By Staff
April 19th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Most people have a working relationship with their bank and they may have RRSP or TFSA accounts. They may have a mortgage. They are customers.
There are other people who don’t have a savings account and they live month to month on what they have in the way of income.
And from time to time a cheque they issue is return marked NSF – Non sufficient Funds. The banks charge a fee – currently pegged at $48.00.
The federal government finally listened and is lowering NSF fees from the predatory rate of $48 to $10!! The timeline has not been finalized but the budget said in “the coming months”.
Other details that were announced:
- Requiring banks to send an alert before charging NSFs and providing some time to transfer the funds to avoid the fee.
- Banks will be prohibited from charging multiple NSF fees for the same transaction.
- Only one NSF fee can be charged in every 72-hour period; and,
- Prohibiting NSF fees for small overdrawn amounts under $10.
The drive to get this into the federal budget was done for the most part by ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) Canada a multi-issue, membership-based community union of low- and moderate-income people. They believe that social and economic justice can best be achieved by building community power for change.
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