Interac
FEES
Customer Transaction Surcharges Minimum Purchase Amount Surcharges Merchant Fees
As a not-for-profit organization, Interac Association does not directly charge fees to customers and merchants. The Association operates on a cost-recovery basis, which means the Association charges members a “per transaction” fee (switch fee) sufficient to cover operating costs. The member fee varies annually based on operating expenditures for the year.
Effective February 1, 2013, the Interac Association member fee charged to participating Members for the Interac Debit service is $0.006534 per transaction.
As prescribed by the Consent Order under which Interac Association operates, Association members who offer Interac Shared Services (Interac Debit and Interac Cash) to customers and merchants may charge fees (surcharge) for the use of those services.
While Interac Association does not charge customer and merchant fees directly, it does have a role in setting an interchange rate for Interac Shared Services. Interchange is a fee that the cardholder's financial institution pays to the ABM operator and it is designed to compensate the ABM operator for the service of providing cash to the financial institution's customer. A single interchange rate of 75 cents per transaction applies to all Interac Cash transactions. Interchange for the Interac Debit service is currently set at 0. 
Customer Transaction Surcharges
As a not-for-profit organization, Interac Association does not directly charge fees to customers. The Interac Association member (i.e., the organization that provides the merchant with payment processing services), in association with the merchant or ABM owner, may impose a customer surcharge for the use of the Interac Shared service. Interac Association does not receive any funds from the surcharge.
If the member, in association with the merchant or ABM owner, has decided to impose a surcharge, Interac Associaion rules dictate that the surcharge must be properly displayed on the PIN Pad screen, providing customers the option of cancelling the transaction without cost if they do not want to pay the surcharge.
Minimum Purchase Amount Surcharges
Interac Association regulations do not prevent a merchant from imposing a minimum purchase amount for an Interac Debit transaction. If a fee is being imposed on purchases below the minimum purchase amount, the merchant must properly notify the cardholder of the surcharge directly on the PIN Pad screen, so the cardholder has the option of cancelling the transaction without cost.
Surcharging is not a common practice and the decision to levy a surcharge varies from one merchant to another. If you have encountered a surcharge and were not notified of the surcharge directly on the PIN pad screen, please notify us at
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
and we will investigate the situation.
Merchant Fees
As a not-for-profit organization, Interac Association does not directly charge fees to customers and merchants. The Interac Association members who offer Interac services to merchants may charge fees for the use of the service. Fees vary from merchant to merchant depending on individual contracts.
According to a Bank of Canada study, on average, merchants pay 12 cents for every debit card transaction. Additional information regarding merchant acceptance and costs can be found directly in the study at here.
Interac Association however, does charge your merchant service provider a fee to be a member of the Interac network.
Effective February 1, 2013, the Interac Association member fee charged to participating Members for the Interac Debit service is $0.006534 per transaction.
If you are interested in providing an Interac service and would like more information about how to get started and about any applicable fees and charges, please contact an Acquirer directly.
For a list of Interac Debit Acquirers, please click here and for Interac Online Acquirers, please click here.
