My Autopay Discount Disappeared
If you pay your phone bill by credit card, the discount may now be gone. Whether that was allowed depends on your contract.
Same phone. Same plan. A different price, depending on the card in your wallet.
Most big carriers no longer give the autopay discount on an ordinary credit card, and now Rogers and Fido are adding a fee for paying by card. Here is the whole page in five lines.
- New: a fee on top. From January 17, 2027, Rogers and Fido charge 1.6% when you pay your bill by credit card.
- Who still gives it on a credit card? Freedom and Eastlink. Rogers and Fido take their own card and no other.
- Lost it mid-contract? If the price you agreed to included the discount, they needed your yes to take it away.
- The quick fix. Move autopay to your bank account (a debit card usually does not count). Check your bill the month after.
- Want it back? Copy our complaint, fill in the blanks, send it to your provider, then the CCTS.
Last updated: October 21, 2026
New: Rogers and Fido Add a Credit Card Fee
Starting January 17, 2027, a 1.6% credit card processing charge applies when you pay a Rogers or Fido bill by credit card. On a $100 bill, that is $1.60 a month.
- No charge if you pay by: direct debit from your bank account, online banking, cheque, Rogers gift card, prepaid card, Visa Debit or Debit Mastercard.
- Not charged at all: customers in Quebec, where provincial law bans credit card surcharges; customers on Connected for Success and some other specialized plans; and former Shaw Mobile customers on migrated plans.
- Not stated: whether Rogers Bank credit cards pay the charge. Rogers' page does not say.
So a customer paying with an ordinary credit card can lose the $5 autopay discount and pay 1.6% on top. Rogers says the charge reflects the fees card companies charge it. Source: Rogers, “Understanding the credit card processing charge”.
What Each Carrier Does
Checked on each carrier's own pages on October 21, 2026. We found no autopay discount at Vidéotron, Fizz, SaskTel, TekSavvy or Public Mobile. Terms change, so confirm on your own account.
| Carrier | Discount | Credit card gets it? |
|---|---|---|
| Telus, Koodo | Up to $10 a line | No. Since April 8, 2025, new customers and anyone who changes plan get $10, for bank payments only. An older $5 discount also worked on a credit card; that ended with October 2025 bills. Koodo customers in Quebec who joined before April 8, 2025 keep $5 on a card. |
| Bell, Virgin Plus | $10 a line, eligible plans | No. Switching to a credit card removes it. |
| Rogers, Fido | $5 | Only on a Rogers Bank credit card, since July 23, 2026 (home services) and September 15, 2026 (mobile). Their pages do not say plainly whether existing customers paying with another card kept it. |
| Cogeco | $10 mobile, $5 internet, new customers | No. |
| Freedom Mobile | $5, with the Digital Discount promo code | Yes. |
| Eastlink | $10 mobile, $5 home services, newer plans | Yes. Its setup steps accept a credit card or a bank account. |
| Lucky Mobile, chatr | Bonus data, not a discount | Yes. |
“Bank payments” means a pre-authorized debit from your bank account. At Telus, Koodo, Bell, Virgin Plus and Cogeco, a Visa Debit or Mastercard Debit card counts as a card and does not get the discount.
Sources: Koodo and MobileSyrup, August 5, 2025 (Telus, Koodo); Bell; Virgin Plus; Rogers; Fido; Cogeco; Freedom; Eastlink.
How We Got Here
Card companies charge the carrier a fee on every credit card payment. A direct surcharge for paying by card was tried in 2022 and dropped in 2023 after public objections (CBC News). The discount reaches the same result: paying by card costs more than paying from a bank account. With the Rogers and Fido charge, the direct fee is back as well.
Is It Allowed?
On month-to-month: generally yes, with advance notice. For a month-to-month plan, the codes treat the commitment period as only the current month or billing cycle.
On a fixed-term contract: it depends on what your contract says. Under the Wireless Code, the minimum monthly charge is a key contract term, and a provider must not change key terms during the commitment period without your informed and express consent. The Internet Code has the same rule for home internet. The Wireless Code rule covers postpaid plans, not prepaid.
Carriers usually advertise the price with the discount already taken off (Bell: “Price includes … Autopay credit”; Rogers: “after Auto-Pay Discount”). That supports the case that the discounted price is the price you agreed to. Their service terms also say they may change credits and eligibility at any time, which is the answer to expect.
- If your monthly price already includes the discount, losing it raises your minimum monthly charge. That is a key term, and they needed your consent. In 2014 the CCTS found a breach where a provider changed a separate policy document and the change, in effect, altered the customer's key terms.
- If the discount is listed separately, as a promotion or a credit, the answer is less clear. Telus described its credit card discount as a “legacy $5 monthly promotional discount.” The CCTS looks at cases like this one at a time.
Either way, the document that decides it is your Critical Information Summary, the short summary your provider must give you with your contract. Find it in your email or your online account.
The new card fee: outside Quebec, merchants have been allowed since October 2022 to add up to 2.4% for credit card payments, under a settlement with the card networks (Financial Consumer Agency of Canada). In December 2022 the CRTC refused a similar Telus fee on regulated home phone service.
What to Do
- Check your bill. Look for the autopay or pre-authorized payment discount line. If it was there before and is gone now, note the month it disappeared.
- If you just want the discount back, switch your autopay to a pre-authorized debit from your bank account. A debit card usually does not count. With Rogers and Fido, a plan change can also cost you the discount, so check before you change anything else.
- Paying Rogers or Fido by credit card? From January 17, 2027, bank debit, online banking or a debit card also avoids the 1.6% charge.
- If you are on a fixed-term contract and lost it, find your Critical Information Summary. If the monthly price it shows includes the discount, complain to your provider first, then to the CCTS if they do not fix it.
The CCTS is free and independent of your provider. Reach it at 1-888-221-1687, and see our full CCTS guide for the process and the one-year deadline.
What to Write
For a fixed-term contract where the agreed monthly price included the discount. Send it to your provider first, or paste it into the CCTS form:
"I am a [provider] customer (account [number]). I am in a fixed-term contract that began on [date] and runs to [date]. My Critical Information Summary shows a monthly charge of $[amount], which includes the pre-authorized payment discount. On my [month] bill the discount was removed and my monthly charge rose to $[amount]. I did not give express consent to this change. The minimum monthly charge is a key contract term under the [Wireless Code / Internet Code], which a provider may not change during the commitment period without the customer's informed and express consent. I am asking that the discount be restored for the rest of my commitment period and the difference refunded."
The rules on your bill keep moving
Activation and cancellation fees were banned in 2026, self-service cancellation is mandated for 2027, and the CRTC is weighing outage refunds now. We follow those proceedings and email our list when something is actually decided.