How to reduce your credit card processing fees

One quick check first: small businesses may qualify for the 2024 cut to interchange of up to 27 per cent. The checker below tells you if you’re likely to qualify; if you are, ask your provider, in writing, whether you got it.

Do you qualify for the small business card fee cut?

Use your last 12 months of sales on each network, from your statements. Nothing you type is saved.

Visa 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; Mastercard's stays at $175,000). This is a guide, not advice. Your provider can confirm how your rates changed.

The short answer

After that check, to lower what you pay, 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.

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1. Find your real rate first

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

If yours is well above the published flat rates at the top of this page, 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

Interac debit is usually priced per payment, not as a percentage:

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

Square is the exception at 0.75% + 7¢: 82¢ on a $100 debit sale, but about 15¢ on a $10 sale. If customers often pay big bills by debit, this line can matter more than your credit card rate.

Also check online debit. Moneris charges $1.00 per Interac payment online or in an app.

3. Cut monthly and rental fees

These come out whether you sell or not:

• Terminal rental. Moneris rents its Go terminal from $34.95 a month, or $419.40 a year per terminal. Square, Stripe and Helcim sell hardware instead, with no monthly fee to take payments.
• Small fees on the list. Moneris’s fee list includes a $5 Moneris Go software fee, a $5 minimum merchant discount rate and a $2 paper statement fee, without saying how often each is charged. Ask which 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 or $44 billed yearly (Shopify shows different visitors different yearly prices), saving $60 to $144 a year. Lightspeed Retail Basic is $139 or $119, saving $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%.
• 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 Flat Rate pricing. On its Simplified (interchange-plus) pricing, the fee is “incremental based on assessment fees, 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, this line can decide which provider is cheaper for you.

5. Stop typing cards in

Cards that aren’t tapped or inserted cost more. Square charges 3.3% + 15¢ for keyed-in payments: $3.45 on a $100 sale, against $2.50 tapped. 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 what each costs.

6. Skip paid instant payouts

Square charges 1.95% per instant transfer, so moving $1,000 instantly costs $19.50, while its 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 them every day, add them up and decide if next-day is good enough.

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

With interchange-plus, you pay the real card cost plus a markup instead of one flat rate. Published markups:

• Helcim: interchange + 0.40% + 8¢ in person, up to $50,000 a month, dropping to 0.35% + 7¢ from $50,000 to $100,000 and falling further 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 from $99 a month plus 8¢ per payment, for up to $50,000 a month.

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):

• 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.
• Interchange fees would be “reduced by up to 27 per cent.” The government’s 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 “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 those businesses of their right to terminate their contract.”

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, a lower interchange should show up on that line. On a flat rate, you only benefit if your provider lowers its published rate.

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

What changed in 2026. Visa raised the yearly limit for its small merchant rates from $300,000 to $750,000 in Visa sales, effective October 24, 2026 (Visa Canada, September 4, 2026). Mastercard’s limit stays at $175,000 (CFIB, October 14, 2026). The checker above uses the limit for the date you check. If your Visa sales are between $300,000 and $750,000 a year, ask your provider in writing whether your Visa rates go down after October 24.

A new network fee to watch. From October 19, 2026, Mastercard charges its per-transaction network fee, about 2 US cents, on every domestic transaction (Moneris network fee notices). CFIB says Visa plans a similar fee from April 2027 (CFIB). Network fees like this are often passed on to businesses, so ask your provider whether it will show up on your statement.

Before you switch providers

Switching can cut your fees, but check what it costs 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.
• Card fees for trades: what job apps like Jobber™ and Housecall Pro charge on the invoices you send.