Monthly Card Processing Cost Estimator (CAD)

Use this estimator for a first monthly budget before you request quotes, or to see how much your sales mix moves the bill. It answers: roughly what will card acceptance cost me each month?

How to fill it in. Enter your monthly card sales in thousands of dollars: $15,000 a month is 15. Choose the sales mix closest to yours, or type your own low and high cost per $1,000 processed. A cost of $14 per $1,000 equals an effective rate of 1.4%; $22 equals 2.2%. Add fixed monthly fees that do not depend on volume: statement or account fees, PCI programme fees, gateway fees, terminal rental and POS software.

Formula. Low estimate = sales (in $1,000s) × low cost per $1,000 + fixed fees. High estimate = sales (in $1,000s) × high cost per $1,000 + fixed fees.

Worked example (illustrative). A café with $15,000 of monthly card sales and an in-person mix of Interac debit and credit cards uses the first option, $14 to $22 per $1,000, and has $40 a month in fixed fees. Low: 15 × $14 + $40 = $250. High: 15 × $22 + $40 = $370 a month, or about $3,000 to $4,440 a year.

Why the ranges differ. Interac debit is usually priced as a small flat fee per transaction, so a debit-heavy business with larger tickets pays less per $1,000. Premium and business credit cards carry higher interchange than standard cards. Online and keyed payments carry higher interchange and fraud risk than tapped or inserted cards.

Limits. The ranges are placeholders that show the arithmetic. They are not survey data and not any processor's price. Chargebacks, refunds, foreign cards, currency conversion and one-off fees are not included. Replace them with the figures in your quotes and read card processing cost estimates.