Payment Processing in Canada

• Currency: Canadian dollar (CAD).
• Most used online payment method: credit cards, with 46% of e-commerce spending by value in 2025; digital wallets followed with 32%.
• Bank payments: Interac e-Transfer, with about 1.6 billion transactions in 2025.
• Payment service providers: supervised by the Bank of Canada under the Retail Payment Activities Act since 2024.
• Surcharging: allowed on credit cards up to 2.4% since 6 October 2022, but not in Quebec and never on debit.
• Gambling: run by provincial lottery corporations; Ontario (since 2022) and Alberta (since 2026) also admit private online operators.

Credit cards carried 46% of Canadian e-commerce spending by value in 2025, digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet 32% and buy now, pay later 5%, according to the Global Payments Report (11th edition, 2026). Payments Canada's survey points the same way: 61% of online shoppers paid by credit card in 2025, and in 2024 Visa Debit and Debit Mastercard were used by 24% of Canadians for online purchases. Interac's older online debit service, Interac Online, has been discontinued.

Payments Canada counted 26.7 billion retail payments worth $12.9 trillion in 2025. Online transfers, driven mainly by Interac e-Transfer, made up 6% of payment volume, and Interac reports about 1.6 billion e-Transfer transactions in 2025. Businesses can collect e-Transfers on their own website or app through Interac's Business Request Money service, which Interac lists for uses such as online purchases, bill payments and funding gaming or investment accounts. E-commerce was 6.1% of Canadian retail sales in 2025, and Payments Canada expects its new Real-Time Rail to launch in the fourth quarter of 2026.

• Surcharging: since 6 October 2022, merchants outside Quebec may add a surcharge of up to 2.4% to Visa and Mastercard credit card payments, with 30 days' notice to their acquirer, clear disclosure at checkout and the surcharge shown on the receipt. Debit cards, including Visa Debit and Debit Mastercard, cannot be surcharged.
• Quebec: the provincial consumer protection office states that a merchant cannot charge fees when a customer pays by debit or credit card, even if the fee is announced.
• Lower card fees for small merchants: since 19 October 2024, Visa and Mastercard have cut domestic consumer credit interchange for in-store payments to an average of 0.95% and for online payments by 10 basis points, for businesses with under $300,000 in annual Visa sales or under $175,000 in annual Mastercard sales.
• Code of Conduct for the Payment Card Industry in Canada: the revised Code took effect on 30 October 2024, with the remaining obligations phased in by 30 April 2025. It gives merchants 90 days' notice of fee increases, the right to cancel without penalty after such a notice, and monthly statements showing the effective rate for each card type.
• Privacy: private-sector data handling falls under PIPEDA, with Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia applying their own similar laws to businesses within the province.

• Federal or provincial incorporation documents, directors and beneficial owners.
• Whether the business is a money services business: foreign exchange dealing, money transfer and dealing in virtual currencies need FINTRAC registration, which matters for forex and crypto businesses.
• Whether the business itself holds or moves funds for others, which can bring it under the Retail Payment Activities Act.
• A Canadian business bank account in the company's name for CAD settlement.
• Your website, what you sell, where you deliver and your refund terms.
• Recent processing statements and dispute figures, if you already process.

A foreign company can take Canadian card payments without a Canadian entity. Interac e-Transfer collection is offered to businesses through providers connected to Interac, so ask early whether a route supports it. Since the Retail Payment Activities Act came into force, payment service providers outside Canada that serve end users in Canada, for example through a .ca domain or Canadian marketing, may also need to register with the Bank of Canada. The registration window opened in November 2024 and the operational risk and safeguarding rules applied from 8 September 2025, so check that the provider collecting your Canadian funds is registered.

On tax, non-resident sellers of digital products and services to Canadian consumers register for GST/HST once their taxable sales to Canadian consumers exceed $30,000, using a simplified registration available since 1 July 2021.

Under section 207 of the Criminal Code, gambling in Canada is conducted and managed by the provinces. Most provinces offer online gambling only through their own lottery corporation sites, such as PlayNow in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Espacejeux in Quebec and the Atlantic Lottery Corporation site. Ontario opened a regulated market for private operators on 4 April 2022: operators register with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and sign an agreement with iGaming Ontario, which became a standalone Crown agency on 12 May 2025. In its fourth year, April 2025 to March 2026, the market took over $103 billion in wagers and $4.2 billion in gaming revenue, and 91.1% of Ontarians who gambled online used regulated sites. Alberta's regulated market, licensed by Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis, opened on 13 July 2026.

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission, set up by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, has licensed online gaming operators since 1999 under its own law. Its licences are not provincial authorisations, and in May 2024 the Ontario Superior Court dismissed the Mohawk Council's challenge to Ontario's iGaming model.

For payments, the AGCO standards for Ontario operators prohibit extending credit to players, do not allow cryptocurrency deposits, require withdrawals to an account the player legally holds and require anti-money laundering controls in line with FINTRAC rules. Providers looking at a gambling merchant will ask which provinces you accept players from, which regulator you hold a licence with and how you block players outside your licensed area. Interac lists funding gaming accounts among the uses of its e-Transfer Business Request Money service, so bank-based deposits are an option next to cards.

Acquipayer is not a payment provider. You add your business, markets, volumes and the payment methods you need once, and your profile is matched with a payment provider that accepts your business type and can collect from Canadian customers in CAD. Your account is then prepared with that provider so you can start taking payments.

• Payments Canada, Canadian Payment Methods and Trends Report 2025 and 2026.
• Interac Corp., corporate year in review and Business Request Money.
• Global Payments Report, 11th edition (2026), as reported by Retail Insider.
• Bank of Canada, Retail Payment Activities Act registration criteria.
• Department of Finance Canada, interchange reductions and revised Code of Conduct, October 2024.
• Office de la protection du consommateur du Québec, fees for paying by card.
• Canada Revenue Agency, GST/HST for digital economy businesses.
• FINTRAC, money services business registration.
• AGCO, Registrar's Standards for Internet Gaming; iGaming Ontario, Ipsos channelization study (May 2026).
• Criminal Code of Canada, section 207; Ontario Superior Court, Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke v. iGaming Ontario (2024).