Update to Interac Flash Interchange
Effective Date: July 7, 2021
Description: Effective January 29, 2021 Interac revised their rules to increase the Interac Flash contactless per transaction limit from $100 to $250. Issuers may optionally support Interac Flash contactless transactions up to $250 for their cardholders. As a reminder, under Interac rules, merchants are not permitted to set a per transaction limit on terminals.
Impact: The Interac Flash interchange fees currently apply to Interac contactless transactions up to $100. Effective July 7, 2021 the interchange fees will apply to all Interac contactless transactions up to $250 based each merchant’s existing tier pricing qualification.
Application: The interchange rates for each tier are as follows:
| Tiers | Flat fee per transaction | Criteria for each Merchant Qualification | |
| Interac Flash Transactions | Tier 1 Low-ticket Merchants | $0.020 | -Fast Food Restaurants (MCC 5814) -Variety Stores (MCC 5331) -Movie Theatres (MCC 7832) -Convenience Stores (MCC 5499) -Bakeries (MCC 5462) -Dairy Product Stores (MCC 5451) -Limousines and Taxicabs (MCC 4121) -News Dealers and Newsstands (MCC 5994) -Charitable and Social Services -Organizations (MCC 8398) |
| Tier 2 High-volume Merchants | $0.025 | Merchants that meet a minimum annual transaction volume threshold of 20 million Interac Flash transactions, based on transaction volume in the previous calendar year. | |
| Tier 3 All other Merchants | $0.035 | Base interchange rate that applies to all other merchants. |
