Credit card processing and merchant services in Grande Prairie, AB

Grande Prairie had 64,141 residents at the 2021 Census, up 1.5% from 2016, and ranked ninth in Alberta by population. If you sell parts by phone, book work for customers who live out of town or send invoices to clients who never visit, a good share of your card payments happen without the card in front of you. Those card-not-present payments carry a different kind of risk.

A card that's tapped or inserted has its chip to help show it's genuine. A number read over the phone or typed into a website gives you only what the person supplies. Three checks narrow the gap. Address verification (AVS) compares the billing address the customer gives with the one the card issuer has on file. A CVV check confirms the three or four digits printed on the card. Velocity rules flag a burst of attempts from one source, which is often how card testing shows up. Our online payments setup includes all three, and our guide to card-not-present transactions explains who carries the loss when fraud gets through.

Phone orders work better as payment links. Send one from the virtual terminal and the customer enters their own card, so nobody on your team writes a number on an order slip.

Licensing has an out-of-town angle as well. The City of Grande Prairie defines a non-resident business as one that operates within city limits, in whole or in part, without a permanent Grande Prairie business location, and lists its licence at $525. Home-based businesses need a City licence plus a Home Business Development Permit or a Home Office Consent Form, which the City treats as separate from the licence.

Sales tax is simple here: Alberta has no PST, so taxable sales carry the 5% GST. We price on interchange-plus with no long-term contract. A free statement review shows what you pay now, and the Alberta page lists the provincial rules.