money from ATMs

Consider the following when using ATMs:

use your own financial institution's ATMs whenever possible to avoid extra fees when you withdraw cash
fees can add up quickly when you use an ATM that your financial institution doesn’t own
stay within your monthly transaction limit by making fewer withdrawals from ATMs
consider how much cash you need to carry and if you could use your debit card for in-store purchases. You’re not usually charged a fee when paying by debit in-store
if you use a credit card for a cash advance at an ATM, there may be additional fees
ask for cash back from merchants that offer this service at no charge

With cash back, an amount is added to the total purchase price of a transaction you pay for with your debit card. You get that amount in cash along with your purchase.

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