What Debt Collectors Can and Cannot Do in Canada

A collection agent can call you, add legal and NSF costs to what you owe, and take you to court. They cannot threaten you, claim to be a lawyer or a police officer, or tell your sister what you owe. The line between those two lists is set by your province, not by Ottawa, which is why the same agency chasing the same debt has to hang up at 8 p.m. in Quebec and can keep dialling until 10 p.m. in Alberta.

That provincial split is also why so much of what you read about this is wrong. Below is what a collector may actually do, what they may not, the hours and notice rules in the four largest provinces, and how long the debt can still be sued for.

What can a debt collector legally do in Canada?

A licensed collection agency can contact you to demand payment, explain what you owe, discuss repayment, and sue you if you don’t pay. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (opens in a new tab) confirms they can also add legal costs and non-sufficient-funds charges to the balance, and can contact people who know you, but only to get your phone number or address.

They can sue you

A collector who wins a judgment in court can then apply to garnish your wages or your bank account, which is a separate step with its own rules (we cover the mechanics in how wage garnishment works in Canada). Everything before a judgment is persuasion, however it’s phrased.

They can reach you at work, within limits

A collector may call your workplace, but only to confirm your employment or get contact details. Discussing the debt with your employer is not allowed anywhere in Canada. Quebec is the tightest: the Office de la protection du consommateur (opens in a new tab) allows a workplace call only when the agent has no home contact information or home contact has already failed, and then only once.

What are debt collectors not allowed to do?

They cannot use threatening, intimidating or abusive language, apply unreasonable pressure, or give you false information. FCAC adds that a collector cannot call your cell phone unless you gave them that number, and cannot suggest that a friend or family member should pay, unless that person co-signed.

The rest of the list:

• Pretending to be someone they aren’t. Not a lawyer, not a government official, not law enforcement. Implying a criminal charge for an unpaid consumer debt is false in every province.
• Telling other people about your debt. In Alberta a collector needs your consent in a verifiable form, which can be writing or a recording, before discussing the debt with anyone but you.
• Calling whenever they feel like it. Every province caps the hours, and most cap the frequency too.

When can a collection agency call you?

Between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. in most of the country, and Alberta runs an hour later. Sunday is where they diverge most: a four-hour window in Ontario and British Columbia, nothing at all in Quebec, and no separate Sunday rule in Alberta.

Statutory holidays are off limits in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. Quebec names them in its rules, from New Year’s Day and Good Friday through to Christmas.

Three provinces make them write to you first

In Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia the first contact has to be a letter, not a call. Ontario requires a written notice naming the agency, its authority to collect, and a disclosure statement called Debt Collection: Information About Your Rights, then a six-day wait before phoning. Quebec requires a Notice of Payment on paper, followed by five days. British Columbia requires written notice of the creditor, the amount and the collector’s authority, and section 115 of the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act (opens in a new tab) bars verbal contact until five days after it goes out.

British Columbia carves out one exception. If the agency bought the debt outright it becomes the creditor, and it can call you straight away.

If your first contact from an agency was a phone call and you live in one of those three provinces, that call broke the rules. It doesn’t erase the debt, but it’s the thing to put in a complaint.

How long can a debt collector come after you?

Two years in most provinces, three in Quebec, and six in Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI and the three territories. After that the creditor loses the right to sue, though the debt itself doesn’t vanish. The clock runs from your last payment or your last acknowledgement of the debt, whichever came later.

Manitoba changed, and most guides missed it

Manitoba used to sit with the six-year group. The Limitations Act replaced the old Limitation of Actions Act on September 30, 2022, and section 6 now reads that a claim must not be commenced more than two years after it is discovered. A lot of Canadian debt guides still print six years for Manitoba. If you’re in Winnipeg and someone quotes you that number, check the date on what they’re reading.

A small payment restarts the clock

Making a partial payment restarts the limitation clock. On a debt 23 months old in Ontario, sending $20 to stop the calls can hand the collector another two years to sue.

An acknowledgement restarts it too, but here the rules are friendlier than people assume. Every Canadian jurisdiction requires that acknowledgement to be written and signed. Alberta’s Limitations Act (opens in a new tab) puts it at section 9(1), that an acknowledgement “must be in writing and signed by the person adversely affected”, and the other provinces word it the same way. Saying “yeah, that’s mine” on a recorded call does not reset anything.

A payment does, though, and it needs nothing in writing at all. That’s the trap. The collector asking for “just $20 today, as a gesture” is asking for the one thing that costs you the deadline.

What to do when a collector calls

Ask for it in writing before you agree to anything. FCAC’s own advice is to get the collector’s name, their company, a phone number, and the details of the debt, then check it against your own statements before paying a cent.

Verify that the debt is actually yours

Agencies buy portfolios of old accounts, and the details get scrambled in the transfer. Confirm the original creditor, the amount, and the date of your last payment. That last date is what tells you where you sit against the table above.

Keep a record, then complain to the right body

Note the date, the time and what was said. Where you complain depends on who called: your bank’s complaints process for a federally regulated institution, and your provincial consumer affairs office for a private collection agency. Ontario, Quebec, BC and Alberta all license these agencies, and a licence is something a regulator can act on.

Where a savings habit fits into this

Nothing on this page is a substitute for having a bit of money set aside, and that’s the honest reason most collection calls start. A buffer of even a few hundred dollars is what keeps a missed payment from becoming an account in collections.

Lodavo is a free app that makes building that buffer more interesting. You connect the bank account you already have, and every $25 you keep saved earns a ticket in a weekly cash draw. A prize of at least $100 goes to a user every week, and up to $10,000 on jackpot weeks. Your savings stay in your own account the whole time, earning whatever your bank already pays. It won’t settle a debt, but it makes the slow work of getting ahead of one feel like something other than a chore.

Saving is free, and so is the app: Lodavo is on the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) and the Google Play Store (opens in a new tab).

This article is general information, not legal advice. Collection and limitation rules vary by province and change, so check your provincial consumer affairs office for your own situation.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.