Interac Terms and Conditions

Last updated: December 1, 2023

These Interac Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) are applicable to you if you elect to accept Interac Direct Payments from your customers via Stripe (“Interac Services”). Interac Services are made available by Stripe to you through the Acquirer (as defined below). Capitalized terms used and not defined in these Terms have the respective meanings given to such terms in the Stripe Services Agreement (“Agreement”), and, if undefined in the Agreement, the Interac Requirements (as defined below). These Terms are a part of the Agreement and remain subject to all of the other applicable terms and conditions of the Agreement. To the extent these Terms conflict with the Agreement, these Terms prevail, but solely as applicable to the Interac Services.

Definitions: For the purpose of these Terms:

ABM” means an automated banking machine, Interac Debit terminal, or other device that, in conjunction with an Interac-supported Card, provides a Cardholder access to the Interac Services;

 "Acquirer” means Everlink Payment Services Inc.;

 “Cardholder” means a person holding an Interac-supported Card issued by a Card Issuer, permitting that person to utilize that Interac-supported Card to pay for their purchases;

 “Card Issuer” means the financial institution that issues Interac-supported Cards;

 “Interac Requirements” means collectively, the memorandum of association, bylaws, rules, regulations, directives, letters, guidelines and other policy instruments adopted or issued by Interac Corp from time to time applicable to your use of Interac Services. On a confidential basis and upon your reasonable request, Stripe will provide you with copies of the Interac Requirements;

 “Interac-supported Card” means any magnetically or otherwise encoded financial service card that meets the card requirements stipulated in the Interac Requirements for the service for which the card is intended to be used;

 “PED” means a PIN entry device, used to enter, store and act upon a PIN and which enciphers the PIN within the device; and

 “POP Material” means point of purchase marketing material provided by the Acquirer.

Interac Services Requirements:

You must:

(a) Provide adequate protection against disclosure of a Cardholder’s PIN during its entry in a debit Transaction and exercise care and diligence in protecting the confidentiality of the PIN;

(b) Locate PEDs so as to minimize the possibility of disclosing the PIN of a Cardholder during a Cardholder’s entry of their PIN in a debit Transaction;

(c) Not ask a Cardholder for their PIN at any time;

(d) Not require or disclose a Cardholder’s PIN in clear text form;

(e) Respond to any tracing request in accordance with Interac Debit 5 (Interac Operating Regulations - 
Interac Debit 5 - Transaction Settlement, Settlement Agents and Dispute Resolution);

(f) Return to a Cardholder upon their request an Interac-supported Card inadvertently left at an Interac Debit terminal provided you perform satisfactory identification of that Cardholder;

(g) Render inoperable the (1) magnetic stripe and (2) Integrated Circuit (where applicable) of an Interac-supported Card, and forward such Interac-supported Card to the Acquirer if it was left unattended for 24 hours;

(h) Comply with any and all applicable Federal and Provincial laws and regulations dealing with the protection and disclosure of private information about or belonging to Cardholders;

 (i) Take all reasonable precautions to protect information encoded on the Interac-supported Card while the Interac-supported Card is being used for a debit Transaction;

(j) Respond to and rectify all Cardholders’ inquiries, complaints or disputes about the availability, quality, receipt, price and satisfaction of the purchase goods or services, including the amount of a debit Transaction;

(k) Provide the Cardholder with a record of their debit Transactions at your retail store location, and if the Cardholder agrees, the record can be provided by electronic transmission, provided you:

  1. notify the Cardholder prior to PIN entry that, standard messaging fees may apply from their mobile network operator;
  2. send the electronic Transaction record message in a static format to the Cardholder upon completion of the Transaction, regardless of the Transaction’s final status;
  3. include your common trade name and the term “Transaction Record” within the subject line or first line of each message;
  4. make the record accessible to the Cardholder for a minimum of 24 hours;
  5. provide clear instructions on how to access the Transaction record and the minimum amount of time the Transaction record will be available, if provided by link to the Cardholder;
  6. obtain and store a copy of the Transaction record in cases where the original delivery was not received;
  7. for embedded promotional messages, ensure you previously obtained Cardholder consent, and present such promotional messages at the bottom of the electronic Transaction record, with equivalent prominence to its content;
  8. for pre-authorized Transactions at unattended Interac Debit terminals, offer the electronic Transaction record prior to Cardholder’s PIN entry;
  9. ensure they contain the minimum required content set out below in paragraph (m); and
  10. if such electronic Transaction records are compressed, ensure you provide sufficient guidance enabling interpretation of such compressed data;

(l) If your printer or the transmission of an electronic receipts is out of service, (i) for attended Interac Debit terminals, give each Cardholder the option of (x) receiving an abbreviated Transaction record which may be as brief as a sales slip with notation by the sales staff that the payment was made using an Interac-supported Card and showing the Cardholder’s primary account number (which may be abbreviated), or (y) reversing the Transaction, and (ii) for unattended Interac Debit terminals, give the Cardholder the option of not to proceeding with the Transaction, provided you ensure the Cardholder receives value for any amounts debited from the Cardholder’s account;

(m) Allow a Cardholder to retain his or her copy of the debit Transaction record, ensuring it (i) contains at a minimum (1) the local time and date of Transaction, (2) the Card Issuer Authorization number, (3) the unique number or code assigned to the relevant Interac Debit terminal and its location, (4) your business trading name and address, (5) the Transaction type (e.g. purchase, correction or credit), amount, and account type being credited or debited, (6) the Retrieval Reference Number, (7) the PAN (with sufficiently identifiable abbreviations permitted), (8) the disposition of the Transaction (e.g. approved or declined), (9) the amount of any Acquirer-imposed surcharge (if any); and (10) for chip-initiated Transactions, the Application ID of the Interac Application, and (ii) does not contain any confidential, financial, or personal Cardholder information other than those listed in (m)(i);

(n) Where any PED is not equipped with a built-in card swiping feature, only permit such PED to be used for debit Transactions and to ensure that the PED is not tampered with in any way;

(o) Ensure that PEDs assigned to a specific retail location remain at the assigned location and that faulty PEDs are returned to Stripe for diagnostics and repair once a replacement PED arrives at the assigned location;

(p) If applicable, comply with any minimum Transaction values which may be set by either the Acquirer or Card Issuer;

(q) Provide the Acquirer, at any time during the regular business hours of operation for your locations, with access to the PEDs and the ABM to verify the integrity of the software, firmware, hardware and compliance with the terms contained within these terms;

(r) Not charge a fee to any Cardholder for Interac debit Transactions. If either Stripe (after approval of the Acquirer), or the Acquirer elect to apply a surcharge on debit Transactions for the Interac Service, as part of the ABM dialogue, you must notify the Cardholder of the surcharge and provide the Cardholder with an opportunity to cancel their Transaction without cost before the Cardholder is prompted to enter his or her PIN. Such notice must be provided in accordance with Section 1 or Section 2 below (as applicable);

(s) Display the POP Material at your retail location in the manner prescribed and not to copy or duplicate such POP material without the Acquirer’s prior written authorization. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you acknowledge and agrees that the obligation to display the POP material shall not be interpreted as the granting of any license (including a trade-mark license) to use the Interac word or the Interac logo (the “Interac Marks”);

(t) Display the POP Material on your store front or alternate visible location and such material shall be displayed no less prominently than any other signage for any other credit card or financial service trademark;

(u) Acknowledge that such right to use the POP Material does not convey or confer any right, title or interest in any of Interac Marks;

(v) Agree that the Acquirer may amend these Terms and any of the Acquirer’s requirements or regulations at any time following a demand from Interac Corp., and that you agree to be bound and abide immediately to any new requirements and/or regulations imposed pursuant to such modifications of these Terms;

(w) Agree that the Acquirer may immediately terminate the provision of the Interac Services to you upon your failure to perform, observe, conform to or comply with any of the obligations described in these Terms;

(x) Upon termination of this Agreement, to discontinue immediately all use of the Interac Services and immediately return all POP Materials to the Acquirer.

(y) Permit the Acquirer to verify that you are in compliance with the Interac Requirements;

(z) Maintain accurate logs of employee shifts and provide these logs (with or without employee names) to the Acquirer, within 24 hours of a request of Interac or the Acquirer as part of an investigation of an Interac-supported Card fraud incident;

(aa) Not provide currency to Cardholders for INTERAC Flash Transactions;

(bb) keep a copy of any and all Transaction records issued to a Cardholder for a least one calendar year from the Transaction date;

(cc) Provide Stripe with any information and Transaction details that are required by Interac Requirements applicable to your use of the Interac Services, or as requested by Interac;

(dd) Comply with all procedures, rules of operation and security measures that may be established by the Acquirer, including the requirement to participate in any Acquirer security audits to the extent required by Interac;

(ee) Comply with all Interac Requirements;

(ff) Not set a per Transaction limit on your Interac Debit terminals;

(gg) Only reject Interac-supported Cards whose PAN fails a modulus-10 check when read electronically;

(hh) Where you offer Cardholders pre-set selection keys implying a variable amount (e.g. FILL at a gas bar), disclose the maximum amount associated with that key to Cardholders;

(ii) Initiate a reversal message to the Card Issuer indicating the Transaction was not completed and no goods or services were purchased if a Cardholder cancels a Transaction before the authorization response arrives at the Interac Debit terminal; and

(jj) Initiate a completion request to the Card Issuer indicating the final Transaction amount was zero dollars if a Cardholder cancels a Transaction after the authorization response arrives at the Interac Debit terminal.

1. Detailed On-Screen Disclosure of the Surcharge where Capable

For ABMs capable of displaying the following information on one screen as part of the ABM dialogue, the notice described must contain the following: (a) notice of an impending surcharge; (b) explanation that the surcharge is being imposed by the operator of the ABM; (c) the amount of the surcharge; (d) explanation that the surcharge is in addition to any fees that may be imposed by the issuer of the Interac-supported Card; and (e) clear instructions on how to continue or cancel the Transaction.

The following are examples of notices in English and French deemed to meet these requirements:

English:

French:

Fee Notice

The operator of this Terminal will charge a fee of $X.XX for this transaction. This fee is in addition to any fees your financial institution may charge.

Do you wish to continue?

Yes   No

Avis de frais

L’exploitant de ce Terminal impose des frais de X,XX $ pour cette transaction. Ces frais s’ajoutent à ceux que peut vous demander votre établissement financier.

Voulez-vous continuer?

Oui   Non

2. On-screen Notice to be Complemented by Signage where Required

For Terminals not capable of displaying on one screen the notice described in Section 1 must, at a minimum, contain the following: (a) the word “Fee” in English or “Frais” in French; (b) the amount of the Surcharge; and (c) a prompt to the Cardholder to either continue or cancel the Transaction.

 The following are examples of notices in English and French deemed to meet these requirements:

English:

French:

“Fee $X.XX OK?”

“Frais X,XX $ OK?”

In cases in which this paragraph applies, in addition to the on-screen notice described in this paragraph, you must provide an additional notice displayed on or near the Terminal in a location that is clearly and conspicuously visible to the Cardholder while using the Terminal.

If this additional notice is physically affixed to the PIN Pad device, the notice must: (a) be at least 3” wide by 1.5” tall, unless incompatible with the size of the PIN Pad; (b) be set in a font size large enough to fill the entire area of the sign; (c) contain the following: (i) a heading containing the words “Fee Notice” in English or “Avis de frais” in French; (ii) notice that the operator of the Terminal charges a surcharge for Interac Direct Payment Transactions; and (iii) explanation that the surcharge is in addition to any fees that may be imposed by the Issuer; and (d) not contain the Interac logo.

If this additional notice is not physically affixed to the PIN pad device, the notice must: (i) be at least 4” wide by 3” tall; (ii) be set in a font size large enough to fill the entire area of the sign; (iii) contain the following: (i) a heading containing the words “Fee Notice” in English or “Avis de frais” in French; (ii) notice that the operator of the ABM charges surcharge for Interac Direct Payment Transactions; and (iii) explanation that the surcharge is in addition to any fees that may be imposed by the issuer of the Interac-supported Card; and (iv) not contain the Interac logo.

The following are examples of notices in English and French deemed to meet these requirements:

English:

French:

Fee Notice

The operator of this ABM charges a fee for Interac Direct Payment transactions. This fee is in addition to any fees that your financial institution may charge.

Avis de frais

L’exploitant de ce ABM impose des frais pour transactions faites par le Paiement direct Interac. Ces frais s’ajoutent à ceux que peut vous demander votre établissement financier.