Understanding Business Fees

Please note, all financial institutions move through the tiers below as transaction volumes increase.

Interac e-Transfer Send Money & Retail Request Money:

• Tier 1, ≤6MM transactions: $0.43 / transaction
• Tier 2, >6 – 30MM transactions: $0.09 / transaction
• Tier 3, >30MM transactions: $0.06 / transaction
• Fulfillment Fee – For Request Money transactions, the Requestor Participant will be required to pay the Responder Participant with an additional $0.10 per fulfillment

Interac e-Transfer Send Money & Retail Request Money (if AD and/or RM not enabled):

• Tier 1, ≤5MM transactions: $0.55 / transaction
• Tier 2, >5MM – 15 MM transactions: $0.12 / transaction
• Tier 3, >15MM transactions: $0.07 / transaction
• Fulfillment Fee – For Request Money transactions, the Requestor Participant will be required to pay the Responder Participant with an additional $0.10 per fulfillment

Interac e-Transfer Business Request Money:
Ad valorem:

• Requestor Participant Fee: 35 bps* (of which 25 bps* is paid to Responder Participant Reimbursement Component).
• Ad-valorem fee is capped at $3.50

Flat Fee (based on end-user meeting qualification criteria):

• Requestor Participant Fee: $0.35 / transaction (of which $0.25 is paid to Responder Participant Reimbursement Component).
• $2,000.00 onboarding fee per customer

^{*BPS = Basis Points} 

Bulk Payables:

• Transaction Processing fee – $0.05 / transaction

Bulk Receivables:

• Transaction Processing fee – $0.02 / request, $0.03 / fulfillment
• Fulfillment Fee – Requestor Participant will be required to pay the Responder Participant with an additional $0.10 per fulfillment

File and Transaction Fees (Legacy) – Regular Processing:

• File Processing fee – $5.00 / file
• Transaction Processing fee – $0.07 / transaction

File and Transaction Fees (Legacy) – Priority Processing:

• File Processing fee – No charge
• Transaction Process fee – $0.32 / transaction

File and Transaction Fees (Legacy) – Custom Notification:

• Transaction processing fee – $0.05 / transaction

Implementation and Onboarding Support Fees

• • $250/hour
  • Bank of hours billed at $220/hour with minimum 250 hours bank.

Monthly Maintenance Fee:

• $1,000/month.
• Waived if transaction fees >$1000

Monthly Network/Telecom Fee:

• $1,000-$5,000 per site

Test Environment Maintenance Fee:

• $150/day

Interac e-Transfer Service Support Activities:

• No charge

Interac e-Transfer Operational Support Activities:

• $250/hour

SMS Fee:

• $0.015 per SMS

Interac e-Transfer Send Money & Retail Request Money:

• Non-on-us Transaction: $0.08/transaction
• On-us Transaction: $0.04/transaction
• Request Money Fulfillment Fee: Requester’s Participant will be required to pay the Responder’s Participant with an additional $0.10 per fulfillment
• Request Money Initiation Fee: Requester’s Participant will be charged additional $0.01/initiation, regardless of whether such transaction is fulfilled or not

Interac e-Transfer Business Request Money

Ad valorem option:

• Requester’s Participant Fee: 35 bps* (of which 25 bps* is paid to Responder’s Participant).
• Ad-valorem fee is capped at $3.50/transaction

Flat Fee (based on non-retail customer meeting qualification criteria):

• Requester’s Participant Fee: $0.35 / transaction (of which $0.25 is paid to Responder’s Participant).
• Participant will pay a one-time onboarding fee of $2,000.00 per non-retail customer meeting qualification criteria.

High-volume Recipient Fee (Send Money Transactions)

• Receiving Participant Fee: $0.05/transaction

SMS Fees

• $0.015 per SMS notification

Bulk Payables:

• Transaction Processing fee – $0.05 / transaction

Bulk Receivables:

• Transaction Processing fee – $0.02 / request, $0.03 / fulfillment
• Fulfillment Fee – Requestor Participant will be required to pay the Responder Participant with an additional $0.10 per fulfillment

File and Transaction Fees (Legacy) – Regular Processing:

• File Processing fee – $5.00 / file
• Transaction Processing fee – $0.07 / transaction

File and Transaction Fees (Legacy) – Priority Processing:

• File Processing fee – No charge
• Transaction Process fee – $0.32 / transaction

File and Transaction Fees (Legacy) – Custom Notification:

• Transaction processing fee – $0.05 / transaction

Implementation and Onboarding Support Fees

• • $250/hour
  • Bank of hours billed at $220/hour with minimum 250 hours bank.

One-time Onboarding Fees

• • $50,000 for a direct connection
  • $5,000 for an indirect connection

Monthly Operating Fees

• • $20,000 for each direct connection
  • $1,500 for each of the first 9 indirect connections
  • $500 for each indirect connection beyond 9

Monthly Network/Telecom Fee (Charged by the telecom companies)

• • $1,000 – $10,000 per site

Test Environment Maintenance Fee:

• $150/day

Interac e-Transfer Operational Support Activities:

• $250/hour

Switch fees as of November 1, 2024

• Interac Debit ABM Withdrawals: $0.014331
• Interac Debit (including Interac contactless payments and ecommerce payments): $0.012851

Acquirer Service Fee
All applicable transactions (Includes Switch Fee)

• $0.025

Switch fee – ABM Acquirers and Issuing FIs that are participants of Interac Corp. pay a wholesale, flat-rate switch fee for every Interac Cash transaction message that they send to the Interac network. It is an annual, low-cost fee set on a cost recovery basis, and it is the only fee charged by Interac Corp. in connection with Interac Cash transactions.

Interchange fee – Interchange is a fee that a customer’s financial institution pays to the ABM Acquirer and it is intended to compensate the ABM Acquirer or ABM owner/operator for the service of providing cash to the Issuing FI’s customer. It is paid for every approved cash withdrawal transaction processed through the Interac network. While Interac Corp. has a role in setting the interchange fee rate, it does not receive any revenue from this fee.

Surcharge fee – ABM owners/operators may impose a surcharge (e.g., $2.00) on customers that use their ABMs. An ABM surcharge fee is also known as a convenience fee. As prescribed by the Interac Consent Order issued by the Competition Tribunal, Interac Corp. may not restrict the levying of a surcharge. If imposed, the surcharge amount must be properly disclosed to the customer, and the customer must be provided with the option of cancelling the transaction without cost if they do not wish to pay the surcharge. The amount of the surcharge is determined at the discretion of each ABM owner/operator.

Acquirer processing fee – ABM owners/operators pay a processing fee to the ABM Acquirer that provides them with connection services to the Interac network and the fee may include costs related to other services. The fee varies depending on individual contracts that ABM owners/operators have with their ABM Acquirers or connection service providers.

FI transaction/account fee – Customers may be charged a fee by their financial institution (FI) directly from their bank account for Interac Cash transactions (i.e., use of an ABM for a cash withdrawal that is not operated by their own FI). The application and amount of these fees vary and reflect the individual business decisions made by each individual FI. FIs may also charge a regular transaction account fee for Interac Cash transactions. These FI transaction/account fees may be included in a customer’s bank account package offered by their FI.

Switch fee – POS Acquirers and Issuing FIs that are participants of Interac Corp. pay a wholesale, flat-rate switch fee for every Interac Debit transaction message that they send to the Interac network. It is an annual, low-cost fee set on a cost recovery basis, and it is the only fee charged by Interac Association in connection with Interac Debit transactions.

Interchange fee – Interchange is a fee that a POS Acquirer pays to the customer’s financial institution to balance the costs and benefits of offering the service to customers. Interchange for Interac Debit is currently set at zero. Beginning April 2016, a new interchange pricing structure will be introduced for Interac Flash. While Interac Corp has a role is setting the interchange fee rate, it will not receive any revenue from the fee.

Surcharge fee – Effective January, 26th 2024, the surcharge fee must be capped at $0.25. However, if debit services from more than one payment network are offered at the POS, the surcharge amount must not exceed the other payment network’s surcharge amount. If imposed, the surcharge fee must be printed on the transaction record, and must be applied by the merchant’s applicable Acquirer. The surcharge fee must be properly disclosed to the customer, and the customer must be provided with the option of cancelling the transaction without cost if they do not wish to pay the surcharge. Merchants may not directly apply a surcharge to any cardholder for the use of the Interac Debit Service.

Acquirer processing fee – Merchants pay a processing fee to the POS Acquirers that provide connection services to the Interac network, and the fee may include costs related to other services. The fee varies depending on individual contracts that merchants have with their POS Acquirers or connection service providers.

FI transaction/account fee – Customers may be charged a regular transaction account fee by their financial institution (FI) directly from their bank account for Interac Debit transactions. The application and amount of this fee varies and reflect the individual business decisions made by FIs. The fee may be included in a customer’s bank account package offered by their FI.

Issuer transaction fee – Participating issuers pay a wholesale, flat-rate transaction fee to Interac Corp. for eligible Interac Debit in-app and in-browser transactions.

Acquirer service fee – Participating acquirers pay a wholesale, flat-rate transaction fee to Interac Corp. for eligible Interac Debit with Apple Pay or Google Pay transactions.

Interchange fee – Interchange is a fee that an acquirer pays to issuers for each transaction that they initiate and that is subsequently approved by the issuer. Interac will calculate the interchange fee on a per transaction basis. While Interac Corp. has a role in setting the interchange fee rate, it will not receive any revenue from the fee.

Surcharge fee – Effective January, 26th 2024, the option to impose a surcharge on remote transactions using the Interac Mobile Debit (In-App/In-Browser) Service will not be permissible to align with market standards.

FI service fee – Financial institutions (FIs) pay a flat-fee to Interac Corp. that is based on tiered transaction volume for each Interac e-Transfer transaction they send on behalf of their customers. The fee charged to FIs is a wholesale rate.

FI transaction/account fee – Financial institutions (FIs) may charge their customers a fee for sending an Interac e-Transfer transaction. Depending on the banking package, these could be free at your financial institution.

The application and amount of these fees vary and reflect business decisions made by each individual FI. FIs may also charge their customers a regular transaction account fee for Interac e-Transfer transactions. These FI transaction/account fees may be included in a customer’s bank account package offered by their FI.

FI service fee – Financial institutions (FIs) pay a flat-fee to Interac Corp. that is based on tiered transaction volume for each Interac e-Transfer transaction they send on behalf of their customers. The fee charged to FIs is a wholesale rate.

FI transaction/account fee – Financial institutions (FIs) may charge their customers a fee for sending an Interac e-Transfer transaction. Depending on the banking package, these could be free at your financial institution.

The application and amount of these fees vary and reflect business decisions made by each individual FI. FIs may also charge their customers a regular transaction account fee for Interac e-Transfer transactions. These FI transaction/account fees may be included in a customer’s bank account package offered by their FI.