Card Brand Network Fee Updates

Last updates

Changes effective January 2026

January 2026 - Card Brand Fee Currency Conversion

Effective January 22, 2026, our processing partner will implement updates to its billing system. As part of this enhancement, card brand fees assessed in Canada will be converted from U.S. dollars (USD) to Canadian dollars (CAD). This applies only to merchants who are processing in CAD and are on Interchange Plus pricing.

Changes effective November 2025

November 2025 - Interac Debit Switch Fee Change

November 1, 2025 - The Interac Debit Switch Fee will be increased from $0.019851 to $0.02099, a difference of $0.001139. This fee is assessed on all Interac Debit payments and applies to both chip and PIN and contactless transactions

Changes effective October 2025

October 2025 - Reduction of Visa Small Merchant Electronic Fee

October 18, 2025, The Visa Small Merchant Electronic Fee Program interchange rate for Visa’s core consumer credit products will be reduced from 0.81% to 0.77% (a reduction of 0.04%). This reduced interchange rate will apply to Visa Classic, Visa Gold, and Visa Platinum products. Note this is a pass-through fee imposed by Visa to all applicable transactions

October 2025 - Introduction of Mastercard Wholesale Travel Program Interchange Rates

October 18, 2025, Mastercard is introducing new interchange rates for the Mastercard Wholesale Travel Program globally and for intraregional transaction in the U.S. region. The new interchange rates will apply to the following business-to-business (B2B) product codes:

Global Program Rates

Interchange Rate Designator (IRD)	Product Code	Product Description	Rate
BB: Commercial Business-to-Business	MTN	Mastercard B2B Product 20	2.0%
BB: Commercial Business-to-Business	MTO	Mastercard B2B Product 21	2.0%
BB: Commercial Business-to-Business	MTQ	Mastercard B2B Product 22	2.0%

Intraregional U.S. Transaction Rates

Interchange Rate Designator (IRD)	Product Code	Product Description	Rate
BU: U.S. Commerical Business-to-Business	MTN	Mastercard B2B Product 20	2.7%
BU: U.S. Commerical Business-to-Business	MTO	Mastercard B2B Product 21	2.6%
BU: U.S. Commerical Business-to-Business	MTQ	Mastercard B2B Product 22	2.5%

Changes effective September 2025

September 2025 – Introduction of Mastercard Acquirer License Fee

September 1, 2025, PayFacto will begin applying the pass-through Mastercard Acquirer License Fee of 0.0095%. This fee is assessed by Mastercard on all processed transactions.

September 2025 – Introduction of Mastercard Acquirer Clearing Fee

September 15, 2025, Mastercard is introducing the Mastercard Clearing Fee, which will apply to all Mastercard transactions processed. The fee will be passed-through to all merchants at $0.005 USD for each transaction less than or equal to $25.00 USD, and $0.0195 USD for each transaction that is $25.01 USD or greater.

Changes effective July 2025

July 2025: Updates to Mastercard Acquirer Assessment Fee

The Mastercard Acquirer Assessment Fee with increase from 0.087% to 0.09% (a difference of 0.003%) as of July 1st, 2025. Merchants can cancel their agreements related to the provision of Card processing, including Related Service Agreements, without any form of penalty, by September 9th, 2025. Contact our Support Team or consult the Merchant Portal for more information on how to cancel your services.

July 2025: Updates to the Mastercard Wholesale Travel Program

The Mastercard Wholesale Travel Program rates will increase from 0.60% to 0.75% (a difference of 0.15%) as of July 1st, 2025. Merchants can cancel their agreements related to the provision of Card processing, including Related Service Agreements, without any form of penalty, by September 9th, 2025. Contact our Support Team or consult the Merchant Portal for more information on how to cancel your services.

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

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.