The main reason businesses overpay for card processing isn't that they can't find a better rate. It's the fear that switching means a day of chaos at the till. In practice the risk is manageable, and almost all of it comes down to doing things in the right order.
Why most businesses stay put
Three reasons, in roughly this order: the belief that they're locked into a contract, uncertainty about whether the POS will still work, and the assumption that the saving isn't big enough to bother. The first is often untrue, the second is answerable in one phone call, and the third is worth checking against your actual statement rather than a memory of what you were quoted.
What to gather first
- Three recent statements. Not one — the card mix moves month to month.
- Your current agreement, including term, renewal date and any early-termination language.
- Your POS make and model, and whether payments are integrated or the terminal is standalone.
- Terminal ownership — bought, leased, or supplied under a separate rental agreement.
- Anything else riding on the account: gift cards, loyalty balances, recurring billing, online checkout.
That last one is the item people forget, and it's the one that causes real disruption. Outstanding gift card liability in particular needs a migration plan, not a switch-off date.
Check your exit rights
Under Canada's Code of Conduct for the Payment Card Industry, merchants have meaningful protections — including the ability to exit an agreement without penalty in defined circumstances, notably where a processor increases fees or changes terms. Processors are also required to present pricing in a way that lets you compare offers, and complaint response times were shortened under the revised Code that took effect in October 2024.
Find the last notice your processor sent about a fee or term change. If there was one, read your Code rights carefully — that notice may be exactly what opens the door.
The POS integration question
This decides how big the job is. If your terminal is standalone — you key the total in manually — switching is close to trivial. If payments are integrated into your POS, the question becomes whether your new processor is certified with that POS, and whether the integration is supported by the POS vendor or a middleware layer.
Ask for the answer in writing, naming your exact POS version. "It should work" is not an answer. If you're reconsidering the POS itself as part of the move, our POS selection guide covers matching the system to how you actually trade.
Hardware: owned, leased or locked
Terminals fall into three categories and it matters which you have. Owned hardware may still be locked to a processor and require re-keying or replacement. Leased hardware usually sits under a separate finance agreement that doesn't end just because the processing does — a genuinely common and expensive surprise. Supplied hardware is normally returned.
Check the lease separately from the processing agreement. They frequently have different terms and different end dates.
A sequence that avoids downtime
- Sign and get hardware on site — but don't cancel anything. The old account stays live.
- Set up and test the new terminal outside trading hours: a small live sale, a refund, a void, and a batch settlement.
- Confirm the deposit landed in the right account, on the timing you were promised.
- Run both in parallel for a few days. New terminal primary, old one still connected as a fallback.
- Migrate the peripherals — online checkout, recurring billing, gift and loyalty balances.
- Only then give notice on the old agreement, in the manner the contract specifies.
- Return leased hardware with tracking, and keep the proof.
The parallel period is what makes this safe. It costs a few days of overlap and removes essentially all of the risk.
Week one: what to verify
- Deposits arriving on the promised schedule, in full, to the correct account.
- Your first statement matching the pricing you agreed — check the markup line specifically.
- Refunds and voids behaving correctly, not just sales.
- Tips, surcharges and taxes calculating as before.
- Reporting reconciling against your POS totals.
Mistakes worth avoiding
Cancelling the old account before the new one has settled a batch. Forgetting the gift card liability. Missing a notice window and auto-renewing for another term. Comparing a new headline rate against your old effective rate rather than like for like. And accepting a quote that doesn't state the markup separately — covered in our guide to processing fees.
FAQ
Your old processor's reporting portal typically becomes unavailable after closure, so export what you need first — statements, annual summaries and anything your accountant relies on. Your POS keeps its own sales history independently.
Balances live with the gift card programme, not the card processing itself. They need an explicit migration or run-off plan agreed before you close anything. Treat this as a separate workstream.
For a standalone terminal, often a week end to end including the parallel period. For an integrated POS with online payments and loyalty, allow longer — the certification and migration steps set the pace, not the paperwork.
Avoid your peak trading period and avoid month-end if you can. Otherwise there's no bad time — the parallel-running approach means you're never without a way to take payment.
Send us three recent statements. We'll work out your true effective rate, tell you what a move would realistically save, and say so plainly if it isn't worth doing.
Get a free rate review