Meet the loonie, toonie and missing penny, then learn why a C$20 price tag is not always a C$20 bill and how Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal each speak a different tap language.
Canada puts a loon in the pocket, leaves tax off many price tags and gives the same bank card a different job in every city.
Use a low-fee Visa or Mastercard for most spending, keep a separate backup and carry a small mix of C$5, 10 and 20 notes plus loonies and toonies. Choose CAD at terminals and ATMs.
Canada is easy to pay in, but its small print has personality. Sales tax usually arrives at checkout, cash totals round because the penny is gone, Interac is a Canadian debit system and restaurant tips are best calculated from the pre-tax subtotal.
Canadian dollar notes use bright colour, transparent polymer windows and large numerals, making a Canadian wallet unusually easy to read quickly.
Canada's polymer series connects national stories with exploration, remembrance, science and human rights, using large transparent windows as part of the visual identity. Cash by Country artwork is an original, simplified interpretation and is not legal tender.
Choose your currency. CAD stays locked to this guide.
Canada's wallet is a meeting of vivid polymer, wonderfully nicknamed coins and local systems that change with the province or city. Meet the cash, decode checkout tax, understand Interac, learn three transit grammars and keep the tip attached to the service rather than the tax.
Meet the polymer banknotes, the two coins Canada calls by name and the five-cent cash-rounding rule that leaves card totals untouched.
Meet Canadian cash 02 The price tag stops earlyTurn one C$100 price into five provincial totals and learn why groceries, restaurant meals and hotel bills do not all follow the same tax path.
Build the real total 03 Tap meets InteracUnderstand what the Interac logo means for a Canadian and what a visitor should look for before tapping a foreign card or using an ABM.
Read the Canadian terminal 04 Three cities, three fare personalitiesCompare Toronto's two-hour contactless transfer, Vancouver's entry and exit taps and Montreal's OPUS-first fare system.
Learn the city taps 05 Tip the meal, not the taxFind the right subtotal, avoid tipping an included gratuity twice and treat the counter screen as a choice rather than a command.
Read the Canadian receiptSources include the Bank of Canada, Royal Canadian Mint, Canada Revenue Agency, Interac and the official transit authorities in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
