Every merchant statement I've ever pulled apart has the same shape: a clean-looking discount rate at the top, then a junk drawer of fees below it that the owner has never read. The discount rate is what the rep sold. The junk drawer is where the processor makes their real margin.
If you've ever divided your total fees by your card volume and gotten a number way higher than your "quoted" rate — this is why. The gap is the fees below.
Here are the 11 most common ones, what each one actually is, and whether it's a legitimate cost being passed through or a quiet markup the processor is keeping.
1. The PCI compliance fee
PCI compliance / PCI assessment fee
What it is: The cost of being compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Every merchant who takes cards in Canada has to be PCI compliant. Every processor charges a PCI fee. Even Square charges one — it's baked into their flat rate so you don't see it.
Where it gets shady: Some processors bill a flat $10-15/month. Some bill $40. Some bill $99 a year on top of monthly. And then there's the PCI non-compliance fee — a separate $19.95-$30/month charge they hit you with if you don't complete the annual SAQ questionnaire on their portal. Most owners never know the questionnaire exists, so they pay this for years.
Legit — but check the amount2. The "non-qualified" surcharge
Non-qualified / mid-qualified surcharge
What it is: If you're on a tiered pricing plan (most bank-owned processors — Moneris, TD, RBC, Chase, BMO Merchant Services), every card gets sorted into a "tier" — qualified (cheap), mid-qualified (higher), non-qualified (highest). Your quoted rate is the qualified rate. Almost no cards qualify for it.
Where it gets shady: The tiers are defined by your processor, not by Visa or Mastercard. They can move cards between tiers anytime they want. Reward cards, business cards, manually-entered cards, AmEx through Visa — all get bumped to non-qualified. On an average card mix, 40-60% of your transactions end up non-qualified. Your "2.65% qualified rate" turns into a 3.4% effective rate because of this single fee.
This is the single biggest hidden fee in Canadian merchant processing. It's the reason your effective rate looks nothing like your quoted rate.
Mostly junk — solved by switching to Interchange Plus3. The monthly statement fee
Statement / paper statement fee
What it is: A monthly fee for producing your monthly statement. Yes, really. The processor charges you for the privilege of sending you the bill.
Where it gets shady: Half of these processors don't even mail you a paper statement — it's a PDF in your portal. They still charge for it. A "paper statement fee" of $5-10/month on top of the regular statement fee is also common if you opt for mail delivery.
Junk — Dough doesn't charge one4. The batch fee
Batch fee / batch settlement fee
What it is: Every time you close out your terminal at the end of the day (a "batch"), the processor charges a fee. It's roughly the cost of moving the day's transactions through the settlement system. Real cost. Real small.
Where it gets shady: Most processors charge this. Most charge a reasonable $0.10-$0.25 per batch. Some charge $1+. And some charge it whether you actually batched or not — meaning you'll see 30 batch fees on the statement of a shop that was closed half the month.
On a normal 6-day-a-week shop, you batch ~26 times a month. At $0.15 = $3.90. At $0.50 = $13. At $1.50 = $39. Worth checking yours.
Legit but check the rate5. Network access fees
Visa NABU / Mastercard NABU / Acquirer access fees
What it is: Visa and Mastercard charge processors small per-transaction fees to access their networks. These are real, set by the card brands, and would be paid under any processor. Most legit processors pass them through at exactly cost.
Where it gets shady: Sketchy processors add a markup on top — instead of passing through Visa's $0.0195 per swipe, they charge $0.05 and pocket the difference. You'll see this as a "Visa Access Fee" or "Mastercard Network Access" line item that's noticeably bigger than it should be.
If you see multiple Visa or Mastercard network fees with vague names totalling more than ~$10/month on a small shop, that's the flag.
Legit pass-through — but often marked up6. The terminal lease / equipment fee
Terminal lease / equipment rental
What it is: If you didn't pay cash for your terminal upfront, you're probably leasing it. Sometimes from your processor. Sometimes from a third-party leasing company the processor signed you up with.
Where it gets shady: Terminal leases are one of the worst-kept secrets in payments. A Clover Flex retails for under $700. A 48-month lease on that same terminal at $59/month = $2,832 over four years. And those leases are typically iron-clad, non-cancellable, even if you sell the business or close down. People have been stuck paying lease fees on a terminal they returned years ago.
If you see a terminal lease on your statement, find your lease agreement and look at: (a) the term length, (b) the buyout clause, (c) the cancellation policy. Most owners discover they've paid 3-5x the retail value of the terminal by the end of the term.
Often predatory — buy your terminal outright if you can7. The chargeback fee
Chargeback fee
What it is: When a customer disputes a transaction, the processor has to investigate, retrieve documents, communicate with the issuing bank. There's real work involved. They charge a fee for it.
Where it gets shady: Some processors charge the fee whether you win or lose the dispute. Some charge a separate "retrieval fee" ($5-15) for pulling the receipt, then a chargeback fee ($25-35) for the dispute itself — for the same transaction.
$15-25 per chargeback is reasonable. $35+ is high. $50+ is predatory.
Legit cost, check the amount8. The monthly minimum fee
Monthly minimum fee
What it is: Your contract says you'll generate at least $X in processing fees per month. If you don't, the processor charges you the shortfall.
Where it gets shady: This was designed for the days when running a merchant account had real fixed costs to the processor. It's now basically a punishment fee for slow months. Seasonal businesses (landscapers, ice cream shops, tax accountants, ski hills) get hammered by this every off-season.
Dough doesn't charge a monthly minimum. Many newer processors don't. The big banks still do.
Junk for seasonal businesses9. The "annual fee"
Annual membership / annual account fee
What it is: A once-a-year charge for having an account with them. That's the entire explanation. No service is rendered. No work is done.
Where it gets shady: It hits your statement out of nowhere, usually in a month when you weren't expecting an extra $100-250. By the time you call to ask, you're already three years into the contract and they remind you it was disclosed in section 14(c) of the rate schedule you signed.
Pure junk — no work is being done10. The "PCI non-compliance" fee
PCI non-compliance fee
What it is: Separate from the regular PCI fee. You get charged this on top of the PCI fee if you haven't filled out the annual Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) on the processor's portal.
Where it gets shady: Most processors don't tell you the questionnaire exists. Some make the questionnaire genuinely hard to find on their portal. Some require quarterly external scans you have to pay extra for. So you get billed $20-35 every month for "non-compliance" with a process you were never properly walked through.
If you see this on your statement, log in to your processor's portal and search for "PCI" or "SAQ." Complete it. The fee will drop off the next billing cycle.
Mostly junk — caused by the processor not telling you11. The early termination fee (when you try to leave)
Early termination fee / liquidated damages
What it is: If you signed a multi-year contract (most bank-owned processors push 3-5 year terms) and try to leave before the term is up, you pay a fee. Usually a flat $295-$500, sometimes calculated as "remaining monthly fees x months left."
Where it gets shady: The fee itself isn't wild — it's a contract, that's how contracts work. The shady part is how often owners don't realize they're on a multi-year contract. Sales reps will say "no contract, we're month-to-month" while you sign a five-year agreement.
Always check before signing: What's the term? What's the cancellation policy? What's the early termination fee? Get the answers in writing.
Legit if disclosed — predatory if hiddenQuick reference: which fees are legit, which are junk
| Fee name | Typical cost | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| PCI compliance fee | $10-40/mo | Legit · check amount |
| Non-qualified surcharge (tiered pricing) | +0.5-1.6% per swipe | Junk · switch to IC+ |
| Monthly statement fee | $5-15/mo | Junk |
| Batch fee | $0.10-0.25/batch | Legit at low rates |
| Network access fees (Visa/MC) | $2-8/mo each | Legit pass-through |
| Terminal lease | $30-120/mo | Often predatory |
| Chargeback fee | $15-35 per | Legit · check amount |
| Monthly minimum | $10-35/mo | Junk for seasonal |
| Annual fee | $99-250/yr | Pure junk |
| PCI non-compliance fee | $19.95-35/mo | Junk · solvable |
| Early termination fee | $200-500+ | Legit if disclosed |
What this adds up to (a real-world example)
Let me make this concrete. Here's a real pattern I see from auto shops and salons doing ~$50K/month in card volume on a tiered-pricing plan with a bank-owned processor:
$50K/month merchant, tiered pricing, with terminal lease
- Non-qualified surcharge on ~50% of cards: ~$250-400/mo
- PCI compliance fee: $25/mo
- PCI non-compliance fee: $25/mo
- Statement fee: $10/mo
- Batch fees: $15/mo
- Network access markups: $15/mo
- Terminal lease: $59/mo
- Annual fee (averaged monthly): $15/mo
- Total hidden / junk fees: ~$415-565/mo on top of the discount rate
On $50K of card volume, that's an extra 0.83%-1.13% on top of whatever your quoted rate was. Annualized, you're looking at $5,000-$6,800 a year in fees nobody mentioned at the kickoff call.
How to actually audit your statement
If you want to do this yourself in 30 minutes:
- Pull your last full month's statement. Find the very last page — that's where the fees usually live.
- List every single non-transaction-rate line item. Anything that isn't "Visa discount rate" or "Mastercard discount rate" or "Interac discount rate" goes on the list.
- Add them up. That's your monthly hidden fee load.
- Divide your total fees by your card volume. That's your effective rate.
- Compare effective rate to quoted rate. Gap of 0.3% or less — you're probably fine. Gap of 0.5%+ — you're paying somewhere between $1,500 and $10,000/year more than the quoted rate suggests.
For a more methodical walkthrough, the how to read a merchant statement guide goes line by line with a sample statement.
What Dough does (and doesn't) charge
For full transparency, here's our fee structure:
- PCI fee: yes — every processor charges one. Ours is on the low end.
- Batch fee: nope.
- Monthly statement fee: nope.
- Monthly minimum: nope.
- Annual fee: nope.
- PCI non-compliance fee: nope — we walk you through the SAQ during onboarding so this never becomes a thing.
- Network access fees: passed through at exactly cost — no markup.
- Terminal lease: we don't push leases. You can buy your terminal outright, or qualify for a free Clover Flex through the Boost program.
- Early termination fee: only if you sign a 4-year contract for a free terminal. Month-to-month option always available.
- Chargeback fee: yes — standard industry rate, fully disclosed upfront.
The whole pitch is in the three pricing models. No tier system. No "non-qualified" surcharges. No surprise junk.
The TL;DR
- Your quoted rate is the top of the iceberg. The non-qualified surcharge, PCI non-compliance, statement, batch, network access, and annual fees stack to roughly +0.5% to +1.2% on your effective rate.
- Tiered pricing is the single biggest hidden cost. The "non-qualified" surcharge applies to 40-60% of your cards. Switching to Interchange Plus eliminates it entirely.
- Terminal leases are predatory. A $700 terminal financed at $59/month over 48 months costs $2,832. Buy the terminal or qualify for a free one through Boost.
- PCI non-compliance fees are usually solvable. Complete the SAQ on your processor's portal and the fee drops off.
- Annual fees and monthly statement fees are pure junk. No real work is being done for them. Newer transparent processors don't charge them.
- To find your real cost: divide total fees by total card volume. If the result is more than 0.5% above your quoted rate, you're being quietly upcharged on the back end.
Zachary at Dough
Founder of Dough Payments. I spend most of my week pulling apart merchant statements for Canadian small business owners. The patterns above are what I find every single time. Send me yours and I'll show you exactly where the markup is hiding — line by line, in plain English.