Interchange-plus vs flat rate: which card pricing is cheaper for you?

How each model works

Every credit card payment has two costs inside it: interchange, which goes to the bank that issued your customer’s card, and 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 Canadian rate table lists different rates for different cards (Classic, Gold and Platinum, Infinite, Infinite Privilege, business cards) and for in-person versus online payments (Visa Canada interchange rates). Premium rewards cards generally sit higher.

Flat rate

One rate for everything, 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: the rate has 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: 0.40% + 8¢ in person, and 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: 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. The online figure is markup only: Clearly says its quote lists monthly fees and optional gateway costs, and it publishes no gateway price for Cost Plus.
• Merchant-Accounts.ca Advanced: $39 a month plus 20¢ per payment, with the markup by quote only. Its rates page gives “Interchange + 0.20%” as an example for “a typical mid-sized business” (their example, not a price).
• Clearly Payments membership: $99 a month plus 8¢ per payment, for up to $50,000 a month, with no percentage markup listed. Pro is $189 a month plus 6¢, for $50,000 to $250,000 a month.

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 10–25%” (Clearly’s claim, not ours).

Moneris offers both

Moneris sells a Flat Rate plan and a “Simplified” interchange-plus plan. It says Flat Rate is “the ideal option for businesses that value cost certainty and predictability,” and that Simplified “may be the right option” if you’re “comfortable with pricing variability.” The Simplified markup is by quote only.

Side by side

One sale, two ways to pay for it

A $50 in-person credit card sale, by our estimates from published rates.

Flat rate:

Interchange-plus at Helcim: the markup is 28¢ on a $50 sale, with interchange 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%, that’s about 48¢ on $50. Visa also lists a 0.09% acquirer service fee on all Visa volume in Canada (Visa Canada assessment fees), about 5¢ here if your provider passes it on.

That’s roughly 80¢ on interchange-plus, against the flat-rate fees above.

Read that with care. The 0.95% is a yearly average, not the rate on every card. A premium rewards card or business card can cost more, and a card from outside Canada a lot more. That’s the risk interchange-plus hands to you, and the reason a flat rate costs more.

When a membership beats a percentage markup

Clearly’s Basic membership and Helcim’s markup share the same 8¢, 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 percentage costs less.
• 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 it 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, not read 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 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 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

Interac debit usually has its own price per payment: Helcim 9¢ (12¢ for tap), Moneris 12¢ in person, Stripe 15¢ and Shopify 15¢ on Basic. Square charges 0.75% + 7¢ instead, about 82¢ on a $100 debit sale. If many customers pay by debit, that line can matter more than your credit card model.

How to decide

1. Find your effective rate: total fees divided by total card sales, from last month’s statement.
2. Put your numbers into the fee calculator to see the same month at published flat rates.
3. Ask an interchange-plus provider for a written quote 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, Merchant-Accounts.ca, Square, Moneris.