Canada’s central bank rate has moved again, and the number in the headlines is not the number on your mortgage statement. As of October 2026, the Bank of Canada’s policy interest rate stands at 2.50%, following a 25-basis-point increase in its 28 October 2026 decision, with the next scheduled decision on 9 December 2026, according to a rate explainer checked on 2 November 2026.
The three rates, untangled
The Bank sets a target for the overnight rate — the rate large financial institutions charge each other for one-night loans. Around it sit the Bank Rate at 2.75% and the deposit rate at 2.45%, forming a 30-basis-point operating band. None of those three appears directly in a consumer mortgage, line of credit or credit card agreement. What does appear is the lender’s prime rate, which all of Canada’s Big Six banks raised from 4.45% to 4.70% effective 29 October 2026, according to the explainer.
What moves, and what does not
Variable-rate mortgages, home equity lines of credit and other prime-linked borrowing generally move when prime moves. Fixed-rate mortgages, by contrast, are priced off bond yields rather than the overnight rate, so they may move differently or not at all after a Bank decision. Credit card rates rarely move with the policy rate in any direct way. That distinction matters: a rate headline is not a promise that every borrowing cost rises by the same amount.
A short checklist after any announcement
List everything you hold — mortgage, HELOC, lines of credit, cards, savings accounts and GICs — and check each contract’s rate clause rather than guessing. If you make interest-only payments on a line of credit, a prime rise lifts the minimum payment but does not reduce the balance; only payments above the interest do that. For savers, a higher policy rate does not guarantee a higher savings rate, so compare the account’s actual rate, not the central bank’s.
