The short answer
- Pick a flat rate if you’re new, small or seasonal, or you just want a bill you can predict. Square charges 2.5% in person with no monthly fee.
- Look at interchange-plus once your card sales are steady and growing. Helcim and Clearly Payments publish their markups, and both markups get smaller as you process more.
- Either way, compare totals, not headlines. A flat rate is the whole price. An interchange-plus markup is only part of it.
How each model works
Every credit card payment has two costs inside it. One is interchange, the fee that goes to the bank that issued your customer’s card. The other is what your provider keeps.
Canada’s Department of Finance calls interchange “the largest component” of what businesses pay to accept credit cards (Department of Finance, 2024). Visa says “Visa sets default interchange rates in Canada,” and that interchange is “paid by the merchant’s financial institution (the acquirer) to a cardholder’s financial institution (the issuer)” (Visa Canada).
Interchange isn’t one number. Visa’s own Canadian rate table lists different interchange rates for different cards (Classic, Gold and Platinum cards, Infinite cards, Infinite Privilege cards, business cards) and for in-person versus online payments (Visa Canada interchange rates). Premium rewards cards generally sit higher in that table.
Flat rate
The provider rolls everything into one rate. You pay the same on a basic card and a premium rewards card. Published in-person flat rates:
- Square: 2.5%
- Shopify (Basic plan): 2.6%
- Lightspeed: 2.6% + 10¢
- Moneris: 2.65% + 10¢
- Stripe: 2.7% + 5¢
The upside is simplicity. The downside is that the rate has to be high enough to cover the expensive cards, so on cheaper cards you pay more than the real cost.
Interchange-plus
You pay the actual interchange on each card, plus a markup. Published markups:
- Helcim: interchange + 0.40% + 8¢ in person, and interchange + 0.50% + 25¢ online or keyed in, for up to $50,000 a month. In person, it drops to 0.35% + 7¢ at $50,000 to $100,000 a month, and keeps falling to 0.15% + 6¢ at $1 million to $5 million.
- Clearly Payments: interchange + 0.38% + 8¢ in person and 0.48% + 23¢ online or keyed in, for $150,000 to $300,000 a year in card sales. Clearly doesn’t publish a markup below $150,000 a year.
- Clearly Payments membership: $99 a month plus 8¢ per payment, for up to $50,000 a month in processing. No percentage markup is listed. Pro is $189 a month plus 6¢, for $50,000 to $250,000 a month.
Remember, these are markups only. Your real cost is interchange plus the markup. Helcim says that “for most merchants,” its total in-person effective rate is “near or below 2%” (Helcim’s claim, not ours). Clearly says interchange-plus “typically saves established businesses 10 to 25%” (Clearly’s claim, not ours).
Moneris offers both
Moneris sells a Flat Rate plan at 2.65% + 10¢ in person and a “Simplified” interchange-plus plan. Moneris says flat rate is “ideal for businesses that value cost certainty,” and that Simplified “may be the right option” if you’re “comfortable with pricing variability.” It doesn’t publish the Simplified markup. You’d need a quote.
Side by side
- SquareVisit Square
Flat rate
- In person
- 2.5%
- Online
- 2.8% + 30¢
- Monthly
- $0 · Free plan
- Contract
- Month to month
- StripeVisit Stripe
Flat rate
- In person
- 2.7% + 5¢
- Online
- 2.9% + 30¢
- Monthly
- $0 · Reader bought separately
- Contract
- Not published
- MonerisVisit Moneris
Flat or custom
- In person
- 2.65% + 10¢
- Online
- 2.85% + 30¢
- Monthly
- $39.95 · Terminal rental + software fee
- Contract
- Not published
- HelcimVisit Helcim
Interchange-plus
- In person
- Interchange + 0.4% + 8¢
- Online
- Interchange + 0.5% + 25¢
- Monthly
- $0 · No monthly fee
- Contract
- Month to month, no cancellation fee
- Clearly PaymentsVisit Clearly Payments
Interchange-plus
- In person
- Interchange + 0.38% + 8¢
- Online
- Interchange + 0.48% + 23¢
- Monthly
- Not published
- Contract
- Month to month, no cancellation fee
Prices checked Oct 19, 2026 on each provider's own pricing page (how we check). "Interchange +" means the provider publishes only its markup. You also pay the card networks' interchange fee on top.
One sale, two ways to pay for it
Here’s a $50 in-person credit card sale. These are our estimates from published rates.
Flat rate:
| Provider | Published rate | Fee on $50 |
|---|---|---|
| Square | 2.5% | $1.25 |
| Stripe | 2.7% + 5¢ | $1.40 |
| Moneris | 2.65% + 10¢ | about $1.43 |
Interchange-plus at Helcim: the markup is 0.40% + 8¢, which is 28¢ on a $50 sale. Interchange comes on top.
How much interchange? For qualifying small businesses, Visa and Mastercard agreed in 2024 to bring in-store consumer credit interchange to “an annual weighted average interchange rate of 0.95 per cent” (Department of Finance). At 0.95%, interchange on $50 is about 48¢. Visa also lists a 0.09% acquirer service fee on all Visa volume in Canada (Visa Canada assessment fees), which is about 5¢ here if your provider passes it on.
That adds up to roughly 80¢ on interchange-plus, against $1.25 to $1.43 on the flat rates above.
Read that with care. The 0.95% is an average across a year, not the rate on every card. A premium rewards card or a business card can cost more. A card from outside Canada can cost a lot more. That’s exactly the risk interchange-plus hands to you, and the reason a flat rate costs more.
When a membership beats a percentage markup
A membership swaps the percentage markup for a fixed monthly fee. Compare Clearly’s Basic membership ($99 a month + 8¢ per payment) with Helcim’s markup (0.40% + 8¢). The 8¢ is the same, so the question is whether $99 is less than 0.40% of your monthly card sales.
0.40% of $24,750 is $99. So, by our estimate:
- Under about $24,750 a month in card sales, Helcim’s 0.40% costs less than the $99 membership.
- Above it, the membership costs less, up to Clearly’s $50,000 a month limit for Basic.
Two things to check. Clearly says “a fixed membership fee stays part of the cost even in a quieter month,” so a slow season counts against it. And Clearly says “terminal rental is additional where needed,” without a published price. Helcim lists no monthly account fee.
Who each model suits
A flat rate suits you if:
- You’re new, small or seasonal, and a month can be slow.
- You want to check your bill in 10 seconds.
- You don’t want to read a statement with dozens of card categories.
Skip it if your volume is steady and you can handle a variable bill. You’re likely paying for that simplicity.
Interchange-plus suits you if:
- You have steady card sales, roughly in the tens of thousands a month or more.
- Most of your customers pay in person with everyday Canadian cards.
- You want to see what the card networks charge, and what your provider keeps.
Skip it if you can’t tell whether a monthly bill went up because of your card mix or your provider. Clearly itself notes that “underlying bank and card-network costs can change,” even though it says it doesn’t raise its own markup.
Debit is priced differently either way
In Canada, Interac debit usually has its own price per payment, separate from credit. Helcim charges 9¢ (12¢ for tap), Moneris 12¢ in person, Stripe 15¢ and Shopify 15¢ on Basic. Square charges a percentage instead: 0.75% + 7¢, which is about 82¢ on a $100 debit sale. If many of your customers pay by debit, that line can matter more than your credit card model.
How to decide
- Find your effective rate: total fees divided by total card sales, from last month’s statement.
- Put your numbers into the fee calculator to see what the same month costs at published flat rates.
- Ask an interchange-plus provider for a written quote based on that same statement. Compare the totals, not the markups.
Keep reading
- Credit card processing fees, explained: every line on a Canadian statement.
- How to lower your card fees: practical steps, plus a checker for the 2024 fee cut.
- Compare payment processors in Canada: every provider side by side.
- Full breakdowns: Helcim, Clearly Payments, Square, Moneris.
Common questions
What is interchange-plus pricing?
It's a way of pricing card payments in two parts. You pay the interchange fee, which goes to the bank that issued your customer's card, plus a markup your provider keeps. Helcim, for example, publishes a markup of 0.40% + 8¢ per in-person payment for businesses processing up to $50,000 a month. The interchange part changes with each card.
Is interchange-plus cheaper than a flat rate?
Often, once you have steady volume, but not always. A flat rate has to cover the most expensive cards, so you overpay on cheaper ones. With interchange-plus you pay the real card cost, which you can't know in advance. The only fair test is your own statement: total fees divided by total card sales, compared to a quote.
Who should stick with a flat rate?
New businesses, seasonal businesses and anyone with low or uneven sales. Square charges a flat 2.5% in person with no monthly fee, so a slow month costs nothing extra. Flat rates are also easier to check. If your rate is 2.5%, every $100 of credit sales costs $2.50, whatever card your customer uses.
Does the 2024 credit card fee cut apply to flat-rate pricing?
The cut lowered interchange for qualifying small businesses. On interchange-plus, you pay interchange directly, so the lower rate should show up on that line. On a flat rate, you pay your provider's published rate, so you only benefit if your provider lowers it. The federal government said it expects processors to pass the savings on.