Oct 21, 2026
Your prepaid cellphone plan auto-renews each month, but that $21 charge quickly turned into a $90 cost because of non-sufficient funds (NSF) fee charges.
A class action lawsuit filed against the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and its online-only subsidiary, Simplii, is fighting the high-cost of NSF fees.
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In many cases a customer was charged a $45 NSF fee when a small pre-authorized payment bounced. Then, when the merchant tried again, the customer was charged another $45 NSF fee — often adding $90 or more to a small, repeat payment. Now some CIBC and Simplii Financial customers who were hit with that second fee could get part of their money back.
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CIBC has agreed to a proposed $10 million settlement, and an Ontario judge was asked to approve the settlement on Oct. 19, 2026; however, publicly available sources still describe it as awaiting approval. A settlement approval hearing does not necessarily mean the judge issues a decision that day. The court may reserve its decision and release an order later.
For eligible customers, there’s no requirement to file anything. But CIBC and Simplii customers should be aware that not everyone who was charged twice will qualify, and the payout won’t cover the full cost of the collected fees.
Why were some CIBC customers charged 2 NSF fees for 1 payment?
The case, Campbell v. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, was launched in September 2022 by Koskie Minsky LLP, a Toronto law firm. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice certified it as a class action in June 2024.
The case involves pre-authorized debits (PADs), the automatic withdrawals used for gym memberships, insurance premiums and utility bills. When a PAD failed for lack of funds, CIBC charged a $45 NSF fee. If the same merchant re-presented the payment days later and it bounced again, the bank could charge a second $45 fee.
The plaintiff’s own case illustrates how a small payment can result in an outsized fee. In 2022, a payment of $7.90 led to two $45 fees, according to Global News.
To be clear, the lawsuit didn’t dispute CIBC’s right to charge NSF fees. It argued that charging repeatedly for the same payment breached the customer agreement.
CIBC denies liability and hasn’t admitted wrongdoing, according to the court-approved notice.
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Who qualifies for money from the CIBC and Simplii settlement?
Not every double-charged customer will see reimbursement. To qualify under the proposed deal, you must:
- Be a Canadian resident with a personal CIBC or Simplii deposit account opened before Feb. 1, 2024
- Have been charged a $45 second NSF fee on a PAD payment within 2 to 30 days after an earlier $45 NSF fee for the same merchant, amount and transaction description
- Have been charged that second fee between Sept. 21, 2020 and Feb. 1, 2024 (CIBC) or between Sept. 21, 2020 and Dec. 18, 2022 (Simplii)
- Still have the account open and able to accept deposits when the money is paid out
That last point is the one most likely to trip people up.
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For customers who quality, compensation will go directly into your CIBC or Simplii account — so if you’ve closed that bank account, you won’t be eligible under the distribution terms.
How much will eligible customers actually get?
Customers who qualify can expect an estimated $35 in compensation. That’s about 78% of a single $45 fee, and less than 40% of the $90 total from a double charge.
So, why not the full amount refunded? Because before any refunds are distributed, the $10 million settlement is reduced by legal fees of about $2.77 million plus HST, roughly $123,000 in disbursements, a $5,000 honorarium for the plaintiff and a 7% fee to the litigation funder. What remains is split among eligible customers, so the final amount could shift.
Timing is also unsettled. No money moves unless the court approves the deal, although the deadlines to opt out or object passed on Aug. 31, 2026.
Could this happen to you today?
As of March 12, 2026, NSF fees on personal accounts at federally regulated banks are capped at $10. That’s according to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), the federal regulator that oversees how banks treat consumers. Banks also can’t charge an NSF fee within two business days of a previous one, or when an account is short by less than $10. Before the cap, NSF fees typically ran $45 to $48.
However, there are still gaps to the latest regulatory rules. If a payment is re-tried after that two-business-day window, and there are still insufficient funds in the account, it can trigger another $10 NSF fee. The rules also don’t stop the company you were paying from charging its own late or returned-payment fee.
For most eligible customers, $35 won’t change their finances much. The bigger lesson is how fast small shortfalls used to compound, and how new rules make that harder for financial firms to repeat. As FCAC Commissioner Shereen Benzvy Miller put it, these fees “disproportionately affect Canadians who are already struggling financially.”
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Romana King, Senior Editor at Money.ca, also writes for various North American publications and the RKHomeowner blog. Her book, House Poor No More, is an Amazon bestseller and five-time award winner, including the 2022 New York CPA Society's Excellence in Financial Journalism (EFJ) Book Award.
