Square publishes four payment rates.
Every rate bundles interchange. We pass interchange through at cost and show you the spread, line by line.
Last updated: May 28, 2026
- In card processing since 2014
- Next-day funding
- $0 setup
- Posted pricing
Your volume, against Square.
$3,356
About $280 a month back in your business compared with Square, and $10,069 over three years.
How your price is built
At $40,000 a month in card sales
- Network costs (interchange and assessments), passed through at cost
- $361.72
- Payzium margin
- $72.00
- Payzium per-transaction fees
- $24.00
- Monthly account fee
- $5.00
- Your total a month
- $462.72
- Effective rate
- 1.16%
Estimate on Payzium's published rate card and real Visa Canada and Mastercard Canada interchange, $50 average ticket, Interac at the standard contactless rate. Competitor figures from each processor's published Canadian rates (Global Payments modeled at a mid-range of its bank-channel plans). Final pricing depends on your actual card mix and current network rates.
Square is the fastest, lowest-friction way to start taking cards in Canada. You can sign up this morning and take a payment this afternoon, with no underwriting wait, flat predictable pricing, and hardware and software in one box. If you are brand new and need to accept cards today, or you genuinely run on the full Square stack (POS, Banking, Payroll, loyalty) as one connected system, Square earns its rate. Flat-rate simplicity has a price, and on credit you pay it on every transaction. The page below is the line-by-line teardown.
Every Square line, every Payzium line, on a representative $50 sale.
Payzium figures use the Tier 1 standard schedule (0.30% plus 5 cents card present, 0.40% plus 5 cents card not present), passed through the live interchange engine that prices the homepage slider and /calculator. Tier 1 is the worst case for Payzium; higher tiers widen the gap. Interac debit is flat 5 cents per transaction to the merchant, no margin, no assessment, no per-transaction fee on top. See the math for your own volume on /calculator.
Custom Square pricing is available above $250,000 in annual credit card sales[6]; below that threshold, the published flat rate is the rate you pay.
| Payment type | Square published | Payzium all-in | $50 sale: extra you keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-person credit (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) | 2.5%[1] | about 1.84% | $0.33 |
| Interac debit, in person | 0.75% + 7¢[2] | $0.05 flat per transaction | $0.40 |
| Manually keyed or card on file | 3.3% + 15¢[4] | about 2.30% | $0.65 |
| Online (Square Online, eCommerce API, online invoice) | 2.8% + 30¢[5] | about 2.30% | $0.55 |
| Add-onInternational card (non-Canadian-issued) | +1.5%[3] | +1.5% pass-through | neutral |
$462.72 vs $742.40 a month.
The profile: $40,000 in monthly card volume, 100% card-present, 60% credit and 40% Interac debit, $50 average ticket, 800 transactions. If your profile differs, your number differs.
Square flat rate
- Credit (60% of volume): 2.5% × $24,000 =$600.00/mo
- Interac debit (40% of volume): 0.75% × $16,000 + 7¢ × 320 tx =$142.40/mo
- Monthly fee: $0.00/mo
- Total:$742.40/mo
Payzium wholesale-plus
- Card-network pass-through: credit only, with assessment =$345.72/mo
- Interac (flat 5¢/tx): 320 tx × 5¢ =$16.00/mo
- Payzium margin (credit only): 0.30% × $24,000 =$72.00/mo
- Per-transaction fees: 480 credit tx × 5¢ =$24.00/mo
- Monthly account fee: $5.00/mo
- Total:$462.72/mo
Monthly savings with Payzium on this profile: $279.68. The Payzium total above matches the homepage volume slider and /calculator to the cent at this profile.
Payzium's side is Tier 1 pricing on the live interchange engine, which applies the Visa Small Merchant and Mastercard Small Business rates only where this profile's volume qualifies for them; a merchant under $14,583 a month sees a lower Payzium rate than published here because both SMB programs apply. Both sides exclude terminal hardware.
Square's minimum 7 cents already exceeds our flat 5 cents, before the 0.75% on top.
Square charges 0.75% + 7 cents[2] on every Interac debit transaction. Payzium charges a flat 5 cents per Interac transaction, no margin, no assessment, no per-transaction fee. Square's 7 cent minimum is already 2 cents more than our entire Interac price, and that is before Square adds 0.75% of the ticket on top.
On a $50 in-person debit sale, Square's cost is 44.5 cents; ours is 5 cents.
Four things Square gets right.
Square's published price has zero junk-fee surface area; this is real and worth saying. Honesty about Square's strengths is what makes the per-line rate teardown above credible.
- No monthly processing fee. Square publishes no monthly processing fee, no setup fee, no PCI compliance fee.[7]
- Free dispute management. Square covers the dispute fee on every chargeback they fight on your behalf.[8]
- Instant signup. Square approval is effectively same-morning for clean files. Payzium reviews each merchant individually.
- Square hardware ecosystem. Reader, Stand, Terminal, Register, all well-built and well-supported. Tied to Square only.
Payzium charges a $5 monthly account fee.
Square publishes no monthly processing fee[7]. Payzium publishes a $5 monthly account fee on every account. The same honesty standard we apply to the Interac line applies here: we will not show per-transaction wins on the credit lines while staying quiet on a fixed monthly fee.
The credit-line spread between Square's 2.5% and Payzium's all-in rate recovers the $5 fee with a few hundred dollars of monthly card volume, which any active merchant clears in days. Above that, every dollar of credit volume is net savings. The fee is immaterial to the math at any merchant volume that would meaningfully consider switching processors.
If your monthly card volume is small enough that $5 a month is a real consideration, you are probably better off on Square.
Square has no cancellation fee.
Square is month-to-month. There is no contract and no early termination fee, so leaving costs nothing on paper. The real cost of switching off Square is operational: Square Reader and Square Register are Square-only, so a move requires replacing that hardware. Square Terminal and Square Stand have more flexibility. We tell you exactly which of your hardware carries over before you commit.
Pay less or it's free covers up to CA$1,000 of that switch-out cost. If Payzium has not lowered your processing cost in the first 90 days, the eligible Payzium fees are refunded. Payzium-controlled fees only
Frequently asked questions
What happens to my Square hardware if I switch?
Square Reader and Square Register work only with Square, so those would need replacing. Square Terminal and Square Stand have more flexibility. We tell you exactly which of your hardware carries over before you commit, and Pay less or it's free covers up to CA$1,000 of any switch-out cost.
Payzium-controlled fees onlyHow can Payzium be cheaper than a no-monthly-fee processor like Square?
Square bundles interchange into a flat rate; every transaction you take pays the same rate regardless of what your customer's card actually costs to process. Payzium passes interchange through at cost and adds a small fixed margin (0.30% plus 5 cents on card-present credit at Tier 1). On Interac debit, Payzium charges a flat 5 cents per transaction with no margin, no assessment, no per-transaction fee on top, lower than Square's published 0.75% plus 7 cents at every ticket size. The $5 monthly account fee is recovered with a few hundred dollars of monthly card volume, which any active merchant clears in days.
What is interchange and why does Payzium charge it at cost?
Interchange is the fee the card networks (Visa, Mastercard, Interac) set and collect on every card transaction. Every processor pays interchange to the customer's card-issuing bank. Square bundles interchange into its flat rate. Payzium passes it through at cost, so you pay what the network actually charges, no markup, and on top of that we charge our published margin. That structure is why our all-in rate is lower on most lines: there is no spread between wholesale interchange and the rate you pay.
Are these rates guaranteed?
Yes, two ways. The Honest Rate Promise: if we ever charge a junk fee, we refund it twice. Pay less or it's free: if you have not saved money on processing within the first 90 days, the eligible Payzium fees are refunded and we cover up to CA$1,000 of your switching costs, to move to any processor you want. Every line on your statement should be explainable. If one isn't, we'll find out why.
Payzium-controlled fees onlyWhat is Square's 1.5% international card add-on?
Square applies a 1.5% fee on cards issued outside Canada, on top of the standard rate. Payzium passes through roughly the same international interchange add-on at cost. On the international line, neither processor has a structural edge; we treat it as neutral and do not claim a win there.
What does Pay less or it's free cover if I am coming from Square?
Two things. It covers up to CA$1,000 of your switch-out cost, which for a Square merchant usually means replacing Square-only hardware. And if Payzium has not lowered your processing cost within the first 90 days, the eligible Payzium fees are refunded. The guarantee runs for the first 90 days and is not rolling.
Payzium-controlled fees onlySources
- [1] Square Canada in-person credit rate, 2.5% (Visa, Mastercard, American Express tap or insert). https://squareup.com/ca/en/payments/our-fees. Verified 2026-09-25.
- [2] Square Canada in-person Interac debit rate, 0.75% + 7 cents per tap or insert. Payzium charges a flat 5 cents per Interac transaction; Square's 7 cent minimum exceeds Payzium's flat 5 cents at every ticket size including sub-5-dollar tickets, so there is no positive ticket size at which Square is cheaper. https://squareup.com/ca/en/payments/our-fees. Verified 2026-09-25.
- [3] Square Canada non-Canadian-issued card add-on, +1.5% on top of the standard rate. https://squareup.com/ca/en/payments/our-fees. Verified 2026-09-25.
- [4] Square Canada manually keyed or card-on-file rate, 3.3% + 15 cents. https://squareup.com/ca/en/payments/our-fees. Verified 2026-09-25.
- [5] Square Canada online (Square Online, eCommerce API, online invoice) rate, 2.8% + 30 cents. https://squareup.com/ca/en/payments/our-fees. Verified 2026-09-25.
- [6] Square Canada custom-pricing eligibility, businesses processing over $250,000 in credit card sales annually may qualify. https://squareup.com/ca/en/payments/our-fees. Verified 2026-09-25.
- [7] Square Canada has no monthly processing fees, setup fees, or hidden charges. https://squareup.com/ca/en/payments/our-fees. Verified 2026-09-25.
- [8] Square Canada offers free dispute management on chargebacks; Square covers the dispute fee on every dispute it fights. https://squareup.com/ca/en/payments/our-fees. Verified 2026-09-25.
Honest math.
Decide from there. Wholesale-plus pricing at interchange + 0.30% + 5 cents Tier 1 margin. The Honest Rate Promise and Pay less or it's free. $5 monthly account fee disclosed; no setup fee, no PCI fee, no monthly minimum, no junk fees. Payzium-controlled fees only