Square, Stripe or e-Transfer? The fee depends on how they pay.
The job's done and the customer asks how you'd like to be paid. A tap on the truck, a link in the invoice, a card number read out over the phone, or an e-Transfer. Each one costs you a different amount.
The short answer
Square takes 2.5% when a credit card is tapped in person, 2.8% + 30¢ when an invoice is paid online, and 3.3% + 15¢ when you key the card in1.
- Stripe takes 2.9% + CA$0.30 for a Canadian card online, plus 0.5% if it's keyed in2.
- An e-Transfer has no percentage: your bank sets the fee.
- At RBC, a business pays $1.50 to send the request and $0.50 to receive it by Autodeposit3.
- On a $1,200 job that's $33.90 by Square online and $2.00 by e-Transfer.
- So the bigger the job, the more the e-Transfer saves.
Square, Stripe or an e-Transfer, job by job
Square if you get paid on site, with the card in hand.
A tapped credit card is 2.5% and a tapped debit card is 0.75% + 7¢1.
Stripe if customers pay you every month, or online.
A pre-authorised debit from their bank account is 1% + CA$0.40, capped at CA$5.002.
An e-Transfer if the job is big and the customer banks in Canada.
There's no percentage.
The payments inside the app you already run, if your invoices live there.
On Jobber, card payments work in Canada5.
The detail
A payment that lands against its own invoice is one less thing to match up at month end.
What each one charges, by how the customer pays
| How they pay | Square | Stripe | e-Transfer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credit card, tapped in person | 2.5%1 | 2.7% + CA$0.05 on Stripe's reader2 | — |
| Debit card, in person | 0.75% + 7¢1 | CA$0.15 for Interac on the reader2 | — |
| Card paid online or from an invoice link | 2.8% + 30¢1 | 2.9% + CA$0.30; Stripe's own invoices add 0.4% a paid invoice2 | — |
| Card keyed in, or kept on file | 3.3% + 15¢1 | 2.9% + CA$0.30, plus 0.5%2 | — |
| Card issued outside Canada | 1.5% more1 | 0.8% more, and 2% more if the currency is converted2 | — |
| Straight from their bank account | — | Pre-authorised debit: 1% + CA$0.40, capped at CA$5.002 | Your bank's fee. At RBC: $1.50 a request, $0.50 an Autodeposit, plus the account's deposit fee3 |
| Monthly fee | $0 on the free plan1 | None2 | Your business account's own fees3 |
| Money to your bank | Free in one to two business days; instant costs 1.95%1 | Free on the standard schedule; instant costs 1%, at least CA$0.602 | Most land in seconds4 |
| A customer disputes the charge | — | CA$15.00 for each dispute received, and CA$15.00 more to counter it by hand2 | — |
One $1,200 job, paid five ways
Example
- Square, credit card tapped: $1,200 × 2.5% = $30.00.
- Square, invoice paid online: $1,200 × 2.8% + $0.30 = $33.90.
- Square, card keyed in: $1,200 × 3.3% + $0.15 = $39.751.
The detail
Stripe, Canadian card online: $1,200 × 2.9% + $0.30 = $35.10, or $39.90 through Stripe's own invoice ($35.10 + $1,200 × 0.4%)2. e-Transfer at RBC: $1.50 for the request + $0.50 for the Autodeposit = $2.00, before the account's deposit fee3. The gap between keyed in and e-Transfer: $39.75 − $2.00 = $37.75 on one job.
A year of jobs at your size
Swap in your own numbers: how many jobs a month, and what the average one bills.
Example
- 20 jobs a month at $600 is 240 jobs and $144,000 a year.
- All paid by Square online invoice: $600 × 2.8% + $0.30 = $17.10 a job, × 240 = $4,1041.
The detail
All by Stripe online card: $600 × 2.9% + $0.30 = $17.70 a job, × 240 = $4,2482. All by e-Transfer at RBC: $2.00 × 240 = $480, plus deposit fees3. Half by Square online and half by e-Transfer: 120 × $17.10 + 120 × $2.00 = $2,052 + $240 = $2,292. The mix saves $4,104 − $2,292 = $1,812 a year against all-card, if half your customers will send an e-Transfer.
Passing the card fee on to the customer
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada sets out the card networks' rules for merchants.
The detail
Outside Quebec, you may add a surcharge to a credit card payment: no more than 2.4%, and never more than the card costs you to accept6. You give your processor or card network written notice before you start, and you show the surcharge at the point of sale, at your door or on your site, and on every receipt6. A surcharge can't sit on top of a service or convenience fee, and for debit cards, ask your processor6.
What comes with the money
- An e-Transfer can carry the invoice number and the customer number4.
The detail
Put both on the invoice and ask customers to copy them in.
- At RBC, a business can request up to $10,000 from each customer a day3.
The detail
You can put a due date and the invoice number on the request3.
- Square's standard transfer to your bank is free1; Stripe's standard payouts are free too2.
- How much one e-Transfer can carry depends on your bank and the customer's4.
The detail
That's up to $25,000 for business transfers, depending on the bank and the account4.
Where we fit
The third route is payments built into the system that runs your week: the invoice goes out in your name with a way to pay in it, the payment lands against that invoice, and the reminders stop on their own.
The detail
Which provider sits underneath, Square or Stripe, depends on how your customers pay, and we'll say which suits you. We don't publish a price, because every system is scoped to the business it runs.
Sources
- Square Processing Fees, Plans and Software Pricing, Square (Block, Inc.). Read 2026-10-28.
- Pricing & Fees, Stripe. Read 2026-10-28.
- Receive Payments from Customers and Others, RBC Royal Bank. Read 2026-10-28.
- Interac e-Transfer for Business, Interac Corp.. Read 2026-10-28.
- Jobber Payments basics, Jobber Help Center. Read 2026-10-27.
- Merchant surcharges, service and convenience fees, and discounts, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. Read 2026-10-28.
Checked on 2026-10-28.
