Getting Your Security Deposit Back
Thirty days, with interest. Both halves of that sentence are rules, and the second one almost nobody claims.
The rule. Your provider must return a security deposit with interest within 30 calendar days of your contract ending, or of the conditions attached to the deposit being satisfied. It may keep any amount you genuinely owe. It must return the rest.
Last updated: September 2026
The Interest Is Not Optional
This is the part providers rarely volunteer and customers rarely ask about. Interest on a security deposit is calculated using the Bank of Canada overnight rate in effect at the time, plus at least 1%, on the basis of the actual number of days in a year, accruing monthly.
On a few hundred dollars held for a year or two it is not life-changing money. It is still your money, it is owed to you by rule, and asking for it costs one sentence.
They Also Have to Justify Holding It
A provider may require a deposit, but not silently. It must give you reasons for requiring one and keep records of those reasons. It must also review annually whether continuing to hold your deposit is still appropriate.
So if you have been a customer in good standing for three years and a deposit taken at signup is still sitting there, asking “what is the current justification for holding this, and when was it last reviewed?” is a fair question with a rule behind it.
What to Do
- Find the date. The clock runs 30 calendar days from your contract ending, or from the deposit conditions being met. Know which applies and when it started.
- Ask for the deposit and the interest together, in writing, in one request. Asking only for the deposit usually gets you only the deposit.
- Get the amount they say you owe, itemized, if they are keeping part of it. “Applied to your account” is not an itemization.
- Take it to the CCTS if the 30 days pass or the deduction does not add up. Mishandled or unreturned deposits are explicitly within what it accepts. Free, and reachable at 1-888-221-1687.
Mind the one-year deadline. The CCTS will not act on a complaint brought more than a year after you knew, or ought to have known, the facts. An unreturned deposit is exactly the kind of thing people leave for eighteen months and then find they cannot pursue.
Does this cover TV service too?
Yes for the complaint route: the CCTS lists security deposits mishandled or not returned among the television complaints it accepts, alongside disputes about payment arrangements. See our satellite TV guide for how TV complaints differ more generally.
What if they say the deposit was applied to a final bill?
That can be legitimate — they may keep amounts you actually owe. Ask for the final bill and the deposit accounted for separately, so you can see the balance and whether interest was credited before the offset. If the arithmetic does not work, that is a billing dispute the CCTS can decide.
What to Write
"I am a former [provider] customer (account [number]). I paid a security deposit of $[amount] on [date]. My service ended on [date]. More than 30 calendar days have passed and the deposit has not been returned. The applicable code requires the deposit to be returned with interest within 30 calendar days of the contract ending, less any amount I actually owe. If you are retaining part of it, please provide an itemized statement of what is owed. Otherwise I am asking for the deposit and the accrued interest to be returned."
Rules that exist but go unclaimed
Deposit interest is one of several protections almost nobody uses because almost nobody is told. We follow the CRTC proceedings that set them, and email once when something is actually decided.