Something broke, the bill is due before the next deposit, and the search results are full of offers. If you are considering short-term loans in New Brunswick, the province has one regulator covering lenders, and it will answer your questions in English or in French.
Below is how lending is regulated here, what a lender must tell you before you sign, how to check a company, and the free options that are worth trying before you borrow anything.
The short answer
Short-term loans in New Brunswick come in two forms. A payday loan advances $1,500 or less for 62 days or less from a lender licensed by the Financial and Consumer Services Commission of New Brunswick, at a cost capped per $100 borrowed. Anything longer is ordinary consumer credit, priced as an APR under Canada’s 35% criminal rate, in force since 1 January 2025.
Short-term loans in New Brunswick at a glance
- Payday regime: New Brunswick is a designated province, so payday lending here is licensed and price-capped.
- Legal definition: $1,500 or less advanced, 62 days or less, a lender licensed in a designated province, and a cost inside that province’s cap — all four at once, under section 347.1 of the Criminal Code.
- Regulator: FCNB, the Financial and Consumer Services Commission of New Brunswick, for licence checks and complaints, in English or French.
- Dishonoured payment: capped at $20 on a payday loan in regime provinces.
- Federal ceiling: 35% APR criminal rate across Canada since 1 January 2025, replacing a 60% effective annual rate.
- Income test: lenders that require employment income do not count EI, WorkSafeNB, social assistance or provincial disability payments.
FCNB regulates lending in New Brunswick
The Financial and Consumer Services Commission of New Brunswick, known as FCNB, is the provincial regulator responsible for consumer protection in financial services. It licenses payday lenders, administers the province’s cost of credit disclosure requirements, publishes borrower education material, and receives complaints.
New Brunswick is one of the provinces with a payday lending regime. Under section 347.1 of the Criminal Code, a loan is treated as a payday loan when the amount advanced is $1,500 or less, the term is 62 days or less, and the lender is licensed in a province designated for that purpose and stays within that province’s cost cap. New Brunswick is designated, so licensed payday lending exists here under provincial limits.
Two other names belong beside it. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada publishes guidance on borrowing costs and the federal rules sitting above every province. Equifax and TransUnion are the national credit bureaus, and what a New Brunswick lender reports about you goes to them. Because all four criminal-code conditions have to be met together, the 62-day line between payday lending and ordinary credit is what decides which rulebook governs your agreement.
What licensing means, and how to check it
A licence is not a recommendation. It means the business has met provincial requirements and can be held to account by FCNB if it breaks the rules. That is worth a good deal when something goes wrong, and it costs you nothing to verify.
- Get the lender’s full legal name from the agreement or the website terms, not the brand in the advertisement.
- Check that name with FCNB, or contact FCNB and ask whether the business is licensed for the product being offered.
- Ask whether the business has any enforcement history in New Brunswick.
- Do all of the above before you provide banking details or pay anything.
Two things should end a conversation immediately: a demand for a fee up front to release a loan, and a refusal to give a legal name. Neither belongs in legitimate lending. The full method is in our guide to checking that a Canadian lender is legitimate.
Red flags worth walking away from
- A fee before funding. A legitimate lender takes its cost out of the loan or builds it into the payments. Money demanded up front to release an approval is advance-fee fraud.
- Guaranteed approval or instant approval. Nobody can promise either before looking at anything. The phrase marks a sales funnel, not an underwriting decision.
- Cheapest or best rates in New Brunswick. No lender can substantiate that. Compare the total of payments instead.
- Urgency. An offer that expires tonight exists to stop you reading the agreement.
- English-only paperwork when you asked for French. Provincial services operate in both languages, and a lender that will not match that is telling you something.
Disclosure is a legal requirement, not a courtesy
New Brunswick’s cost of credit disclosure rules require lenders to tell you what credit costs before you are bound by the agreement. In practice you should be able to read, in writing:
- The principal actually advanced to you.
- The cost of borrowing in dollars.
- The annual percentage rate.
- The number, amount and dates of the payments.
- The total you will have paid at the end of the term.
Two figures set nationally are worth holding onto as well. In provinces that license payday lending, the cost of borrowing on a payday loan is capped as a set dollar amount per $100 borrowed, commonly stated as $14 per $100, with each province setting and updating its own figure, and the charge for a dishonoured payment is capped at $20 or less. Since 1 January 2025 the federal criminal rate of interest has been 35% APR for consumer lending generally. For New Brunswick’s current payday cap and cancellation rules, ask FCNB rather than trusting a figure on any website.
Three terms carry most of the weight. The amount advanced is the money that reaches your account, before any fee is deducted. The total cost of borrowing is every dollar you pay beyond that, interest and fees together. The APR states that cost as an annualised rate, so offers of different lengths can be set side by side. Our walkthrough of a Canadian loan agreement line by line shows where each figure is meant to appear on the page.
What a capped payday loan costs, worked through
Take $400 for fourteen days at $14 per $100, the figure commonly used across regime provinces. Substitute whatever FCNB confirms is in force in New Brunswick; the method does not change.
- Step 1: $400 ÷ $100 = 4 hundreds advanced.
- Step 2: 4 × $14 = $56 cost of borrowing.
- Step 3: $400 + $56 = $456 due on the due date, in a single payment.
- Step 4: $56 ÷ $400 = 14% of the principal, charged over 14 days.
- Step 5: 365 ÷ 14 = 26.07 such periods in a year, and 14% × 26.07 = roughly 365% on an annualised basis.
The cap is real and enforced, and the $56 is not the trap on its own. Step 3 is: the whole $456 leaves at once, usually on a payday, which is what produces the second loan. Our post on what rolling over a short-term loan actually costs follows that sequence to the end.
Why a longer loan can cost more at the same rate
Here is the result most people get wrong. Two offers can carry an identical APR and one still costs more than twice as much. Take $1,000 at 28% APR, paid bi-weekly, and change nothing except the number of payments.
- Twelve payments: $89.28 × 12 = $1,071.36. Cost of borrowing $71.36.
- Twenty-six payments: $44.30 × 26 = $1,151.80. Cost of borrowing $151.80.
The second offer halves the payment and more than doubles the cost. Nothing changed but the term, because interest is charged on the balance still outstanding and the longer schedule leaves you owing for a full year.
It also corrects a common piece of arithmetic. People assume 28% APR on $1,000 means $280. It does not, because the balance falls with every payment, and the real cost here is $71.36 or $151.80 depending on the term. That is why an APR has to be read alongside the total of payments rather than on its own.
Short-term loans in New Brunswick that are not payday loans
The 62-day term is the legal fork. Credit repaid over several months is not a payday loan, is not subject to the payday cost cap, and falls under general consumer credit rules. Its cost is quoted as an APR, and each payment is smaller because the term is longer.
To compare anything sensibly, ask for the principal advanced, the total cost of borrowing in dollars, and the total of payments, then set the payment dates beside your own pay dates for the whole term rather than the first month. It also helps to know what no credit check actually means, because the phrase describes the assessment method rather than promising an outcome. The structural differences between the two product types are set out in our comparison of payday loans and instalment loans in Canada.
Getting help in French or English
New Brunswick is officially bilingual, and provincial services including FCNB operate in both languages. If a lender will not provide the agreement and the disclosure statement in the language you read most comfortably, that is a reason to look elsewhere rather than to sign and hope.
The same applies to advice: non-profit credit counselling and community services here work in both languages, and cost nothing.
Five questions to ask before you sign in New Brunswick
- What reaches my account, and what is deducted first? Compare the amount advanced with the amount you asked for.
- What is the total of payments, in dollars? Multiply the payment by the number of payments yourself and check it matches the agreement.
- How many days is the term? At 62 days or fewer you are inside the payday regime and the provincial cap applies. Longer, and you are comparing APRs under the 35% criminal rate.
- Do the payment dates land after my deposits? Map every date across the full term, not just the first two.
- What happens if a payment is returned? On a payday loan in a regime province the lender’s charge is capped at $20. On other credit it is whatever the agreement states, and your own bank may add a returned-item charge of its own, typically in the range of tens of dollars.
If a lender cannot answer all five in writing, that is your answer. There is a longer list in twelve questions to ask a lender before you borrow.
Cheaper routes to try before borrowing
Work through this list first. Each item can reduce the amount you need or remove the need entirely:
- Ask your employer for an advance on wages you have already earned.
- Ask the creditor for a payment arrangement. NB Power, municipalities, garages and dental clinics will often spread a bill if you call before the account goes to collections.
- Ask a New Brunswick credit union or caisse populaire about a small personal loan or low-cost overdraft.
- Book a free session with a non-profit credit counselling agency through Credit Counselling Canada.
- Dial 2-1-1 for community and emergency assistance programs near you.
A short-term loan suits a defined one-off expense repayable from income you already have. It is the wrong tool for a standing gap between monthly income and monthly costs, because it adds a payment to a budget that already does not balance.
What a longer-term small loan looks like
Lendeca operates in this second category, as a co-borrower service rather than a payday lender: $250 to $1,500, up to 12 weekly or bi-weekly payments timed to the pay cycle, always over a term longer than 62 days, an APR consistently below 29%, administration fees disclosed in the agreement before signing, and no automatic renewals. Qualifying requires being 18 or older, employed and receiving a regular paycheque from a job, holding an active Canadian bank account in your own name, and not being in active bankruptcy or under a consumer proposal. Benefit income does not qualify, including EI, WorkSafeNB and other workers-compensation payments, provincial social assistance and disability programs. The mechanics are set out in our walkthrough of how the co-borrower process works step by step.
Crossing a provincial border changes the rules
Rules and regulators change at each provincial border, which matters where many people work across one. There is no payday lending regime at all in Quebec, so the same offer is not under the same rulebook in Campbellton and in Pointe-à-la-Croix. Nova Scotia sets its cap through a public rate-setting process, and Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island each run their own. The province you live in decides which rules protect you.
Common questions
Are payday loans legal in New Brunswick?
Yes. New Brunswick is a designated province under section 347.1 of the Criminal Code, so payday lending is legal here when the lender holds a provincial licence and operates within New Brunswick’s cost, disclosure and conduct rules. FCNB is where to confirm a licence, and an unlicensed lender is not permitted to offer a payday loan to a New Brunswick resident.
What is the maximum a payday lender can charge in New Brunswick?
The province sets a maximum cost of borrowing per $100 advanced on a payday loan. Across regime provinces the figure is commonly stated as $14 per $100, but each province sets and revises its own. Ask FCNB for the amount currently in force in New Brunswick rather than relying on a lender’s page or an older article.
What is the maximum interest rate in Canada?
Since 1 January 2025 the federal criminal rate of interest has been 35% APR, replacing an effective annual rate of 60%. It applies to consumer lending across Canada, New Brunswick included. Payday loans made under section 347.1 of the Criminal Code are the exception: they are governed by the provincial dollar-per-$100 cap instead, which is why their annualised cost runs far higher.
Is a loan repaid over four months a payday loan?
No. A loan is only a payday loan when all four conditions are met together: $1,500 or less advanced, 62 days or less, a lender licensed in a designated province, and a cost inside that province’s cap. A four-month term fails the second condition, so the loan is ordinary consumer credit, priced as an APR and subject to Canada’s 35% criminal rate.
Can I cancel a payday loan after signing?
New Brunswick’s payday lending rules include cancellation rights, which let a borrower return the money within a short window without paying the cost of borrowing. Confirm the current window and the exact steps with FCNB, cancel in writing rather than by phone, and keep a copy of what you sent along with the date you sent it.
Does social assistance or WorkSafeNB income qualify for a loan?
Not for a Lendeca loan, which requires employment income from a job. EI, WorkSafeNB payments, provincial social assistance and disability programs do not qualify. Where benefits are the household income, a payment arrangement with the creditor, free credit counselling through Credit Counselling Canada, or a call to 2-1-1 is the better first move.
Can I get the agreement in French?
New Brunswick is officially bilingual and provincial services including FCNB operate in English and French. A lender that will not supply the agreement and the disclosure statement in the language you read most comfortably is worth leaving. Signing a document you cannot fully read removes the protection the disclosure rules were written to give you.
Who do I complain to about a lender in New Brunswick?
FCNB, the Financial and Consumer Services Commission of New Brunswick, handles consumer complaints about lenders operating in the province. Complain in writing using the company’s full legal name, and keep the signed agreement, the disclosure statement, your bank records and every message. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada is the federal body for complaints about banks.
Where can I get free debt help in New Brunswick?
Credit Counselling Canada lists non-profit member agencies offering free counselling sessions across the country, New Brunswick included, in English and in French. Dialling 2-1-1 connects you to local community, food, heat and rent assistance. Both cost nothing, neither requires you to borrow, and both are worth trying before an application rather than after a missed payment.
New Brunswick gives you a regulator, a disclosure standard and service in both official languages. Use all three: verify the licence, read the five disclosure figures, and try the free options before you sign.
