How to reduce your credit card processing fees

The short answer

You can’t change interchange, the fee that goes to your customer’s bank. But you can change almost everything else on your statement. In order:

1. Find your real rate.
2. Check what you pay on debit.
3. Cut monthly and rental fees.
4. Watch foreign cards.
5. Stop typing cards in.
6. Skip paid instant payouts.
7. Look at interchange-plus once your volume is steady.

Then ask your provider, in writing, whether you got the 2024 fee cut. The checker below tells you if you’re likely to qualify.

Do you qualify for the 2024 fee cut?

Use your last 12 months of credit card sales, from your statements. Nothing you type is saved.

Visa credit sales in a year$Mastercard sales in a year$

Sources: Department of Finance Canada, October 2024 and Visa Canada (Visa's limit rises from $300,000 to $750,000 on October 24, 2026). This is a guide, not advice. Your provider can confirm how your rates changed.

1. Find your real rate first

Your effective rate is your total fees divided by your total card sales. If you paid $640 in fees on $20,000 of card sales, your effective rate is 3.2%.

That one number tells you if you have a problem. Published in-person credit rates at the flat-rate providers we compare run from 2.5% at Square to 2.7% + 5¢ at Stripe. If yours is well above that, something on your statement is costing you. The fee calculator does the maths and shows what the same month would cost elsewhere.

2. Check what you pay on debit

In Canada, Interac debit is usually priced per payment, not as a percentage. Published prices:

• Helcim: 9¢ (12¢ for tap)
• Moneris: 12¢ in person
• Stripe: 15¢
• Shopify: 15¢ on Basic, Grow and Advanced

Square is the exception. It charges 0.75% + 7¢ per debit payment. On a $100 debit sale, that’s 82¢ at Square, against 12¢ at Moneris. On a $10 sale it’s about 15¢, which is close to the others.

So if your customers often pay big bills by debit, this line can matter more than your credit card rate. If most of your debit sales are small, it matters less.

Also check online debit. Moneris charges $1.00 per Interac payment online or in an app, against 12¢ in person.

3. Cut monthly and rental fees

These fees come out whether you sell or not. Common ones:

• Terminal rental. Moneris rents its Go terminal from $34.95 a month. That’s $419.40 a year per terminal. Square, Stripe and Helcim sell hardware instead, with no monthly fee to take payments.
• Small recurring fees. Moneris lists a $5 Moneris Go software fee, a $5 minimum merchant discount rate and a $2 paper statement fee. Ask which ones apply to you and which you can turn off.
• Software billed monthly. Paying yearly is often cheaper. Shopify Basic is $49 a month billed monthly or $37 billed yearly, which saves $144 a year. Lightspeed Retail Basic is $139 or $119, which saves $240 a year.
• Plans you’ve outgrown, or never used. If you only take cards, you may not need a POS plan at all.

Clover’s page says “no PCI charge” and Helcim says it charges no minimums, software fees or statement fees. If you’re paying for any of those, ask what they’re for.

4. Watch foreign cards

Cards issued outside Canada usually cost more:

• Square adds 1.5% on cards issued outside Canada.
• Stripe charges 3.5% + 5¢ in person for international cards, against 2.7% + 5¢ for most cards. Online, it adds 0.8%, plus 2% if currency conversion is needed.
• Moneris lists a 0.80% foreign card fee on its Simplified (interchange-plus) pricing, “up to 1.00%.”
• Shopify charges 3.5% + 30¢ for online international cards on Basic, against 2.8% + 30¢ for standard cards.

If you get a lot of tourists or sell to the US, compare this line between providers. It can decide which one is cheaper for you.

5. Stop typing cards in

Payments where the card isn’t tapped or inserted cost more. Square charges 2.5% in person but 3.3% + 15¢ for keyed-in payments. On a $100 sale, that’s $2.50 against $3.45. Stripe adds 0.5% for cards entered by hand. Moneris charges 2.85% + 30¢ for card-not-present payments, against 2.65% + 10¢ in person.

Take phone orders? Ask whether your provider offers payment links or tap-to-pay at pickup instead, and check what each one costs.

6. Skip paid instant payouts

Getting your money faster can cost a lot over a year. Square charges 1.95% per instant transfer, so moving $1,000 instantly costs $19.50. Square’s standard transfers arrive as soon as the next business day at no charge. Stripe charges 1% for Instant Payouts, with a CA$0.60 minimum.

If you use instant payouts every day, add them up. Then decide if next-day is good enough.

7. Look at interchange-plus once your volume is steady

With a flat rate, you pay the same on every card. With interchange-plus, you pay the real card cost plus a markup. Published markups:

• Helcim: interchange + 0.40% + 8¢ in person, up to $50,000 a month. It drops to 0.35% + 7¢ from $50,000 to $100,000, and keeps falling with volume. Helcim says the discounts “automatically apply based on the average of your last three months of processing volume.”
• Clearly Payments: interchange + 0.38% + 8¢ in person, for $150,000 to $300,000 a year, falling to 0.15% + 4¢ at $3 million to $10 million. Or a membership at $99 a month plus 8¢ per payment, for up to $50,000 a month.

Those are markups only, never the total. Interchange comes on top and changes with each card. Ask for a written quote based on your real statement, and compare the total, not the markup. Our guide to interchange-plus vs flat rate explains when each wins.

Ask for the 2024 fee cut in writing

On October 17, 2024, the Department of Finance announced lower credit card fees for small businesses (Department of Finance). Here’s what it said:

• The lower rates came into effect on October 19, 2024.
• For qualifying small businesses, Visa and Mastercard agreed to reduce domestic consumer credit interchange for in-store payments to “an annual weighted average interchange rate of 0.95 per cent,” and to cut online interchange by 10 basis points, “resulting in reductions of up to 7 per cent.”
• You qualify with each network separately: “annual Visa sales volume below $300,000” for Visa, and “annual Mastercard sales volume below $175,000” for Mastercard. Non-profits under those limits also benefit.
• The government said interchange fees would be “reduced by up to 27 per cent.” Its example: a store processing $300,000 in credit card payments pays “nearly $4,000 in annual interchange fees” and “could save $1,080 in fees every year.”
• It said it “expects all members of the credit card industry, including payment processors, to pass these savings on directly to small businesses.”
• The revised Code of Conduct for the Payment Card Industry requires processors to “notify eligible businesses if network fee reductions will not be passed on in full,” and to remind them of their right to end their contract and switch.

The cut covers Visa and Mastercard domestic consumer credit cards. The release doesn’t mention American Express.

What this means for you. On interchange-plus, you pay interchange directly, so a 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.

What to do. If the checker says you’re likely to qualify, email your provider. Ask three things: Did my interchange go down after October 19, 2024? Did my total rate go down? If not, why not? Keep the reply.

One update from Visa. Visa has announced it will raise the yearly Visa sales limit for its Small Merchant Interchange Program from $300,000 to $750,000, starting October 24, 2026 (Visa Canada). The checker above switches to the $750,000 Visa limit automatically from that date. Either way, ask your provider in writing how the change affects your rates.

Before you switch providers

Switching can cut your fees. It can also cost you. Check first:

• Cancellation fees. Helcim and Clearly Payments say they have no cancellation fees. Square is month to month. Moneris’s merchant agreement runs 3 years, then renews every 6 months unless you give 45 days notice. Clover says termination fees “can vary based on your service provider.”
• Hardware. Clover says its devices “cannot be used with other payment processors.”
• The whole bill. Compare a full month at the new provider (rate, debit, monthly fees, hardware) against your real effective rate today.

Keep reading

• Credit card processing fees, explained: what every line on your statement means.
• Interchange-plus vs flat rate: which pricing model fits your business.
• Compare payment processors in Canada: every provider’s rates side by side.
• Full breakdowns: Helcim, Clearly Payments, Square, Moneris.