What the Small Merchant program is
Interchange is a fee your processor pays to your customer’s bank on each card sale. Visa publishes the rates. Visa Canada’s rate sheet says these are “Fees paid by the Acquirer to the Issuer on purchase transactions.” (The acquirer is your processor’s side. The issuer is your customer’s bank.)
Visa has several rate programs. The Small Merchant program has its own set of rates for businesses with smaller yearly Visa sales. Visa’s rate sheet calls them “Small Merchant Program Electronic (Card Present)” and “Small Merchant Program – CNP (Card Not Present)”. TD’s Fee Change Summary calls the same thing the “Small Business Interchange Program”.
More on interchange: What Is Interchange?
Who qualifies
Visa’s rate sheet, as read on October 22, 2026: the program “Applies to the transactions of retailers that meet the following specific criteria: Less or up to $300,000 CAD in total net VisaNet retail sales volume annually.”
From October 22, 2026, according to TD: “Visa is increasing the annual transaction volume threshold for its Small Business Interchange Program from $300,000 to $750,000. This change means more merchants may qualify for the program.”
TD adds: “Eligibility is determined by Visa based on a merchant’s total Visa transaction volume across all acquirers during the qualification period of October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025.”
In plain words: it is your yearly Visa sales that count, not all your card sales. And if you use more than one processor, TD says Visa adds them together.
The rates
All rates are interchange, for Visa consumer credit cards in Canada. “In person” is what Visa calls “Electronic (Card Present)”. CNP means card not present: online, phone or keyed in. Tokenized means the card number was replaced by a stand-in number called a token.
In person:
| Visa card | Small Merchant (Visa’s sheet) | From Oct 22, 2026 (TD) | Standard in-person rate (Visa’s sheet) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic, Gold, Platinum | 0.77% | 0.70% | 1.25% |
| Infinite | 0.99% | 0.89% | 1.57% |
| Infinite+ | 1.05% | 1.05% (no change) | 1.60% |
| Infinite Privilege | 1.80% | 1.70% | 2.08% |
Card not present:
| Visa card | Small Merchant CNP (Visa’s sheet) | From Oct 22, 2026 (TD) |
|---|---|---|
| Classic, Gold, Platinum | 1.30% | 1.20% |
| Infinite | 1.55% | 1.45% |
| Infinite+ | 2.20% | 2.05% |
| Infinite Privilege | 2.30% | 2.20% |
Card not present, tokenized:
| Visa card | Visa’s sheet | From Oct 22, 2026 (TD) |
|---|---|---|
| Classic, Gold, Platinum | 1.25% | 1.15% |
| Infinite | 1.50% | 1.40% |
| Infinite+ | 2.15% | 2.00% |
| Infinite Privilege | 2.25% | 2.15% |
Where the new numbers come from. TD’s Fee Change Summary lists each change as a card network change, 100% passed on, effective October 22, 2026. For example: “CDN CONSUMER ELEC. QUAL SB” from 0.77% to 0.70%, and “CDN INFINITE PRIV QUAL SB” from 1.80% to 1.70%. The Infinite+ CNP rows are from TD’s change table.
Other Visa changes on the same date
TD’s table for October 22, 2026 also lists changes outside the Small Merchant program. Some examples:
- Visa Infinite “Everyday Needs” in person: 1.20% to 1.10%.
- Visa Infinite Privilege “Everyday Needs”, “Gas” and “Grocery” in person: 1.95% to 1.85%.
- Visa Infinite+ “Standard”: 2.35% to 2.20%.
- “CDN BUS STANDARD” (a business card rate): 2.00% to 2.15%. This is the one increase in the table. TD lists January 10, 2027 as the date to cancel without penalty for it.
Restaurants and other businesses in the Everyday Needs program: see Card Processing for Restaurants.
How it shows up on your statement
It depends on your pricing model.
- Interchange plus: interchange is listed card type by card type. TD’s fee names for these rates end in “QUAL SB”, for example “CDN CONSUMER ELEC. QUAL SB”. See What Is Interchange Plus Pricing?
- Flat rate: you pay one rate set by your processor. Interchange is inside it, so a Small Merchant rate change does not show as its own line.
- Differential or tiered: some interchange shows as an extra charge on certain cards. See Flat Rate vs Interchange Plus vs Tiered.
The card fee calculator shows what a rate means for a given level of sales.
Questions to ask your processor
- Are my Visa sales coded as Small Merchant?
- Where does that show on my statement?
- Does the October 22, 2026 change reach my statement, or is my rate fixed?
Where to go from here
On TD statements, Visa Small Merchant lines end in “QUAL SB”. Other processors may name the program instead. Their rates can be set against the tables above. A statement with only one rate per card brand has interchange inside that rate.
How to Read Your Merchant Statement shows where to look. Want a partner to review your statement? We will put you in touch. Start the free statement review.