Credit card processing and merchant services in Gatineau, QC

Gatineau had 291,041 residents at the 2021 Census, up 5.4% from 2016, which made it the fourth-largest census subdivision in Quebec. It's also part of a census metropolitan area that crosses a provincial border: the Ottawa - Gatineau CMA counted 1,488,307 people in Ontario and Quebec combined. If you sell on both sides of the river, or your customers shop on both sides, the card rules change at the provincial line.

Fees are the biggest change. A merchant in Ottawa may add a surcharge to a credit card payment. A merchant in Gatineau may not. Quebec's Office de la protection du consommateur says you can't charge consumers any fee for paying by debit or credit card, and posting a notice doesn't make one legal. Interac is covered too, so the acquirer-applied debit fee that Interac allows in other provinces isn't an option here. When an Ottawa customer notices there's no card fee on your total, that's why.

Tax is the next change. A taxable sale in Gatineau carries the 5% GST and the 9.975% QST, and Revenu Québec calculates the QST on the price before GST. An $80 sale comes to $4.00 of GST and $7.98 of QST, for $91.98. Receipts and invoices have to be drawn up in French under section 57 of the Charter of the French language, so check the language settings on any terminal you bring over from Ontario.

Hotels and other lodging have one more line. Gatineau is in the Outaouais tourism region, which Revenu Québec lists among the regions where its tax on lodging applies, usually at 3.5% of the price of an overnight stay.

Because a card fee can't be passed on here, the rate you pay to accept cards comes straight out of your margin. We price on interchange-plus with no long-term contract, and a free statement review shows what each card costs you today. The Quebec page covers the provincial rules in full.