Is Interac not an option everywhere?
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
20 points (88.5% liked)
Buy Canadian
2202 readers
372 users here now
A community dedicated to buying Canadian products.
Une communauté dédiée à l'achat de produits Canadiens.
Rules:
1. Posts must be related to buying Canadian-made goods and / or using Canadian-owned services
2. Absolutely no bigotry will be tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.
3. AI Content Policy
Not allowed: AI-generated images or articles
Tolerated: AI-generated post summaries
4. When discussing a Canadian product that isn't available nationally, please do your best to specify where it can be purchased
5. Only content in French and English is permitted
6. Declare all self-promotion
Users are encouraged to report any content that violates our community guidelines
Règlements :
1. Les poteaux doivent être en lien avec l'achat de produits et / ou de services opérés par des canadiens
2. Aucune bigoterie ne sera tolérée. Ça comprend, mais sans se limiter à, le racisme, le sexisme, l’homophobie, la transphobie, etc.
3. Politique sur le contenu IA
Non permis : Images ou articles générés par l'IA
Toléré : Résumés IA de publications
4. Lors d'une discussion sur un produit canadien qui n'est pas disponible à l'échelle nationale, veuillez faire de votre mieux pour préciser où il peut être acheté
5. Seul le contenu en français et en anglais n'est toléré
6. Déclarez toute auto-promotion
Les utilisateurs sont encouragés à signaler tout contenu qui ne respecte pas nos directives communautaires
Related communities: Communautés connexes :
!buyeuropean@feddit.uk !buyafrican@baraza.africa !boycottus@lemmy.ca !canada@lemmy.ca !canada@lemmy.ml
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I don’t see it in a lot of places sadly.
This is surprising to me. I can’t think of a single instance ever where I encountered a store payment terminal in Canada that didn’t accept Interac debit. Do you have an example?
In my experience, all the places that I’ve been to that aren’t cash-only accept Interac (or just debit), both large and small businesses that sometimes don’t have the Interac sticker. It could be my luck, but I’ve yet to find one that has a card terminal and doesn’t do Interac.
Where in Canada are you that you don't see Interac?
My corner homeless person tales Interac...
For real. I legit can’t think of anywhere that doesn’t do Interac at least in Ontario/Quebec
I was under the impression that Interac was the standard in Canada.
Not a standard, so much as a monopoly that charges all Canadian shoppers a hidden tax no matter how they pay.
Can you elaborate on this?
I manage several businesses with merchant accounts, and our fees on Interac debit are far far lower than credit cards. Credit card fees are really rough on small businesses, especially for premium cards (Visa Infinite, etc).
He can't elaborate on it because he's full of shit
What's the hidden tax? So many smaller businesses here refuse credit because of their fees but will take Interac.
Edit: The search term just came to mind right after posting this.
Interac e-Transfer Send Money & Retail Request Money:
- Tier 1, ≤6MM transactions: $0.43 / transaction
- Tier 2, >6 – 30MM transactions: $0.09 / transaction
- Tier 3, >30MM transactions: $0.06 / transaction
- Fulfillment Fee – For Request Money transactions, the Requestor Participant will be required to pay the Responder Participant with an additional $0.10 per fulfillment
So it looks like it's a higher base rate compared to credit cards, but they don't take a percentage of the transaction.
In any case, I don't know enough about running a business to know how this compares to the cost of handling cash.
What's JCB and wero?
Both are payment processors as JCB is Japanese while Wero is Belge.
Why would these be good options in Canada?
They are not American.
A surprising number of places in Vancouver accept China's UnionPay 银联, lol.
I would love to see credit unions use these!
There's nearly 300 credit unions that use Interac.
I mean, RBC uses Interac, so it should be pretty widespread throughout Canada.
Its everywhere in Canada. Never been a place I couldn't use it, even out in the boonies.