Card Brand Network Fee Updates

Last updates

Changes effective April 2025

April 2025: Introduction of an Interac Network Access Fee

As of April 1st, 2025, an “Interac Network Access” fee of $0.0058/transaction will be applicable on Interac Direct Debit and Interac Flash transactions.

Changes to Visa Prepaid Interchange structure effective April 2025

April 2025: The following Visa Business Interchange rates go into effect April 12, 2025

Rate Program	Business	Visa Infinite Business
Standard	2.00% (no change)	2.35%
Electronic	Retired	Retired
Emerging Segments	Retired	Retired
Industry Program – Gas	Retired	Retired
Industry Program – Grocery	Retired	Retired
Performance Program – Card-Present	Retired	Retired
Recurring Payments	Retired	Retired

Visa Domestic Consumer Purchase Prepaid Rate Program Updates

Interchange Program	Current Interchange Rate	Updates effective April 12, 2025
Standard	1.52%	No change
Electronic	1.42%	No change
Card Not Present	1.52%	Retired
Recurring Payments	1.37%	Retired
Emerging Segments	0.98%	Retired
Everyday Needs Program - Restaurant and Other	1.36%	Retired
Industry Program - Grocery and Food Retail	1.23%	Retired
Industry Program - Gas	1.18%	Retired
Performance Program – Card Present Electronic Program	1.32%	Retired

Visa Debit Interchange rates - changes are effective from January 1st, 2025

Rate Program	Visa Debit
Electronic	CAD 0.03
Performance Program – Card Present Electronic Program	CAD 0.03
Industry Program - Gas	CAD 0.03
Industry Program - Grocery	CAD 0.03

October 2024 - Changes to Visa and Mastercard Interchange Programs

Effective October 19th 2024, Visa and Mastercard Small Merchant Interchange Rate Programs for domestic consumer credit transactions will go into effect. Merchants will be qualified directly by Visa and Mastercard on eligibility for the new rates based on the following criteria:

Merchants processing up to $175,000 in annual Mastercard credit-only volume.

Merchants processing up to $300,000 in annual Visa credit, debit, and prepaid volume.

A merchant that processes both Visa and Mastercard may qualify for reduced rates on one or both card brands. The Initial qualification period for Visa and Mastercard will be Apr 1, 2023, to Mar 31, 2024, and the subsequent qualification periods will be October 1 to September 30 each year.

For the rates, see the tabs below

For more details and exceptions visit Visa.ca and Mastercard.ca

Visa Small Business Interchange Program Rates

Visa Small Business Interchange Program Rates

Rate Program	Classic, Gold, Platinum	Infinite	VISA Infinite Privilege
Card Present	0.81%	0.99%	1.80%
Card Not Present (Tokenized)	1.25%	1.50%	2.25%
Card Not Present	1.30%	1.55%	2.30%

Mastercard Small Business Interchange Program Rates

Mastercard Small Business Interchange Program Rates

Interchange Program Type	Core	World	World Elite	Muse
Card Present EMV	0.72%	0.95%	1.22%	1.29%
Unsecure Card Present	0.95%	1.19%	1.45%	1.52%
Digital Commerce	1.57%	1.80%	2.03%	2.15%
Contactless	0.72%	0.95%	1.22%	1.29%
3DS	1.40%	1.60%	1.80%	1.93%
Card Present Refund	0.43%	0.57%	0.73%	0.77%
Card Not Present Refund	0.96%	1.10%	1.24%	1.33%

November 2024: Interac Debit Switch Fee Change

November 1, 2024 - Notice of Interac Debit Switch Fee Change Effective November 1, 2024, the Interac Debit Switch Fee will be increased from $0.018380 to $0.019851.

April 2024: Interac Debit Switch Fee Reduction

Effective April 1st 2024 the Interac Switch Fee for all Interac Debit card present transactions will be lowered from $0.01985 to $0.01838.

The new rate will appear on the April merchant statements.

April 2024: New Visa CVV2 - Fee

Effective April 1, 2024, Visa will begin charging a Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2) fee of 0.0028 USD for every CVV2 result that receives an M (Match) or N (No Match). Positive matches may result in a higher approval rate, reduced chances of fraud, as well as fewer disputes.

The CVV2 fee will not apply to the following conditions:

· Verification results not received by the bank due to an error

· Returned values that are not M or N

· Successful 3DS verifications

· Zero-amount account verification messages

January 2024: New Interac Surcharge Cap Maximum

Important Notice: New Interac Surcharge Cap Maximum Effective January 26th, 2024

Effective January 26, 2024, Interac is introducing a surcharge cap maximum of$0.25 per transaction on point-of-sale transactions and is prohibiting the capability to impose a surcharge on remote transactions using the Interac Mobile Debit (In-App/In-Browser). Interac Debit surcharge continues to be unavailable in Quebec.