Credit card processing fees in Canada, explained.

Credit card fees come from three layers

A customer taps a Visa card for a $40 bag of potting soil at a hardware store. Before the money lands in your account, three parties take a share:

1. The card-issuing bank receives interchange.
2. The card network (Visa, Mastercard) charges network fees, often called assessment fees.
3. Your processor adds its markup for moving the transaction and running your account.

Debit works differently and has its own section below. On top of per-sale costs, most accounts carry monthly fees, and many businesses pay separately for equipment and software.

What interchange is, and who controls it

Interchange is paid to the bank that issued your customer's card, and the card networks set the rates. Visa puts it plainly: merchants do not pay interchange directly. You pay a merchant discount fee to your processor, and interchange is inside it.

Interchange is usually the largest part of a credit card sale's cost. It is not one rate: it changes with the card type, how the card was accepted, your industry and your size.

No processor can lower interchange for one merchant. What a processor controls is its markup and how clearly it shows you the whole cost. That is where comparing providers makes sense.

What Visa charges in Canada

Visa Canada's published interchange for consumer credit cards, as a percentage of the sale. Interchange only: network fees and your processor's markup are added on top.

Visa Debit is a flat $0.03 per electronic transaction. Business credit starts at 2.00%.

Source: Visa Canada interchange rates, checked 24 September 2026.

Two things the table shows. A premium card like Visa Infinite Privilege costs you far more than a basic card, and you do not choose which card a customer hands you. And a sale typed in over the phone costs more than the same sale tapped at the counter.

What Mastercard charges in Canada

Mastercard publishes its own schedule. The main consumer credit rates, effective 1 August 2026:

Mastercard's small-business rates apply below $175,000 in annual Mastercard credit volume. Unlike Visa, Mastercard has no separate restaurant or grocery rate. Every category, with the World Legend tier, is in our interchange rates guide.

Source: Mastercard Canada interchange rates, effective 1 August 2026.

Are you getting the small-business rates?

On 19 October 2024, the federal government's credit card fee reductions for small businesses took effect. Finance Canada says:

• Interchange fell by up to 27 per cent for eligible businesses.
• You qualified with annual Visa sales below $300,000, or annual Mastercard sales below $175,000. Visa's threshold rises to $750,000 on 24 October 2026.
• In store, the target is a weighted average interchange of 0.95 per cent. Online interchange fell by 10 basis points.

The "small merchant" and "small business" rows in the tables above are those rates. Whether they reach you depends on your processor. The government expects processors to pass the savings on, but the rule is about notice: under the Code of Conduct, a processor must tell you when a reduction is not passed on in full, and you can then leave without penalty.

If your sales are under those thresholds and you never received a notice, compare your statement's credit card cost with the small-merchant rows. If you cannot tell, that is exactly what a statement review is for.

Network fees

Network fees are charged by the card networks themselves, separate from interchange. The Visa assessment fee people search for is one of these. Your processor collects them and passes them on.

On a statement they may appear as their own lines, be grouped with interchange as pass-through costs, or be folded into one blended rate. If you cannot find them, that tells you something about how your pricing is presented.

Processor markup

The markup is what your processor charges for its own service: authorizing and settling sales, running your account and supporting you. It can be a percentage, a fixed amount per transaction, or both.

This is the part that differs between providers and contracts, and it can be shown clearly or buried inside a blended rate.

Interac and Visa Debit are priced per transaction

Debit does not follow the credit card percentages.

Interac debit. Interac sets its interchange at zero. Processors pay Interac a small network fee per transaction, and you pay your processor a fee set in your contract. There is no published merchant rate, so an Interac tap on a $4 coffee and one on a $400 grocery order can cost you exactly the same.

Visa Debit. Visa's published interchange for an electronic Visa Debit sale is a flat $0.03 per transaction. Your processor's own charges come on top.

For a coffee counter doing hundreds of small taps a day, debit cost follows the number of transactions, not their size. Check your statement for the per-transaction debit charge.

Monthly and compliance fees

Many accounts carry fees that have nothing to do with how much you sell. Names vary, but look for:

• A monthly account or statement fee.
• A monthly minimum, charged when your processing fees fall below a set amount.
• PCI compliance fees, and non-compliance fees if a security questionnaire is not completed.
• Chargeback and retrieval fees when a customer disputes a sale.
• Gateway fees if you take payments online or through a virtual terminal.

A seasonal business, like a ski rental shop in July, feels these most in quiet months, when fixed charges become a large share of a small total.

Equipment and software

Terminals and POS systems can be bought, rented or leased. Software is often a separate monthly subscription.

An equipment lease can be a separate contract with a separate company, and it may not end when your processing agreement ends. Before signing, ask who owns the equipment, how long that agreement runs, and what it costs to leave.

Can you add a surcharge for credit cards?

Yes, in most of Canada, within the card networks' rules:

• Credit cards only. Visa and Mastercard prohibit surcharges on their debit and prepaid cards.
• Capped. The surcharge cannot exceed your own cost of accepting that card, and never 2.4%.
• Notice first. Visa requires 30 days' written notice to your processor. Mastercard requires 30 days' notice to Mastercard and your processor.
• Posted. Customers must see it at the store or website entrance and at checkout, and on the receipt.
• Not in Quebec. Quebec's consumer protection office says charging consumers a card fee is prohibited, and a warning sign does not make it legal.

Every rule, with sources, is in our surcharging guide.

Pricing models, explained neutrally

Processors present the same underlying costs in different ways.

Interchange-plus. Interchange and network fees are passed through at cost and listed separately, with the markup shown on top. It is the easiest model for checking the markup. Statements are longer.

Flat rate. One rate, sometimes plus a per-transaction amount, covers most card sales. It is simple to predict. The margin sits inside the rate, so it moves with your card mix and is harder to see.

Tiered. Sales are sorted into tiers (often qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified), each with its own rate. The processor decides which sales land in which tier, so ask for that rule in writing.

The useful question is not which model wins, but whether you can see what you are paying and whether it suits how your customers pay.

How to calculate your effective rate

Effective rate = total card processing fees for the month ÷ total card sales for the month. Work out credit and debit separately, and leave equipment and software out.

Example only, with invented round numbers. You took $20,000 in credit card sales last month and paid $500 in credit card processing fees. $500 ÷ $20,000 = 0.025, an effective rate of 2.5% for that month. These figures show the arithmetic. They are not a typical rate, a quote or a benchmark.

With your own statement:

1. Add up the credit card processing fees for the month: interchange, network fees, markup and account fees tied to processing.
2. Find total credit card sales for the same month.
3. Divide. Then do the same for debit.
4. Repeat for a few months. One month can mislead, especially around holidays or a slow season.

Your rights under the Code of Conduct

Canada's Code of Conduct for the Payment Card Industry, overseen by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), took effect in its current form on 30 October 2024.

• Notice of fee changes. You must get 30 to 60 days' notice of a fee increase or a new fee.
• Cancelling after a fee change. You may cancel without penalty within 70 calendar days after the change takes effect. If notice was not given, you may cancel without penalty at any time.
• Small-business reductions. If a reduction in core network fees is not passed on to you in full, your processor must tell you 30 to 60 days before it takes effect.
• Complaints. A complaint must be acknowledged within 5 business days and addressed within 20 business days for processors, 30 for card networks.
• Renewals. A fixed-term contract cannot auto-renew for another full term, only for extensions of six months or less.
• Saying no to a renewal. You may give notice of non-renewal at any point, up to 45 calendar days before the agreement renews.

The Code covers your card processing agreement and related services. An equipment lease, a software subscription or a gateway from a different company may have its own terms, so read those separately. Keep every fee notice you receive: it is your record of when the clock started.

How to read your statement

Most statements have the same parts, whatever the layout.

• Summary. Total card sales, total fees and the net deposit. Use these for your effective rate.
• Sales by card type. Visa, Mastercard, Interac and others, often split by card category. This is your card mix.
• Interchange and network fee lines. Listed separately on interchange-plus pricing. On flat or tiered pricing they may not appear.
• Processor fees. Per-transaction charges, percentage markups and tier surcharges.
• Account fees. Monthly, minimum, compliance, chargeback and gateway fees.
• Equipment. Rental or lease charges, if billed through the processor.

Circle anything you cannot explain, and anything new this month. Ask about those in writing.

Common questions