Credit card surcharge rules in Canada for restaurants

Restaurants outside Quebec may add a surcharge to Visa and Mastercard credit card payments, capped at 2.4% and never more than what accepting those cards actually costs them, after giving at least 30 days' written notice to their payment processor (and to Mastercard). Surcharges aren't allowed on debit or prepaid cards, must be shown to customers before they pay and printed on the receipt, and are banned outright in Quebec. Many restaurants find it simpler to build card costs into menu prices.

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This is general information, not legal advice. Your acquirer (the company that processes your card payments) applies the card brands' rules to your account.

The Visa and Mastercard rules side by side

Two more Visa points: a surcharge on Visa can't be higher than one you charge on American Express or PayPal, and you can't charge both a surcharge and a service fee on Visa credit.

Quebec: no card fees at all

Quebec's Office de la protection du consommateur says a merchant can't charge a fee for paying by debit or credit card, or add one to the price at checkout. Under the Consumer Protection Act, the advertised price must be the full amount the customer pays; only amounts collected for a public authority by law, such as GST and QST, can be added. Telling customers about the fee in advance, by a sign or at the till, doesn't make it legal. Customers can report a merchant to the Office.

For a Quebec restaurant, the only lawful way to recover card costs is through its prices.

2024: lower card costs for small businesses

Under agreements announced by the federal government, Visa and Mastercard cut interchange fees for qualifying small businesses by up to 27% from 19 October 2024:

• Who qualifies: businesses with annual Visa credit sales under C$300,000 (assessed for Visa) and annual Mastercard sales under C$175,000 (assessed for Mastercard).
• In-store: domestic consumer credit interchange falls to an annual weighted average of 0.95%.
• Online: interchange falls by 10 basis points.
• Code of Conduct: the revised Code of Conduct for the Payment Card Industry in Canada took effect on 30 October 2024, making processor offers easier to compare.

Interchange is only part of your processor's fee, but it matters for surcharging: your cap is your own average cost of accepting each brand. If lower interchange brings your Mastercard credit cost to 1.6%, your Mastercard surcharge can't exceed 1.6%, even though the cap is 2.4%. Check your monthly statement before you set the rate.

Worked example: surcharge or price increase?

A C$50.00 bill, tax included, paid by credit card. Prices and fees as of October 2026.

If you surcharge at your counter terminal. Say your average cost of accepting Visa credit is 2.7%. Your surcharge is capped at 2.4%: C$1.20. The customer pays C$51.20, a customer paying by debit pays C$50.00, and you still absorb the 0.3% gap on credit cards. You also need the 30-day notices, the signs and the receipt line, and in Quebec you can't do it at all.

If you take the order online through your own Stripe account. Stripe charges 2.9% + C$0.30 on a domestic card: C$1.75 on C$50.00, or 3.5% of the bill. Menuthere doesn't add a surcharge, so you recover that cost through your prices instead. To keep C$50.00 after Stripe's fee, the bill would need to be (C$50.00 + C$0.30) ÷ 0.971 = C$51.80, about 3.6% higher.

One customer, one total, no surcharge line, and the same menu works in every province, Quebec included. Run your own figures with the menu price calculator.

How Menuthere handles card costs

• No surcharge, ever. Menuthere's checkout never adds a card fee, so you don't need surcharge notices or signs for online orders.
• Your own Stripe account (Lite, US$17 a month). Customers pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay on Stripe's checkout; the money goes to your Stripe balance, minus Stripe's fee (Stripe's fees in Canada; connect Stripe).
• Or no card fees online (Free). On the Free plan, customers order online or by table QR and pay at your counter.
• 0% commission on every plan, unlike delivery apps that take 20% to 30% (see SkipTheDishes vs DoorDash vs Uber Eats).

More on online card fees: can I add a card fee or surcharge to online food orders. Setting up ordering in Canada: online ordering system or QR code menu. Taxes on top of your prices: GST/HST on restaurant food. Plans: pricing.

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Checklist if you surcharge at your own terminal

• Confirm you're not operating in Quebec.
• Work out your average cost of accepting Visa credit and Mastercard credit from your statements; your surcharge can't exceed either figure or 2.4%.
• Give your acquirer at least 30 days' written notice, and register with Mastercard through its webform.
• Set your terminal to surcharge credit cards only, never debit or prepaid.
• Put up signs at the entrance and at the point of sale with the percentage, and show the amount on every receipt.
• Refund the surcharge on returns.