Interchange Rates Explained for Canadian Small Businesses
About the author
MyEZ Solutions is the author of this guide. The guides are written by the MyEZ Solutions team, covering published Canadian and US processing rates, interchange, and low-risk card processing. For a quote on your business, call 1-877-757-1170 or use Get a Quote.
Every card sale you take carries a cost you did not set and cannot negotiate, and one you will never see itemised on a flat-rate statement: interchange. It is the largest single line on most Canadian processing bills — usually well over half of what you pay. This guide explains what it costs a Canadian small business in 2026 — and how to pay less of it.
What interchange actually is
Interchange is the fee Visa and Mastercard charge on every credit card sale, set by the networks and paid to the cardholder’s bank. Every processor has to pay it — no one can waive it or negotiate it down. What a processor controls is only what it charges on top: its markup and per-transaction fee. MyEZ passes interchange through at cost and publishes its markup on the Pricing page.
So every Canadian processing bill is the same three lines. Interchange, the network-set cost of the card itself. Network and assessment fees, the small charges the networks add on top — approximately 0.13–0.15% plus about 2¢ per transaction. And the markup, the only line your processor sets. A flat-rate processor folds all three into one number — 2.9% + 30¢ — and charges it on every card. An interchange-plus processor passes the first two through at cost and charges a small published markup on top.
What Canadian small businesses actually pay
There is no single interchange rate — it depends on the card product, how it was presented, and which program your business qualifies for. The current editions are Visa Canada, effective October 24, 2026, and Mastercard Canada, effective August 1, 2026. The headline categories:
| Category | In person | Online |
|---|---|---|
| Visa small-merchant — Classic / Gold / Platinum | 0.70% | 1.20% |
| Visa small-merchant — Infinite | 0.89% | 1.45% |
| Visa small-merchant — Infinite Privilege | 1.70% | 2.20% |
| Visa standard consumer (not small-merchant) | 1.25% | 1.40% |
| Mastercard — Core (chip) / small business | 0.92% / 0.70% | — |
| Mastercard — World / World Elite | 1.22% / 1.56% | — |
| Interac debit (MyEZ customer price) | 9¢ chip / 12.5¢ tap | — |
Two things to notice. First, the spread: a basic Visa Classic costs 0.70% in person under the small-merchant program, while an Infinite Privilege costs 1.70% — nearly two and a half times as much. Second, the program matters: small-merchant rates apply under $750,000 a year in Visa volume, a limit the October 24, 2026 Visa edition raised from $300,000. Interchange only: scheme fees, assessments and markup sit on top. The full tables and the downloadable PDF are on the Interchange Rates page.
Why premium cards cost more to accept
The rewards on a premium card are not free — they are funded by interchange. The issuing bank pays for lounge access, travel credits and concierge service by charging the merchant a higher interchange rate on every sale that card makes. A $100 sale costs $0.70 in interchange on a basic Visa Classic and $1.70 on an Infinite Privilege, before any markup or assessment fee.
That spread is also why flat rate is expensive for most small businesses. A flat rate of 2.9% + 30¢ is priced to cover the most expensive cards a processor might see, then charged on every card — including the basic cards that cost a fraction of that. On interchange-plus, each card is billed at its own actual cost plus a small markup, so the basic cards stay cheap and only the premium cards cost premium money. The October 2026 edition is explained in Visa and Mastercard Interchange in Canada After October 24, 2026.
What it costs on a real month
The same locked test month the rest of this site uses, so the numbers are comparable: $30,000 volume, 400 transactions, $75 average ticket, 70% credit / 30% Interac, 70% in-person.
- MyEZ: $121.12 + interchange; estimated $457.12/month (1.52%) with interchange at an illustrative 1.60% average.
- Helcim (published tiers): estimated $473.78/month on the same mix.
- Flat rate at 2.9% + 30¢: $990/month — before any add-on fees.
Estimate only — uses an illustrative average interchange of 1.60% (interchange + network fees), derived from Helcim’s published total averages. Your actual interchange depends on the card type.
The $533 gap is mostly premium-card pricing applied to basic cards: flat rate charges the expensive-card price on every sale, while interchange-plus charges each card what it actually costs. Run your own mix in the Canada calculator — it shows the MyEZ markup in dollars first, and only adds interchange as a clearly labelled estimate.
How to check what you are actually paying
Do not compare a flat rate to a markup directly — compare effective rates: total fees ÷ total volume, from a real statement, for the same month. If your effective rate is above 2% on a mostly in-person, mostly Interac mix, you are almost certainly overpaying. Then check the fees around the rate: monthly, statement and cancellation fees quietly erase headline savings at several providers. MyEZ lists every fee in writing in your quote.
Finally, re-check the editions. The networks normally change Canadian interchange in April and October, and we re-check all published rates quarterly. If a provider quotes you a rate without naming the edition it comes from, ask which one — a rate without a date is a rate you cannot verify. Send a recent statement through Get a Quote and we will price your actual card mix line by line.
Frequently asked questions
What is interchange, in one sentence?
Why do I pay different rates on different cards?
Does interchange change, and how often?
Is Interac part of interchange?
How do I pay less interchange?
Sources: Visa Canada interchange (Oct 24, 2026 edition); Mastercard Canada interchange (Aug 1, 2026 edition); assessment fees approximate at 0.13–0.15% plus about 2¢; MyEZ published pricing, checked November 2026.