A Canadian Alternative to Bank-Bundled Processing
Most Canadian merchants don't choose their payment processor so much as inherit one. The bank that holds the business account offers a bundled merchant services package, and the business owner signs because the alternative feels complicated. The rates are rarely published. The contract terms run for years. And the effective cost stays hidden until someone does the math on a year's worth of statements. Clearly Payments, a Vancouver-based processor founded in 2018, has built its entire Canadian credit card processing service around rejecting that model. We score Clearly Payments 7.0 out of 10 for the credit card processing category.
The company publishes its interchange-plus markup rates directly on its website, organized by annual volume tier, with separate columns for in-person and online transactions. That alone puts it ahead of most Canadian processors on pricing transparency. There are no setup fees, no cancellation penalties, and no multi-year commitments. You rent terminals month-to-month and can walk away at any time.
For a Canadian business owner who's tired of guessing what they're actually paying per transaction, that's a real shift.
How Canadian Credit Card Processing Works Through Clearly Payments
Clearly Payments operates as a full-service merchant services provider, meaning you get your own merchant account with a unique Merchant ID rather than sharing an aggregated account. The company doesn't build its own processing infrastructure from scratch. Instead, it partners with established backend processors including Fiserv and Elavon to handle transaction routing and settlement. What Clearly Payments controls is the merchant relationship: pricing, onboarding, support, and the technology stack sitting between the merchant and the processing network.
The product lineup covers in-person payments through wired and wireless EMV terminals, a countertop and mobile POS system with inventory management, a browser-based virtual terminal for phone and mail orders, an online payment gateway with hosted payment pages for eCommerce, recurring billing tools for subscription businesses, and branded email invoicing. It accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, China Union Pay, Interac debit, and cryptocurrency. The gateway integrates with platforms including WooCommerce, Magento, QuickBooks, Xero, Shopify (through gateway-level compatibility), and several hospitality and retail POS systems like Squirrel and NCR Voyix. Hardware is rented on a month-to-month basis, not leased, so there's no long-term equipment commitment. Clearly Payments reports its technology partners process more than 3 billion transactions annually across over one million merchants, though that figure reflects the backend providers' total volume, not Clearly Payments' share of it.
The company's concept originated in 2017, with formal operations beginning in 2018. It's privately held, headquartered at 1155 West Pender Street in Vancouver, and operates with a virtual team structure designed to keep overhead low. There's no disclosed venture funding or outside investment. The leadership team comes from fintech and banking backgrounds, and the company expanded into the U.S. market in 2023. As a smaller, independent processor, Clearly Payments doesn't carry the brand recognition or financial disclosures you'd see from publicly traded competitors. That's a trade-off worth understanding upfront.
Clearly Payments Pricing and What It Actually Costs
Canadian merchants can choose between two pricing models: interchange-plus (which Clearly Payments calls "cost-plus") or a membership plan. U.S. merchants only have access to interchange-plus. The interchange-plus model passes through the wholesale interchange rate set by the card networks and adds a fixed markup that varies by your annual processing volume. Here's what the markup tiers look like for in-person transactions: businesses processing $150,000 to $300,000 annually pay interchange plus 0.38% and $0.08 per transaction. At $300,000 to $600,000, that drops to interchange plus 0.33% and $0.06. Between $600,000 and $1 million, it's 0.28% and $0.06. From $1 million to $3 million, the markup falls to 0.23% and $0.05. And at $3 million to $10 million, you're looking at 0.15% and $0.04. Online and keyed-in transactions carry slightly higher markups at each tier.
Here's what that looks like in practice. A retail store processing $250,000 per year in card-present transactions sits in the first tier. With a typical Canadian interchange rate around 1.4% for basic Visa and Mastercard consumer cards (reflecting Canada's reduced small-business interchange averaging 0.95% plus network assessments), you'd pay roughly 1.78% effective rate on standard consumer cards, plus 8 cents per transaction. On $250,000 in annual volume, that comes to approximately $4,450 in interchange costs plus $1,950 in Clearly Payments markup, totaling around $6,400 per year. A business processing $500,000 annually drops into the second tier, bringing the markup portion down to about $2,950 per year, so total processing costs land near $9,950 annually. Those numbers assume a card mix weighted toward basic consumer cards. Premium rewards cards, American Express, and card-not-present transactions will push the effective rate higher.
The membership model, available only to Canadian businesses, eliminates the percentage markup entirely. You pay a flat monthly fee for access to wholesale interchange rates: $99 per month for businesses processing up to $50,000 monthly, or $189 per month for $50,000 to $250,000 monthly. On $250,000 per year in processing, the $99/month membership costs $1,188 annually. That's noticeably cheaper than the interchange-plus markup for the same volume, making membership the better deal for most established Canadian businesses. The catch is that your monthly fee stays the same whether you process $12,500 or $50,000 in a given month.
Who Benefits Most from Clearly Payments
Picture a dental practice in Calgary processing $30,000 to $40,000 per month in patient payments across a front desk terminal and an online portal for pre-payment. The practice switched from a bank-owned processor that charged tiered rates with a three-year contract. With Clearly Payments' membership model at $99 per month, the practice pays wholesale interchange on every transaction, and the office manager can see exactly what each card type costs on the monthly statement. If the practice adds a second location, the month-to-month structure means it can bring on another terminal without renegotiating a contract or committing to additional hardware leases. Based on the rate structure, a practice at this volume switching from a typical bank-bundled tiered plan could realistically save $300 to $500 per month in processing costs, depending on card mix and the previous provider's markup.
Clearly Payments also works well for Canadian eCommerce businesses that want a dedicated merchant account instead of an aggregator. The payment gateway supports hosted payment pages, recurring billing, and direct API integration, which gives SaaS companies and subscription businesses the flexibility to customize the checkout experience. Cannabis dispensaries and CBD retailers in Canada can also get approved, since Clearly Payments supports those industries in markets where they're federally legal. That's a narrow but real advantage for businesses that struggle to find willing processors.
This isn't the right fit for every business, though. The lowest interchange-plus tier starts at $150,000 in annual card sales, and the minimum processing threshold sits at $12,500 per month. A brand-new business doing $5,000 a month in card transactions won't qualify. Sole proprietors and micro-merchants with low volume are better served by flat-rate aggregators that don't require volume minimums. Similarly, U.S.-only businesses have dozens of established domestic processors to choose from, many with longer track records and deeper integration networks. Clearly Payments' strongest value proposition is specifically for Canadian merchants who want to move away from opaque bank-processor pricing.
Gaps You Should Know About
The biggest diligence consideration is the company's age and size. Clearly Payments has been operating since 2018, is privately held with no disclosed outside funding, and doesn't publish financial performance data. That's not unusual for an independent processor, but it does mean you're placing more trust in the direct sales relationship than you would with a publicly traded or bank-backed provider. If you're considering a switch, treat the first month as your proof period: confirm deposit timelines in writing, request a complete fee schedule that includes gateway and equipment costs, and validate that the reporting and reconciliation workflows meet your actual operating needs before committing volume.
The technology stack, while functional, doesn't stand out. Clearly Payments relies on third-party backend processors and doesn't offer a proprietary dashboard or app platform comparable to what you'd find with larger providers. The reporting interface handles basics, but users looking for advanced analytics, automated reconciliation, or deep API integrations may find the tooling limited. The integrations list is reasonable but not exhaustive. You'll find WooCommerce, QuickBooks, and Xero, but the selection is narrower than what a Stripe or Square offers through their developer platforms.
Terminal pricing isn't published on the website. You'll need to contact the sales team to get equipment costs, which creates a transparency gap in an otherwise transparent pricing model.
The company rents terminals month-to-month rather than selling them outright, and while that avoids long-term lease traps, it also means you don't own the hardware. If you leave, the terminals go back.
Recent Developments
Clearly Payments continued expanding its U.S. presence through 2025 following the 2023 market entry, though the U.S. offering remains limited to interchange-plus pricing without the membership option. The company's website received a full redesign in early 2026 with reorganized product navigation and updated branding. On the product side, Clearly Payments added dedicated industry solutions pages for healthcare, government and nonprofit, hospitality, and high-risk merchant categories, and continued publishing interchange rate guides for both Canada and the U.S. on its resource hub. The expanded industry positioning suggests a push beyond general-purpose merchant services into verticals where specialized onboarding and compliance awareness matter.
Our Verdict
Clearly Payments has built a credit card processing service that does exactly what its name promises: it makes the costs clear. For Canadian merchants processing $150,000 or more annually, the interchange-plus rate tiers are competitive, the month-to-month structure removes lock-in risk, and the Canada-based support team is a genuine advantage over offshore call centers. The membership model, exclusive to Canadian businesses, offers even better economics for merchants with steady monthly volume. Where the company falls short is in the areas that come with time and scale. The technology platform relies heavily on third-party infrastructure, the company is privately held with no disclosed financial backing, and the relatively short operating history means you're trusting a younger provider with a critical business function. If transparent pricing and a flexible contract structure are your top priorities, and you're willing to validate the service quality during onboarding rather than relying on a long institutional track record, Clearly Payments is a strong option in a Canadian market that needs more of them.