The Best Merchant Accounts For Canadian Small Businesses

Square has made waves in the US market as a convenient payment solution for small businesses and serves small Canadian merchants similarly well. What is Square? Well, it is a third-party processor that offers simple pricing schemes and a wealth of business productivity software, often at no additional cost.

Square provides enormous value for what is, essentially, no cost of entry. That makes it a great first payment processor for small businesses that may have infrequent transactions and want access to top-rated business tools as part of the package. Square also has great, affordable hardware.

Square uses a fairly simple flat-rate pricing system that varies somewhat depending on the service.

• Standard Point Of Sale & Appointments (For Individuals): 2.65% per transaction for credit cards, $0.10 flat fee for Interac Flash (debit) cards
• Keyed-In & Card-On-File: 3.4% + $0.15 per transaction
• Square Online & Square Invoice: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction

Canadian merchants still get a flat percentage rate without a fixed fee on POS transactions (2.65% in Canada, 2.6% + $0.10 in the US). We mention this because the “+ $0.10” part of this fee makes small transactions in the US a lot more expensive.

Note that customized processing rates are available for businesses processing over $250,000 per year.

Square has no early termination fees or long-term contracts. Billing is entirely month-to-month and you can close your account at any time without penalty. Note, however, that Square’s card readers and terminals cannot be reprogrammed to work with any other provider.

Helcim is arguably the overall best merchant account provider available in Canada today. Helcim offers detailed pricing disclosures, so you won’t need to negotiate very much to secure the best possible deal for your business. The company’s website also includes in-depth articles explaining how credit card processing works and exposing many deceptive advertising tricks other providers use. Everything is completely laid out on the table with crystal-clear fee disclosures, and you’ll get transparent interchange-plus pricing right out of the box with no additional hassle.

Helcim offers a proprietary payment gateway and its own Helcim Card Reader for in-person transactions. A new smart terminal, the Helcim Smart Terminal, will be released in Spring 2023.

Helcim’s transaction pricing starts at interchange fees + 0.30% + $0.08 per transaction (retail) and interchange + 0.50% + $0.25 per transaction (eCommerce), with volume discounts available. Interac transfers draw an additional fee of $0.09.

There’s no monthly account fee, no monthly minimum, and no PCI compliance fee. Also, billing is month-to-month, with no long-term commitment or early termination fee.

Helcim offers true month-to-month billings with no early termination fees. You do have to provide 30 days’ notice, however.

There’s a lot to like about Clearly Payments. The company claims its mission is to drive down the cost for cheap credit card processing. While we don’t know how successful it will be, Clearly is making some good choices with regard to how it’s set up its plans. The option to choose between membership and interchange-plus pricing makes Clearly Payments an excellent choice for high-volume businesses that want to minimize their processing costs.

Clearly Payments offers both interchange-plus (cost-plus) pricing and membership pricing. Merchant Maverick considers these the two best options for businesses with medium-to-high processing volume. The company’s website discloses these prices.

The cost-plus plan costs $20/month with transaction fees starting at cost + 0.28% + $0.08 for in-person payments and cost + 0.28% + $0.22 for online or keyed transactions. Transaction rates decrease with volume.

Membership pricing begins at $99/month for businesses processing up to $50,000/month, with transaction rates of cost + $0.08. Higher-volume plans cost more per month but have lower transaction fees. In both cases, contracts are month-to-month with no early termination fees.

Clearly Payments is a month-to-month service, so there’s no long-term commitment or termination fee.

A relative newcomer to credit card processing in Canada, KIS Payments has only been around since 2017. KIS Payments is a small company that offers Canadian merchants a better deal than what they’ve had to accept from traditional processors.

KIS Payments has an excellent reputation for providing top-notch, personalized customer support and service after you’ve set up your account. Merchants are assigned a dedicated account manager, meaning you’ll always be able to reach someone at the company who truly understands your business’s needs.

Like most of our favorite providers, KIS Payments offers all merchants a month-to-month billing arrangement with no long-term contracts and no early termination fee (ETF). KIS Payments also exclusively provides interchange-plus pricing, regardless of your business’s size.

Unfortunately, KIS doesn’t provide transaction rates upfront. KIS does charge an onboarding fee ranging from $99-$299.

KIS also offers a cash discounting program through NoPay.ca, which may be of interest to merchants looking to reduce their payment processing costs.

KIS Payments has no early termination fees or long-term contracts.

Businesses, particularly newer businesses, that primarily focus on eCommerce may need a solution that’s centered on their specific needs. Shopify provides just about every feature you might need to run an online business, including accepting credit card payments in Canada.

It’s unusual to see a convenience-focused platform that simultaneously has so much depth while still being flexible. Shopify can scale effectively with your business as it grows.

Shopify offers a wide range of pricing plans, ranging from $9 per month for its bare-bones Shopify Lite plan to $299 per month for the Advanced Shopify plan.

Merchants can choose between using either a third-party payment gateway in Canada or Shopify’s own Shopify Payments feature for credit and debit card processing.

With Shopify Payments, you’ll have a very basic flat-rate pricing plan. Rates start at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for online transactions and 2.7% for in-person transactions. Discounts on these rates are available if you sign up for one of the company’s more expensive monthly plans.

If you choose to use a third-party gateway to process your credit card payments, you’ll have to pay a Shopify transaction fee for each transaction in addition to whatever your gateway provider charges you. Shopify transaction fees start at 2.0% per transaction for the least-expensive monthly plans and can be as low as 0.5% per transaction for the most expensive plans.

In selecting which plan is best for your business, you’ll want to carefully evaluate the processing costs associated with each plan and how important the additional features are to your business. The Shopify Lite plan, for example, doesn’t include an online store or telephone customer support. You’ll be able to sell in person, via Facebook, or using “buy” buttons on existing websites, but that’s it.

You’ll also have to rely on email and chat for any customer service issues that come up.

Shopify is a month-to-month service that can be canceled at any time. A month-to-month plan is the best way to go, as you want to avoid a merchant agreement auto-renewal clause. One specific quirk to look out for, however, is that if you cancel Shopify Payments but keep your Shopify account, you’ll have to pay Shopify’s 0.5%-2% markup.

For Canadian merchants running larger, more established businesses, Chase Payment Solutions is a surprisingly good choice for such a large company. You’ll get a far more robust line of products and services than you will with a smaller provider, plus it’s a direct processor.

Chase offers competitive rates and low account fees — something we don’t often see in a large processor. If your scaling plans include the payment processing services of a large processor such as Chase, Chase Payment Solutions provides a convenient on-ramp for small businesses with its QuickAccept program.

Chase doesn’t disclose specific pricing information on its Canadian website but appears to offer a combination of either tiered or interchange-plus pricing plans. Pricing for other features, including access to the company’s proprietary Orbital Gateway and a variety of modern credit card terminals, is also not disclosed.

Like most providers, Chase doesn’t discuss contract terms in its advertising materials. However, the company doesn’t appear to offer “free” terminals in exchange for a long-term contract to its Canadian customers. As always, be sure to discuss contract terms with your sales agent and read your contract documents thoroughly to confirm them before you sign up.

PayPal is a household name in both the US and Canada. Hundreds of millions of people have a PayPal account today, although you don’t need one to make a purchase from a merchant using the company as their payment processor.

As a third-party processor, PayPal offers very predictable pricing, pay-as-you-go billing, and a month-to-month account with no long-term commitment. Our guide to PayPal’s fees and pricing covers its pricing range.

PayPal is one of the biggest names in online payment processing and offers a vast assortment of additional services beyond simple payment processing. Additionally, PayPal’s digital wallet is one of the more popular payment methods outside of credit and debit cards.

Though PayPal recently hiked many of its transaction prices in America, those hikes don’t appear to have hit Canada yet. Online transactions cost 2.9% + $0.30 each, which is in line with what similar services charge. While the billing is generally pay-as-you-go, PayPal also charges the usual assortment of incidental fees that you might occasionally have to pay. These fees are all disclosed on its website, so none of them should come as a surprise.

PayPal is a month-to-month service, so there’s no long-term commitment or termination fee.

High-risk merchants have fewer options for payment processing, but that doesn’t mean they should settle for poor service. Durango Merchant Services is one of our favorite high-risk payment processors, offering reasonable rates and contract terms to industry segments that can easily be exploited.

Durango offers a meaty selection of perks, including shopping cart integration, a proprietary Durango Pay gateway, and support for cryptocurrency payments. It’s a particularly good choice for online-only businesses.

Durango doesn’t disclose its processing rates upfront, as the company works with a wide variety of backend processors and banks to get your account approved and underwritten. Processing rates for high-risk merchants have to be customized to individual businesses and are extremely variable. What Durango does do, however, is explain on its website the factors that go into determining what rates you’ll be offered.

Unlike many high-risk specialists, Durango Merchant Services does not charge account application or setup fees.

Durango Merchant Services offers most clients a month-to-month contract, but some merchants in particularly high-risk industries may be stuck having to enter a contract. This contract will usually be for three years initially and one year after that. Your early termination fee will probably land somewhere around $500.