Credit card fees for small and medium-sized businesses are starting to dip lower as a deal reached between the federal government and the two major card companies is set to take effect.
Mastercard and Visa are reducing interchange fees by up to 27 per cent in a move that Ottawa says will save businesses about $1 billion over five years.
Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business thanked Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland for seeing the deal through. In a statement, he said qualifying businesses could expect about $350 savings per year for each $100,000 in Visa sales and about $200 in savings per year for each $100,000 in Mastercard sales.
To qualify, businesses’ sales volume can’t exceed $300,000 on Visa and $175,000 for Mastercard.
The change officially takes place Saturday, but some payment processors have already started to pass on the savings.
The small business group has, …