Corrections, in public

The video 5% Back on Groceries. What Do You Actually Get? says that $842 of groceries a month is "a household with a couple of teenagers in it."

We have no source for that. $842 is a calculation: the monthly grocery spend at which a no-fee card paying 2% returns more in a year than a $139 card paying 5% on the first $500 each statement period. It describes where two lines cross, not who spends that much. The only household figure we have, Canada's Food Price Report 2026, forecasts up to $17,571.79 a year for a family of four with one teenager, about $1,464 a month, and that is all food prepared at home, not spending at grocery stores.

The crossing point itself is right, and so are the other four in the video. What was wrong is attaching a household to one of them. The calculation, with its assumptions, is on What does 5% back pay?

The video The Real Way to Build Credit Scores in Canada from ZERO says to keep your balance low and to pay it down before your statement closes, not just by the due date, because of when the balance is reported.

TransUnion Canada states that lenders report activity to the credit bureaus at different times during the month, which may result in slight differences between your reports and scores. Equifax Canada says the same. We read both pages on 24 September 2026. None of the Canadian sources we checked says the reported balance is the one on your statement date.

The advice to keep your balance low holds, and so does the rest of the video's case for starting your credit early. What the video got wrong is tying the timing to your statement date. To act on this, ask your lender when it reports rather than assuming the statement date. The corrected explanation is on Building from zero.

The video How Credit Scores ACTUALLY Work in Canada | Complete Breakdown says that your credit utilization is typically reported to the credit bureaus on your statement date, not your payment date, and advises paying your balance down before your statement date.

TransUnion Canada states that lenders report activity to the credit bureaus at different times during the month, which may result in slight differences between your reports and scores. Equifax Canada says the same. We read both pages on 24 September 2026. None of the Canadian sources we checked says the reported balance is the one on your statement date.

The rest of what the video says about utilization holds: it is calculated from a balance reported at some point in the month, and keeping it low matters even when you pay in full. What the video got wrong is presenting the statement date as the usual reporting date. To act on this, ask your lender when it reports rather than assuming the statement date. The corrected explanation is on How a score is actually built.

The video How Credit Scores ACTUALLY Work in Canada | Complete Breakdown says you can check your Equifax score for free through many banking apps in Canada, and your TransUnion score for free through Borrowell.

That is the wrong way round for the providers we could check. Borrowell's own page says it gives you your Equifax Canada credit score. TD, CIBC and Scotiabank each say on their own pages that the free score in their banking app comes from TransUnion. We read all four pages on 24 September 2026. We could not check two providers: BMO, whose page did not load for us, and one other bank, for which we found no current page. For those two, we have not confirmed which bureau they show.

What the video says about the two bureaus holding different files, and about scores that can differ between them, still holds. What it got wrong is which bureau these services show. To act on this, check which bureau a free score comes from on the provider's own page before you rely on it, and remember that one app shows you one bureau. The corrected explanation is on Why yours looks different everywhere.

The video Balance Transfers: The Number That Actually Decides It says that at $500 a month, a ten-month offer with a 1% fee clears a $5,000 balance inside its promotion.

The fee is added to the balance when it moves, so the balance becomes $5,050. Ten payments of $500 come to $5,000, which leaves $50 owing when the promotion ends. Clearing it in ten months takes $505 a month, which is the figure the video itself works out earlier.

The video's method holds: add the fee to the balance and divide by the months in the promotion. What it got wrong is one worked example that used $500 instead of $505. To act on this, work out your own number the same way and pay at least that each month. The corrected explanation is on Is a balance transfer worth it?

In the video Balance Protection Insurance: What It Actually Pays, the caption says the second certificate "asks for thirty" hours a week.

The narration says twenty-five, and so does the figure on screen. Twenty-five is what the TD Credit Card Payment Protection Plan certificate asks for: it defines employed as working for salary or wages for a minimum of 25 hours or more per week. The caption was written for an earlier version of the narration and was not updated when the narration was re-recorded.

The point of that part of the video holds: the same twenty hours clears one certificate's published threshold and not another's. What was wrong is the number in the caption. The corrected captions are uploaded to the video, and the three certificates are set out side by side on What the certificate decides.

The video Balance Protection Insurance: What It Actually Pays walks through the regulator's $1,000 example as a fixed $100 a month for ten months, and says about $400 is still owing at the end.

A fixed $100 a month for ten months would leave about $96, not about $400. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's example has the insurance company pay 10% of the outstanding balance each month. The balance falls, so each payment is smaller than the one before, and after ten months FCAC says about $414 is still owing.

The video's point holds: a claim can be approved and paid every month and still leave a balance on the card. What was wrong is how the payment was described. To act on this, read how your own certificate works out the benefit, as a share of the balance or as a fixed amount. The example is set out on What the certificate decides.

In the video Don't Fall for the 'Up to 5%' Trap: A Canadian Banking Experiment, Neo's savings rate depends on the balance: 2% under $5,000, 2.50% from $5,000 to $20,000, and 2.75% from $20,000. That was right on 29 August 2026, when the rates were read.

Neo has since changed how the rate is set. Its memberships page now lists it by plan: 2% on Essentials, which is free, 2.5% on Build, and 2.75% on Grow, at $14.99 a month.

The point of that part of the video holds: "up to" is the top of a range, and the top rate waits behind something, now a paid plan rather than a balance. The current plans are set out on What a savings rate pays.

The video Your Mortgage Renewal Went Up $375. Your Raise Didn't Cover It. says that people who renewed their mortgage saw their payment go up $375 a month. The title uses the same figure.

That is not what CMHC measured. In its 2026 Mortgage Consumer Survey, 35% of renewers said their payments went up because of changes in interest rates, and $375 a month is the average increase among those people. It is not the average for everyone who renewed. For 2026 renewals, the Bank of Canada's analysis, as TD Economics reported it, puts the median payment change slightly below zero.

What to do: if your mortgage is renewing, look at your own renewal statement rather than the average. The corrected figures, and how to check your own renewal, are on What renewal does to a payment.

The video Your Mortgage Renewal Went Up $375. Your Raise Didn't Cover It. says that almost one in three people who renewed cut something else out of their lives to cover the higher payment, or said they were about to.

CMHC's figure is 31%, and it is not about renewers only. It covers everyone in its 2026 Mortgage Consumer Survey: people who had renewed or refinanced a mortgage, or bought a home, in the previous 18 months. And it describes people who had reduced, or would reduce, their other spending to lower the risk of missing a payment.

The number is right. The group it describes is wider than the video said. The figure is set out on What renewal does to a payment.

Near the end of the video Your Mortgage Renewal Went Up $375. Your Raise Didn't Cover It., the screen shows 0.24% of mortgages falling behind, credited to CMHC, 20 May 2026.

Two things were wrong. First, the source: the figure comes from the Canadian Bankers Association, which reports mortgages three or more months in arrears at six banks. CMHC's survey pages do not state it. Second, the date: 0.24% was the figure for August and September 2025. In every month of 2026 up to July it was between 0.27% and 0.29%, and for July 2026 it was 0.29%.

The point holds: about a quarter of 1% of these mortgages are in arrears, which the narration says. The current figure is on What renewal does to a payment.

The video TFSA vs RRSP vs FHSA | The Order Most Canadians Get Wrong (Canada 2026) says that if you wait two full years to open an FHSA, the first year of room, $8,000, is gone for good.

That is not how the room works. The Canada Revenue Agency says your FHSA participation room in the year you open your first FHSA is $8,000, and your carryforward in that year is $0. Room does not build up before the first FHSA is opened, so waiting to open one loses none. What does lose room is opening an FHSA and then not contributing for two years: unused room carried forward is capped at $8,000, so the third year has $16,000 of room, not $24,000.

This matters because opening an FHSA also starts a clock. The account's participation period begins when you open your first FHSA and ends by the end of the year of its 15th anniversary. Once an FHSA is open, the carryforward cap is what decides how much room can be lost. Both rules are set out on What each account gives.

The video TFSA vs RRSP vs FHSA | The Order Most Canadians Get Wrong (Canada 2026) says that for someone earning $60,000, a $3,000 RRSP contribution puts roughly $600 back in federal tax, because they are in the 20.5% bracket.

Only part of the deduction comes off income taxed at 20.5%. For 2026, the federal rate is 14% on taxable income up to $58,523 and 20.5% above it. On $60,000, $1,477 of the deduction comes off income taxed at 20.5%, which saves $302.78, and the other $1,523 comes off income taxed at 14%, which saves $213.22. Federal tax falls by $516.

The video is right that provincial tax adds to the saving. The worked example is on What each account gives.

The video TFSA vs RRSP vs FHSA | The Order Most Canadians Get Wrong (Canada 2026) says the Canada Revenue Agency's own example is a newcomer named David who arrived in 2020, whose TFSA room starts in 2020.

In the CRA's example, David turned 40 in 2024 and became a resident of Canada the same year. He contributed $95,000 to a new TFSA but had only $7,000 of room, the limit for 2024, so $88,000 was an excess, taxed at 1% for every month it stayed in the account.

The rule the video draws from the example is right: the CRA says a new resident starts to accumulate TFSA room on the day they have residency, if they are 18 or older. The example is set out on What each account gives.

The video TFSA vs RRSP vs FHSA | The Order Most Canadians Get Wrong (Canada 2026) says you cannot open an FHSA if you lived in a home you owned, anywhere in the world, this year or in the previous four calendar years. That is right.

It is not the whole test. The Canada Revenue Agency also lists a condition about a home your spouse or common-law partner owned or jointly owned: if you lived in it as your main home in the same period, the test is not met. The condition does not apply if you do not have a spouse or common-law partner when you open the account.

Both conditions are quoted on What each account gives.

The video Quebec Banking: Why the Rules Are Just Different (Canada 2026) says around 7 million people are Desjardins members or clients.

Desjardins now reports more than 10 million members and clients, as at December 31, 2025. The larger number comes mainly from a change in how it counts: since its 2025 results, the figure includes some people insured through group insurance or taking part in group retirement savings plans.

Nothing else in that part of the video changes. The current figure is on Banking in Quebec.

The video Quebec Banking: Why the Rules Are Just Different (Canada 2026) says that taking cash from an ATM that is not Desjardins can cost an extra $1.50, $3 or even $5 each time.

In Canada, the extra Desjardins fee is $1.50 at an ATM on the Interac network, and there is no extra Desjardins fee at an AccuLink ATM. The $3 and $5 fees apply on the PLUS network outside Canada: $3 in the rest of North America and $5 elsewhere in the world. The ATM's owner may charge its own fee on top, as the video says.

The fees are set out on Banking in Quebec.

The video Quebec Banking: Why the Rules Are Just Different (Canada 2026) says Desjardins is the largest cooperative of its kind in North America.

Desjardins' own pages do not say that. They describe it as the largest cooperative financial group in Canada, and, citing the World Cooperative Monitor 2025, as eighth in the world by turnover.

Nothing else in that part of the video changes. The figure is on Banking in Quebec.

The video Statement Date vs Due Date The Wrong Day to Pay (Canada 2026) says that on your statement date your bank takes a snapshot of your balance and sends it to the credit bureaus, and advises paying before that date.

TransUnion Canada states that lenders report activity to the credit bureaus at different times during the month, which may result in slight differences between your reports and scores. None of the Canadian sources we checked says the reported balance is the one on your statement date.

The mechanism the video describes is right: your utilization is calculated from a balance reported at some point in the month, not from what you owe today, and paying in full does not protect it. What the video got wrong is stating the statement date as a fact for every card. To act on this, ask your lender when it reports rather than assuming the statement date. The corrected explanation is on Paying in full and your utilization.