Debit isn’t credit. Your rate shouldn’t pretend it is.
An Interac debit transaction costs your processor a flat amount whether the sale is $12 or $1,200. If you’re being billed a percentage of every debit sale, you’re paying more on your best tickets for a cost that never moved. That gap is what we call the fair debit question.
What “a fair debit network” means
Every card payment you accept has two parts to its cost: the wholesale cost your processor genuinely has to pay to move the transaction, and the markup your processor adds on top. On credit cards, most merchants have at least heard of interchange and know the wholesale part exists. On debit, that conversation almost never happens — the debit line shows up as a rate, or worse, gets folded into a single blended number, and nobody explains what any of it is made of.
A fair debit arrangement is a simple thing to describe. The wholesale Interac cost passes through to you unchanged. The processor’s markup is stated separately, in a unit that matches how the cost is actually incurred, and it doesn’t quietly grow when your sales grow. You should be able to look at one line on a statement and answer the question “what did this processor charge me to accept debit, and per what?” without calling anyone.
That’s the standard this page argues for, and it’s the standard RKP Atlantic Business Services applies when we look at a merchant’s account. We’re a merchant services provider in New Brunswick, we’ve been doing this since 2016, and we would rather show you your own numbers than quote you a rate you can’t verify.
Why debit deserves its own conversation
Interac debit and credit cards are not the same product wearing different plastic, and they aren’t costed the same way. A credit transaction carries funding cost, credit risk, and a rewards program the issuer has to pay for — which is why credit interchange in Canada is built mainly as a percentage of the sale. An Interac debit transaction moves money that is already sitting in the cardholder’s account. There is no credit being extended and no rewards pool to fund, so the wholesale economics are built around a fixed fee for switching the transaction, not a slice of it.
Follow that through and the consequence is blunt: on debit, the cost to your processor is essentially the same on a $15 coffee order and a $1,500 repair invoice, while percentage-based pricing charges you a hundred times more on the second one. Nothing about the transaction justified the difference. This is why debit markup is so easy to miss and so expensive to keep — it’s invisible on small tickets and it compounds on exactly the sales you worked hardest for.
How the wholesale cost behaves
Credit: mostly a percentage of the sale, set by the card networks, paid to the issuing bank. Bigger sale, genuinely bigger cost.
Interac debit: built around a flat per-transaction cost. Bigger sale, same cost.
How merchants are often billed
Credit: a percentage — which at least matches the shape of the underlying cost.
Debit: also a percentage, or buried inside one blended rate. The shape no longer matches the cost, and the difference is margin.
Interac sets its own wholesale fees and they change from time to time; we don’t publish a number here that would go stale. What doesn’t change is the structure — flat per transaction, not a share of the ticket.
Where debit pricing quietly goes wrong
These are the patterns we see most often when a Canadian merchant sends us a statement. None of them are exotic, and most merchants have at least one.
Percentage pricing on a flat-cost transaction
The single most common one. Your debit line is quoted at a percentage, so a large-ticket business pays multiples of what the transaction costs to process. Businesses with high average sales — trades, auto, clinics, wholesalers — are hit hardest.
Blended pricing that hides the debit line entirely
One rate covers credit and debit together. It looks simple and it is unauditable by design: you cannot tell what debit cost you, so you cannot tell whether it’s fair.
Fees stacked underneath the headline rate
Per-item charges, monthly minimums, statement fees, PIN pad rentals, network access fees. Individually small, and collectively often larger than the rate everyone negotiated over.
Terminal leases that outlive the terminal
Multi-year non-cancellable equipment leases sold alongside the processing agreement, at a total cost far above buying the same device, and frequently still being paid after the hardware is obsolete.
Statements written to be skimmed, not read
Debit volume on one page, debit fees on another, categories renamed between them. If it takes an hour to work out your own cost per debit transaction, that is a choice someone made.
An introductory rate that quietly moves
A competitive number at signup, then a repricing notice in a statement insert twelve months later. The rate you agreed to and the rate you’re paying today are often not the same rate.
Check your own debit rate in three steps
You don’t need us to do this, and you shouldn’t take anyone’s word for it — including ours. Pull your most recent merchant statement and work it out.
- Isolate your debit numbersFind total Interac/debit volume for the month, and the transaction count that goes with it. Keep debit separate from credit — if your statement blends them, that itself is the finding.
- Add up every fee attached to debitPer-item fees, the debit portion of your discount rate, PIN pad or terminal rental, network access, and a fair share of any monthly minimum or statement fee. The headline rate alone will understate it.
- Divide twiceFees ÷ volume gives your effective debit rate as a percentage. Fees ÷ transaction count gives your true cost per debit transaction. On debit, that second number is the honest one — compare it against what the transaction actually costs to switch.
Debit cost calculator
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Local people, national coverage
Fair Debit Network is published by RKP Atlantic Business Services. We’re based in Grand-Barachois, New Brunswick, between Shediac and Moncton, and we’ve been working with merchants in Atlantic Canada since 2016 — restaurants and cafés, trades and contractors, clinics, retail, and service businesses across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. We serve merchants nationally, but when a New Brunswick business wants someone to sit down with the statement, that’s a drive, not a support ticket.
Where to find us
RKP Atlantic Business Services105-69 Cap Bimet Blvd.
Grand-Barachois, NB E4P 6X5
Canada
(506) 870-8499
atlbiz.biz
What a rate review involves
Send a recent merchant statement. We read it line by line, separate debit from credit, and come back with what you’re paying per debit transaction and where the markup sits.
You get the numbers whether or not you ever become a customer. If your current pricing is already fair, we’ll tell you that too.
Debit processing questions merchants actually ask
What does a fair debit rate actually look like in Canada?
A fair debit arrangement passes the wholesale Interac cost through unchanged and adds a stated markup you can see on the statement — normally a small fixed amount per transaction. Because the wholesale cost of an Interac transaction doesn’t rise with the size of the sale, a fair debit rate shouldn’t rise with it either. If your debit line is quoted as a percentage, the amount you pay grows with every larger ticket while the underlying cost stays flat.
Why is debit priced differently from credit card processing?
Credit card interchange is set by the card brands and is largely a percentage of the sale, because the issuer is funding credit risk and a rewards program. Interac debit moves money that already exists in the cardholder’s account, so its wholesale pricing is built around a fixed per-transaction switch fee rather than a percentage. Applying credit-style percentage pricing to debit ignores that difference — and merchants with larger average tickets feel it the most.
How do I find my real debit rate on my merchant statement?
Find your Interac or debit volume for the month and the total of every fee attached to it, including per-item fees, PIN pad or terminal rental attributable to debit, and any share of monthly minimums. Divide total debit fees by total debit volume for your effective debit rate as a percentage, and divide total debit fees by debit transaction count for your true cost per transaction. On debit, the per-transaction number is the one that matters.
Do I need to change terminals or switch banks to get better debit pricing?
Usually not. Debit pricing is set in your merchant agreement, not by the hardware, and existing terminals can often stay in place. The first step is a plain reading of your current statement, so you know what you’re actually paying before anything changes.
Who is behind Fair Debit Network?
Fair Debit Network is published by RKP Atlantic Business Services, a merchant services provider based at 105-69 Cap Bimet Blvd., Grand-Barachois, New Brunswick, serving businesses across Atlantic Canada and nationally since 2016. Full services, terminals, and contact details are at atlbiz.biz.
Find out what debit is really costing you
One recent statement is all it takes. We’ll separate debit from credit, work out your cost per transaction, and show you the arithmetic so you can check it yourself.