Money, cards and ATMs in Canada

The price is never the price

Canadian prices are quoted before tax, and the tax depends on which province you are standing in. A CAD 20 item is not CAD 20 at the till, and this catches every visitor from a country that quotes tax-inclusive prices.

• Alberta is genuinely cheaper for shopping, at 5 percent against Ontario's 13. It is a real difference on anything expensive.
• Restaurant bills show the tax as a separate line, and the tip is calculated before it, not after.

Cards, and the tap limit that changed

• Cards work essentially everywhere. Canada was early to contactless and a visitor can go a fortnight without touching cash.
• The contactless ceiling rose in September 2025, from CAD 250 to up to CAD 500 per tap. Banks adopted it at their own pace, so the limit you meet varies; above it you insert the card and enter a PIN.
• Bring a card with no foreign transaction fee. The 2.5 percent most banks charge is the single largest avoidable cost of a Canadian trip.
• Always choose to be charged in Canadian dollars. If a terminal offers to bill you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is deliberately poor.
• ATM fees stack. Private ATMs in convenience stores and bars charge CAD 3 to CAD 6 on top of whatever your own bank takes. Use the machines in bank branches.
• US dollars are not accepted in ordinary shops, whatever proximity suggests. The odd border-town business takes them at a rate designed to punish you.

Tipping, and the backlash

Tipping in Canada is expected in the same places it is expected in the United States, and the payment terminals have become pushy about it.

• 15 to 20 percent in a restaurant with table service is the real range. Terminals now routinely open at 20, 25 and 30 percent, and those are suggestions rather than obligations.
• The tip prompt on a counter coffee is new and is not obligatory. There is an active public argument in Canada about exactly this, and declining is normal.
• A useful shortcut in Ontario is doubling the 13 percent tax line for about 26 percent, which is generous, or just taking the tax line plus a bit for around 15. In Alberta doubling the 5 percent tax gives you 10 percent, which is under the mark.
• Taxi drivers, hairdressers and bartenders are tipped; hotel housekeeping is commonly CAD 2 to CAD 5 a night. Nobody tips at a supermarket or a fast-food counter.