Mobile Cheque Deposit Limits in Canada by Bank (2026)

Every major Canadian bank lets you deposit a cheque by photographing it in its app. Most of them don’t publish a fixed dollar limit for these deposits: the limit is set per account, depends on the account’s age and history, and shows in the app when you start a deposit. This page compares what each bank does publish and walks through the deposit itself. It is part of our Canadian bank limits hub.

Mobile cheque deposit limits by bank

Newer accounts usually start with lower limits, as a guard against cheque fraud, and the limit tends to rise as the account builds a deposit history. None of the large banks publishes those account-age tiers, so the app is the place to check before depositing a large cheque into a new account.

How long a mobile deposit is held

A deposit made in an app is a non-branch deposit, so the bank can hold the funds for a few business days before you can spend them, within maximums set by federal rules. The hold limits, the exceptions that allow longer holds and what speeds release up are explained in how long a cheque takes to clear in Canada; each bank page above covers that bank’s own practice.

How to deposit a cheque in a banking app

The steps are much the same in every Canadian banking app:

1. Open the app, sign in and choose the cheque deposit option (called eDeposit at CIBC and Cheque-In at Tangerine).
2. Choose the account the money goes into.
3. Type the cheque amount exactly as written.
4. Sign the back of the cheque. Some banks ask for a restrictive endorsement below the signature, such as “For mobile deposit only”; the app shows the wording it wants.
5. Photograph the front on a flat, dark, well-lit surface with all four corners in the frame, then the back.
6. Check the details and submit. Keep the confirmation number.

Common reasons for a rejected deposit are a blurry or cropped photo, a missing signature, an amount that doesn’t match the cheque, or a cheque over your limit.

Keeping the paper cheque

Banks ask you to keep the original until the deposit has cleared, in case the image needs to be redone. The period varies by bank: TD, for example, asks you to mark the cheque as deposited and keep it for 14 days before destroying it. After that, shred it so it can’t be deposited twice.

Cheques the app won’t take

Most bank apps accept Canadian dollar cheques drawn on Canadian institutions only. US dollar and other foreign cheques generally go to a branch (RBC is an exception, accepting US dollar cheques into an RBC US dollar account), and some banks also refuse money orders, certified cheques or cheques signed over by someone else through the app. Each bank page lists its own exclusions.

When a cheque is over your mobile limit

• Deposit it at a branch. A teller deposit isn’t bound by the app’s limit.
• Use an ATM, where the bank allows it. At RBC the ATM shares the mobile limit; at banks without branches (Simplii, Tangerine) the parent bank’s ATMs are the in-person option.
• Ask for a higher limit. Some banks will raise it for a specific cheque on request.
• Ask the payer for another method, such as an electronic transfer, which avoids the cheque system and its holds.