Credit card processing fees in Canada, explained line by line

The short answer

Each card sale has two parts: interchange, set by the card networks, and the markup your provider adds. Some providers roll both into one flat rate. Others show them separately.

The number that shows what you really pay is your effective rate: total fees divided by total card sales. $640 in fees on $20,000 of card sales is 3.2%.

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The fees on a Canadian merchant statement

The charges below fall into two groups. Interchange and your provider’s markup are paid on every sale, as separate lines or rolled into one flat rate. The rest are per-payment debit fees and monthly, one-off or add-on fees, so open the one that matches the line you’re looking at.

Interchange: the card bank’s cut

Usually the biggest part. The Department of Finance calls it “the largest component” of what businesses pay to accept credit cards, a fee “paid to credit card-issuing financial institutions, such as banks” (Department of Finance, 2024). Your provider doesn’t set it, and it changes with the card type, so a flat rate is priced to cover the expensive cards too.

Markup: what your provider keeps

This is what your provider keeps, shown as its own number on interchange-plus pricing. Helcim publishes 0.40% + 8¢ per in-person payment, for businesses processing up to $50,000 a month. Clearly Payments publishes 0.38% + 8¢ in person, for $150,000 to $300,000 a year in card sales.

Your total is interchange plus that markup. Helcim says most of its merchants end up “near or below 2%” in person (Helcim’s claim, not ours).

Flat rate: one number for every card

One number for interchange and markup, the same whatever card your customer uses. Published in-person rates:

• Square: 2.5%
• Shopify (Basic plan): 2.6%
• Lightspeed: 2.6% + 10¢
• Moneris: 2.65% + 10¢
• Stripe: 2.7% + 5¢

Online and keyed-in payments cost more. Square charges 2.8% + 30¢ online and 3.3% + 15¢ keyed in. Stripe charges 2.9% + 30¢ online, plus 0.5% keyed in by hand.

Interac debit: a fee per payment

Most providers charge a flat fee per Interac payment:

• Helcim: 9¢ (12¢ for tap)
• Moneris: 12¢ in person, $1.00 online or in-app
• Stripe: 15¢
• Shopify: 15¢ on Basic, Grow and Advanced

Square charges 0.75% + 7¢ instead: 22¢ on a $20 sale and $1.57 on a $200 sale. If many customers pay by debit, this line can matter more than your credit rate.

Monthly, software and terminal rental fees

These are charged whether you sell or not:

• Moneris lists its Moneris Go terminal from $34.95 a month, plus a $5 Moneris Go software fee.
• Clearly Payments’ membership plan is $99 a month plus 8¢ per payment (up to $50,000 a month), and terminal rental “is additional where needed.”
• Shopify’s Basic plan is $49 a month.
• Square, Stripe and Helcim list no monthly fee to take payments.

A low rate with a high monthly fee can cost more than a higher rate with none, especially in a slow month.

Chargeback fees

A chargeback is when a customer disputes a payment with their bank. Providers charge you to handle it:

• Helcim: $15, but only if you lose. $0 if it’s resolved in your favour.
• Shopify: $15 CAD.
• Lightspeed: $15 (currency not stated).
• Stripe: CA$15 per dispute, plus another CA$15 if you contest it (refunded only if you win).
• Moneris: $25, plus a separate $80 “Authorization Chargeback Handling” fee.

Square doesn’t publish a chargeback fee on its Canadian pricing page.

Foreign card surcharges

• Square adds 1.5% on cards issued outside Canada.
• Stripe charges 3.5% + 5¢ in person for international cards, adds 0.8% online, plus 2% if currency conversion is needed.
• Moneris lists a 0.80% foreign card fee on its Flat Rate pricing. On its interchange-plus (Simplified) pricing, the fee is “incremental based on assessment fees, up to 1.00%.”
• Shopify charges 3.5% + 30¢ for online international cards on Basic.

If you get a lot of tourists, check this line first.

Statement, PCI and other small fees

Moneris lists a $2 paper statement fee, a $5 minimum merchant discount rate, a $2.50 aged close batch fee and an 8¢ dial communications fee, and says “additional fees may apply for other products and services.”

PCI fees relate to the card industry’s data security standard, PCI DSS, a “baseline of technical and operational requirements designed to protect payment account data” (PCI Security Standards Council). None of the providers we compare publish a PCI fee. Clover’s pricing page says “no PCI charge,” and Helcim says it charges no minimums, software fees or statement fees. If your statement shows a PCI fee, ask what it’s for and whether you can avoid it.

What it adds up to: one example month

Say you take $10,000 in credit card payments in person, across 400 sales. Our estimate at published rates, before debit, chargebacks and foreign cards:

Provider	How it’s priced	Card fees	Monthly fees	Total
Square	2.5%	$250	$0	$250
Stripe	2.7% + 5¢	$290	$0	$290
Moneris	2.65% + 10¢	$305	$39.95	$344.95
Helcim	interchange + 0.40% + 8¢	interchange + $72	$0	depends on interchange

Moneris monthly fees are the terminal rental plus the software fee, counted monthly because Moneris doesn’t say how often the $5 is billed. Helcim’s $72 is the markup only: interchange depends on your card mix, so an interchange-plus total has to come from your own statement or a quote.

How Interac debit changes your effective rate

Debit is usually priced in cents per payment, so the more customers pay by debit, the lower your effective rate, even if your provider changes nothing. Each cell shows all credit / half the sales (by dollars and by count) on Interac debit, from published in-person rates, with Moneris monthly fees as above (our estimates):

Monthly sales	Square	Stripe	Moneris
$3,000 (120 sales)	2.50% / 1.77%	2.90% / 1.75%	4.38% / 3.10%
$10,000 (400 sales)	2.50% / 1.77%	2.90% / 1.75%	3.45% / 2.16%
$40,000 (800 sales)	2.50% / 1.70%	2.80% / 1.55%	2.95% / 1.64%

The Moneris $10,000 half-debit cell: credit 2.65% × $5,000 = $132.50, plus 200 × 10¢ = $20. Debit 200 × 12¢ = $24. Monthly costs $39.95. That’s $216.45 on $10,000, or 2.16%.

• Your card mix moves your rate. A month with more credit cards looks worse at the same prices. Check that before you blame your provider.
• Monthly fees weigh most when you’re small. Look down the Moneris column: same prices, a much higher rate at $3,000.
• Square gains less from debit as sales grow. Its debit fee is a percentage, so its half-debit rate barely moves from $10,000 to $40,000, while Stripe’s flat 15¢ keeps falling.

Work out your own rate in four steps

1. Add up every fee for the month: processing, monthly or software fees, terminal rental (even if it’s on a separate invoice), statement and chargeback fees.
2. Add up your card sales for the same month, credit and debit together.
3. Divide the fees by the sales. $216.45 on $10,000 is 0.0216, a 2.16% effective rate.
4. If you can, split out debit. Debit fees divided by debit payments is your cost per debit sale, to compare with the 9¢ to 15¢ most providers list.

The fee calculator shows what the same month would cost at other providers’ published rates.

Costs that don’t show up in your rate

Some of the biggest costs sit in the terms, not the rate. From providers’ own pages:

• Money held back. Square, Moneris, Helcim, Stripe and Shopify all say they can delay payouts or make you keep a reserve. No fee, but it can leave you short of cash.
• Getting paid faster. Square charges 1.95% for an instant transfer. Stripe charges 1% of Instant Payouts volume, with a CA$0.60 minimum. Waiting for a free payout costs nothing.
• Currency conversion. Stripe adds 2% when a payment needs converting.
• Contract length. Moneris’s merchant agreement runs 3 years, then renews every 6 months unless you give 45 days’ notice. TouchBistro’s terms say you can’t end the agreement before the term is over.
• Leaving early. Lightspeed’s early termination fee includes the recurring fees left in your term. Chase lets you leave without penalty, but if you don’t return its equipment, you pay the full price of new equipment.
• Hardware you can’t take with you. Clover devices can’t be used with other processors. Lightspeed says terminals you already own can’t be used with Lightspeed Payments.

None of these rules a provider out on its own. Ask about them before you sign, and get the answers in writing.

Can you pass card fees on to customers?

Outside Quebec, yes, on credit cards. The federal regulator says: “As a merchant, you have the option of adding a surcharge to a credit card transaction (except in Quebec)” (Financial Consumer Agency of Canada). Visa and Mastercard cap a surcharge at 2.4%, or your own cost of accepting the card if that’s lower, so a “3% card fee” is above the cap, and you can’t surcharge debit or prepaid cards.

Our credit card surcharge guide covers each rule with its source, including the notice you owe your processor and what to put on your signs.

The 2024 cut to credit card fees for small businesses

On October 17, 2024, the federal Department of Finance announced lower credit card fees for small businesses (Department of Finance):

• The new rates took effect on October 19, 2024.
• Visa and Mastercard agreed to lower 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.
• 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.
• Interchange would fall “by up to 27 per cent,” and a store processing $300,000 a year in credit cards “could save $1,080 in fees every year.”
• The government “expects” processors to pass the savings on, and the revised Code of Conduct for the Payment Card Industry would require them to “notify eligible businesses if network fee reductions will not be passed on in full.”

The release mentions Visa and Mastercard only, not American Express.

Since then, Visa has changed the yearly Visa sales limit for its small merchant program: it is $300,000 until October 23, 2026, and $750,000 from October 24, 2026 (Visa Canada). Our fee-cut checker uses the right limit for the date you check.

On a flat rate, a lower interchange only reaches you if your provider lowers its rate. On interchange-plus, the cut should show up on your interchange line if you qualify. If you think you qualify and your rate hasn’t changed since 2024, ask your provider in writing.

Keep reading

• Compare payment processors in Canada: every provider’s rates side by side.
• POS systems compared: if you need software, not just card payments.
• Full fee breakdowns for Square, Moneris, Helcim and Stripe.
• Card fees for trades: what job apps like Jobber™ and Housecall Pro charge on the invoices you send.