Credit card fees in Canada: what merchants pay in 2026

Credit card fees in Canada come in three layers. Interchange goes to the bank that issued your customer's card, and Visa and Mastercard set it. The card networks charge their own fees on top. Your processor adds its markup and any monthly or per-transaction fees. On a regular Visa card used in your store, interchange alone is 1.25% of the sale; on a premium card it can run past 2%. Only the third layer is negotiable, so that's where your effort should go.

Two federal changes in the fall of 2024 still shape what small businesses pay: lower interchange for qualifying small businesses from October 19, 2024, and a revised Code of Conduct for the Payment Card Industry from October 30, 2024. Visa is widening its small-business program again on October 24, 2026. Here's how it all fits together, with rates current as of October 2026.

What makes up credit card fees in Canada?

Every credit card sale carries the same three costs, whether your statement shows them or not:

Technically, you never pay interchange directly. Visa's rate sheet puts it plainly: merchants pay a "merchant discount fee" to their acquirer, and that fee bundles interchange with everything else. Visa also says it manages domestic consumer credit interchange to an average of 1.40% under a voluntary commitment with the Department of Finance.

Network fees are small but real. Visa's published Acquirer Service Fee is 0.09% of transaction volume acquired in Canada on all Visa cards. Your processor passes fees like this on, either as their own lines on your statement or folded into one rate.

Here's one $100 sale on a Visa Infinite card used in store, at the regular rate, with a made-up processor markup of 0.25% plus 8 cents:

The processor's share is where pricing models differ. On interchange-plus pricing, you see interchange and network fees at cost, plus a fixed markup. On flat or blended pricing, you see one rate and can't tell how much of it is markup. Our comparison of interchange-plus and flat-rate pricing shows when each one wins.

What are credit card interchange rates in Canada?

They depend on the card, how it's accepted, and whether you qualify for a small-business program. These are Visa's published consumer credit rates as of October 2026:

And Mastercard's consumer credit rates, effective August 1, 2026:

A few patterns jump out. Premium cards cost more, sometimes a lot more. Cards taken in store by chip or tap cost less than online or keyed payments. And the small-business rates are far lower than the regular ones. Business cards sit higher still: Mastercard's commercial standard rate is 2.00%, and 2.35% for World Elite for Business.

Debit is a different story. Interac Debit is priced per transaction, not as a percentage, and Interac puts the merchant cost at around 10 cents per transaction. Our guide to what Interac is has the details.

Who qualifies for the small-business interchange cut?

Since October 19, 2024, qualifying small businesses have paid lower interchange under agreements the federal government reached with Visa and Mastercard. According to Finance Canada, the networks agreed to:

• cut domestic consumer credit interchange on in-store sales to an annual weighted average of 0.95%
• cut it on online sales by 10 basis points, a reduction of up to 7%

Finance Canada says more than 90% of businesses that accept credit cards would see interchange reduced by up to 27%, saving eligible small businesses about $1 billion over five years. Businesses qualify with each network separately: annual Visa sales below $300,000 for Visa's rates, and annual Mastercard sales below $175,000 for Mastercard's. Non-profits under those thresholds qualify too.

The government's own examples show the scale. A store processing $300,000 a year in credit card payments pays nearly $4,000 in interchange and could save $1,080 a year. A sports store in Edmonton with $200,000 in Visa sales and $100,000 in Mastercard sales saves $1,080, and a bookstore in Brampton with $120,000 in card sales saves $432.

Visa's threshold rises to $750,000 on October 24, 2026

Visa is widening its program. Its notice of upcoming interchange changes raises the annual Visa volume threshold for its Small Merchant Interchange Program from $300,000 to $750,000, effective October 24, 2026, and lowers the small-merchant rates. Mastercard's rate sheet still defines a small business as one with annual Mastercard credit card volume below $175,000.

Here's what that can mean. Say your shop in Hamilton takes $500,000 a year on Visa, over the old line but under the new one. If $200,000 of that is Classic, Gold, and Platinum cards in store, moving from the regular 1.25% rate to the new 0.70% small-merchant rate saves $1,100 a year in interchange. If another $150,000 is Visa Infinite in store, dropping from 1.57% to 0.89% saves $1,020. That's $2,120 a year, as long as your processor passes it on.

That last condition matters. The government said it expects payment processors to pass the savings on, and the revised Code requires processors to tell eligible businesses if network fee reductions won't be passed on in full. If you're on a flat rate, check whether your rate went down at all.

What rights does the Code of Conduct give you?

The Code of Conduct for the Payment Card Industry in Canada, overseen by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), has applied in its current form since October 30, 2024. These are the parts that matter most for your costs:

FCAC's summary of merchant rights explains each one. Two practical notes. First, older guides say you have 90 days to cancel after a fee increase; under the current Code, the window is 70 calendar days after the change takes effect. Second, complaints have a deadline too: the government said the revised Code cuts the complaint response time to 20 business days.

Can you pass credit card fees on to customers?

Yes, outside Quebec, within limits. Since October 6, 2022, Visa and Mastercard have let Canadian merchants add a surcharge to credit card payments, capped at the lesser of 2.4% or your own cost of acceptance, according to Visa's surcharging FAQ. You need to give your acquirer 30 days' notice (and Mastercard too, for Mastercard cards), disclose the fee before the customer pays, and keep it off debit and prepaid cards.

The Code also lets you offer discounts for different payment methods, which is a softer way to steer customers toward debit. Our guide to credit card surcharges in Canada covers the rules and whether a surcharge is worth it, and our surcharging program handles compliance and setup.

How do you read a Canadian merchant statement?

Find four things, in this order: your total card sales, your total fees, your effective rate, and the split between interchange, network fees, and the processor's share. The Code requires your statement to show your effective merchant discount rate for each card type, so start there.

Here's a made-up month for a small shop:

The effective rate is $612.00 divided by $28,400.00, or 2.15%. Interchange and network fees add up to $437.86, or 1.54% of sales; the processor's share is $174.14, or 0.61%. That split is the number to compare between processors, because the first two layers cost the same wherever you go.

Then read every line below the processing fees. Monthly account fees, statement fees, PCI fees, terminal rental, and chargeback fees all count toward your effective rate, and none of them is interchange. Ask what each one pays for, and whether it's in the Disclosure of Fees you got with your agreement. Our list of hidden fees in credit card processing covers the usual suspects.

On a flat or blended plan, the Code still requires your statement to show the rate you pay per transaction, but you won't see the split. Our step-by-step guide to reading your merchant statement shows where each line usually hides, and our page on credit card processing fees explains which fees are worth questioning.

How to lower your credit card fees in Canada

1. Check whether you qualify for small-business interchange, especially if your Visa volume is between $300,000 and $750,000 a year.
2. Take cards by chip or tap whenever the customer is present. Keyed and online rates are higher.
3. Ask for interchange-plus pricing, so rate cuts by the networks reach you automatically. See our pricing for how we do it.
4. Make debit easy, and consider a small discount for paying by debit.
5. Use your Code rights. When a fee goes up, you have 70 days to leave without a penalty.
6. Compare offers on the processor's share, not the headline rate. Our comparison with Helcim is a good place to start.

Our list of ways to reduce credit card processing fees goes further. If you're shopping for a new processor, our best credit card processing for small business in Canada list puts seven options side by side.

The next step

You can't change interchange, but you can change everything on top of it. Send us your last statement for a free statement review and we'll split interchange and network fees out from your processor's share and check whether you're getting the small-business rates you qualify for. Merchants anywhere in Canada can also book a consultation with a dedicated rep.