How to File a Complaint About a Lender in Canada

If a lender won't fix a problem, Canada has a defined escalation path: the lender's own complaint process first, then any independent dispute-resolution or ombudsman service the lender belongs to, then the regulator. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada handles consumer complaints about federally regulated financial institutions, while provinces license and supervise most other lenders and each maintains a consumer protection office (Financial Consumer Agency of Canada).

Knowing which door to knock on matters, because the wrong regulator will simply forward your file and you lose weeks. It also matters to know what a regulator can actually do, because most people expect an outcome — a refund, a lower rate, an approved loan — that no regulator is empowered to give.

Step 1: The lender's internal complaint process

Most disputes start as a service problem: a fee you weren't told about, a payment applied to the wrong balance, a disclosure document you never received, a collection call about an amount you don't recognise. The first move is to stop dealing with front-line staff and ask, in writing, for the lender's complaint procedure. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada sets out this sequence for consumers: raise it with the institution first, use its internal escalation, and only then take it outside.

Put it in writing even if you started by phone. A written complaint creates a record, forces a written response, and is the document every later step depends on. Include the account or loan number, the specific thing that went wrong, the outcome you want, and the date you expect an answer.

Service complaints and credit decisions are not the same thing

This distinction decides whether your complaint has anywhere to go.

• Conduct and service complaints — undisclosed fees, missing or misleading disclosure, unauthorised charges, improper collection conduct, refusal to provide a payoff statement — are exactly what regulators supervise, because they concern whether the lender followed the rules.
• Credit decisions — a decline, a lower limit than you wanted, an offered rate higher than advertised — are generally not something a regulator will overturn. Lenders set their own credit criteria within the law, and no regulator orders a lender to approve an application or cut a rate. Complaining about a decline is usually wasted effort unless the stated reason was discriminatory or the disclosure around the offer was misleading.

Step 2: The ombudsman or external dispute-resolution body

If the internal review doesn't resolve it, the next stage is an independent body outside the lender. Many lenders name one in their complaint policy, and asking for that policy in writing is the fastest way to find out whether yours does. This stage matters because an independent dispute-resolution service can look at whether the lender followed its own terms and whether you lost money — a compensation-type question a regulator usually won't decide.

Not every lender belongs to an external scheme, which is one reason the provincial regulator route matters for smaller and provincially licensed lenders. If the external body declines jurisdiction, or there isn't one, you move to the regulator.

Step 3: The regulator — federal or provincial

The dividing line is who licenses the lender. Federally regulated financial institutions fall to the FCAC; almost everyone else falls to a provincial or territorial regulator. The FCAC publishes a list of provincial and territorial regulators so you can find the right office (Financial Consumer Agency of Canada).

Type of lender or product	Who supervises it	Where the complaint goes
Federally regulated financial institutions	Financial Consumer Agency of Canada	After the lender's internal review, to the FCAC complaints process
Provincially licensed consumer lenders and finance companies	Provincial or territorial regulator	Your province's consumer protection office
Payday lending	Provincial regime, where one exists; federal payday rules apply alongside it	Provincial regulator — note Quebec does not license the model
Mortgage brokers and agents	Provincial licensing body	Provincial regulator for conduct and licensing
Licensed insolvency trustees	Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada	The OSB, for conduct in a consumer proposal or bankruptcy

What a regulator can and cannot do

Regulators supervise markets; they do not adjudicate individual contracts. Understanding the limit saves you from treating a complaint as a remedy.

• Can: investigate whether the institution complied with consumer protection rules, require it to correct a practice, publish findings, and in some cases impose penalties. Provincial regulators can attach conditions to a licence or suspend it.
• Cannot: award you damages in most cases, order a loan approved, set your rate, or override a credit decision.
• Still useful: complaints are intelligence. Even when the regulator takes no action on your individual file, patterns across files drive supervisory decisions.

If money is genuinely owed to you, the realistic routes are the independent dispute-resolution body or a civil claim. For anything significant, that is a conversation for a lawyer or another regulated professional — decisions depend on your own circumstances and the documents you signed.

Complaints about the cost of borrowing itself

A complaint about the price of credit only works if the price broke a rule. Two rules matter.

The Criminal Code sets the criminal rate of interest at 35% per year (s. 347), calculated using a defined method that aggregates interest and certain charges. A lender charging above that is not a service problem but a legal one. Separately, where a province operates a licensed payday lending regime, federal payday lending regulations (SOR/2024-114) cap the cost of borrowing at $14 per $100 advanced, and some provinces set a lower cap — the lower figure applies. Payday loans are generally up to $1,500 for a term of 62 days or less, and Quebec does not license payday lending at all, which effectively prohibits the model there.

Outside those limits, a complaint that the rate is simply "too high" goes nowhere. If the rate was disclosed and sits under the legal cap, that is a shopping problem rather than a regulatory one, and the only real lever is comparing offers before you sign.

Building a complaint that actually gets read

1. Write, don't call. Phone calls leave no record; letters and emails do.
2. Attach the loan agreement, disclosure documents, statements and any collection notices. Regulators work from documents.
3. Keep it factual and chronological: date, what happened, which term or requirement it breached, what you want.
4. Ask explicitly for the lender's complaint procedure and the name of any external body it belongs to.
5. Escalate in order — lender, then external body, then regulator — and keep a copy of each letter with the date sent.
6. Respond promptly if a regulator opens a file. Slow replies close files.
7. For money you believe you are owed, ask about civil options, including small claims, rather than waiting on a regulator.

Related but separate: credit reporting and debt relief

If the problem is what appears on your credit report, that is a dispute with a credit reporting bureau, not with the lender's regulator. Canada has two national credit reporting bureaus, and a free copy of your report is available from each. Errors can be disputed; accurate information generally stays, because accurate history can be reported for a set period.

Debt relief follows its own rules. A consumer proposal stays on a credit report for three years after completion, or six years from filing, whichever comes first. A first bankruptcy stays on the report for six years after discharge. Only a licensed insolvency trustee can administer a consumer proposal or bankruptcy, and trustees are regulated by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada — so a complaint about how a trustee handled your file goes to the OSB, not to a lending regulator.

Red flags to watch while you complain

• Anyone charging an upfront fee to "fix" your complaint or to remove accurate information from your credit report. No third party can promise that, and accurate information stays.
• Anyone telling you to stop paying while a complaint is open. A complaint is not a legal pause on the debt; missed payments still land on your credit report and can trigger collection activity.
• Pressure to take a new, more expensive loan to cover the one you are disputing.
• Advice to exaggerate the facts. Regulators discard complaints that don't hold together against the documents.

Escalation works best when it's boring: documents, dates, a clear ask, and the right regulator. The complaint does not change your contract, and it does not improve your bargaining position on price — only a better offer from a competitor does that.

loanloon.ca is a matching and comparison service, not a lender. We don't make loans, set rates or make credit decisions, and we don't handle complaints about lenders — the path above runs between you, the lender and its regulator. Keep in mind that advertised loan rates are typically the lowest available and are reserved for the most qualified applicants; the rate and terms you're actually offered depend on your own credit history, income and circumstances.

• Payday Loan Cost Cap in Canada: How the $14 Rule Works
• Payday Loan Alternatives in Canada: Cheaper Routes First
• What Is the Criminal Rate of Interest? s. 347 Guide
• Consumer Protection for Borrowers in Canada: Your Rights

• Financial Consumer Agency of Canada — complaints — Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
• Financial Consumer Agency of Canada — provincial and territorial regulators — Financial Consumer Agency of Canada