thread Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada! in Online Store

Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

carolinea — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 06:13:21 GMT

We’re thrilled to launch Square Reader for contactless and chip in Canada. This latest addition to the Square reader family lets you accept chip cards, contactless payments, and now—finally—debit tap!

What this means for your business

Square Reader for contactless and chip is now available from the online Square Shop for $59. Once you have your reader, you can accept contactless payments, mobile payments like Apple Pay and Android Pay, and chip credit cards too.

Your reader can connect wirelessly to any supported device or you can purchase the Dock for Square Reader to keep your reader charged and positioned for payments. You can also use the dock to plug your reader right into Square Stand for instant setup. Learn more about how to use your reader in our Support Centre.

Accepting payments with Square Reader

Once you have your Square Reader set up, you can start processing debit tap, credit and mobile transactions with the Square app on your device. It’s similar to accepting payments with the magstripe reader, but a few things are different:

Debit tap transactions have a limit of $100. Credit card transactions have no limits—tap or insert the card, manually enter the card number, or swipe it with your included magstripe reader. Magstripe, inserted and manually entered debit transactions are currently not available.
Accepting tips on tap payments. You’ll need to hit the Contactless option before you can complete the transaction.
Refunding debit card payments. These have to be done in person, you’ll need to tap the original purchasing card to refund the payment.

For more information about accepting debit cards with Square Reader, read our Interac FAQs.

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

Hannashaven — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 14:52:30 GMT

Great Idea but we run a bed and breakfast and would love to take Debit Cards but the tap of less than $100.00 is less than most of our transactions. Will be a great thing when we can swipe Debit for the larger amounts. Thanks. Wayne of Hanna's Haven B&B in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

knotandburl — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 00:01:46 GMT

Love that this is finally available! Any idea when the tap readers will be available for purchase in retail locations like Staples or Best Buy? We want 2 but don't want to have to order them online.

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

Russell — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 14:51:42 GMT

Hi @knotandburl -

I'm glad this is going to be useful for you and your business! The Contactless + Chip Card reader should be available in retail locations like the Apple Store and London Drugs by early November. 👍

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

RawSudz — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 23:44:32 GMT

Only got the dock and never received contactless reader in my order. Are they shipped separately and if so, is there a backlog???

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

Russell — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 23:57:32 GMT

Hey there @RawSudz 👋🏻

The Contactless + Chip Card reader was very popular and some orders did get backlogged. The good news is the Contactless + Chip Card reader has been replenished and they are shipping again. We're really sorry for this delay.

Please keep an eye on your email, tracking numbers should be going out shortly.

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

crafter23 — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 00:23:53 GMT

Hi,

If using chip, how do customers put in their PIN? And debit is strictly for those with tap correct?

Thanks 🙂

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

Alex_7 — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 16:04:15 GMT

Is there a timeline for when you will be updating the amount we can use on the Debit. And or do you have a work around as our 2 small businesses both need on average 120-250 per transaction.

And will all debit card tap? Or is this something the consumer has to enable to use?

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

Kpay — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 20:39:31 GMT

Hey @crafter23, thanks for the post! Your customers can enter their PIN on the seller device screen if they're using American Express, and no pin is required right now for Visa and Mastercard. And yes, you're right - debit is tap only. You can check out this page for more info.

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

Kpay — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 21:20:03 GMT

@Alex_7 - there's no timeline for when the debit acceptance amount will increase - the $100 payment limit for Interac cards is a security measure designed to protect your customers in case their cards are lost or stolen.

One workaround would be to use split transactions. Your customer can split the amount over two different cards or tender forms (for example: two different Interac cards, Interac card + cash, Interac card + credit card), but you can't use Split Tender to break up a transaction over a single card, since that would defeat the purpose of the security measures in place.

To answer your last question - debit cards should automatically be set up to tap, your customers shouldn't need to enable it. Let me know if you have any other questions and thanks for posting in the community. 👍

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

HCSalon — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 20:00:19 GMT

With the current Debit transaction limit of $100 in Canada, can a Debit Card transactions be split into multipled payments if charge is over $100 limit?

Example: I provide a service and am invoicing my client $180 (example), can I process multiple payments to same cardholder, back-to-back, i.e. $100 first transaction, then $80 second transaction?

Will this trigger a account freeze on my client (concern of fraud)?

***Update: Nevermind this question, I now see that @Kpay responded a same question earlier in this thread. Thanks!

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

Kpay — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 20:04:46 GMT

Happy to get your question answered, thanks for the post @HCSalon!

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

ironhorse17 — Sun, 05 Nov 2017 17:45:25 GMT

Good luck with that.

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

ironhorse17 — Sun, 05 Nov 2017 17:52:21 GMT

Ordered and paid for 2017-10-14 tracking number emailed to me however it doesn't track anything!!!! All I get from Square is ..... That's right...... Absolutly ZERO!

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

Chad — Sun, 05 Nov 2017 23:21:39 GMT

Hey @ironhorse17, I'm sorry to hear about the trouble. I recommend giving our Support Team a call tomorrow morning, so they can take a look at this.

If you need help finding your customer code take a look at this post.

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

Clayshapes — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 00:24:51 GMT

I used the new reader this weekend for several sales- though they all were accepted, and offered customer receipts- I never received email confirmation that the sales went through. Very concerned.

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

Chad — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 00:32:12 GMT

Hey @Clayshapes, on your Transaction list does it have the last 4 digits of your customers card?

We also have an article on how to Accept Contactless Payments. Did you follow the steps outlined in the article?

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

Clayshapes — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 00:44:06 GMT

No digits from the card- just a receipt #. I followed directions- there was no message during the transaction that there was any problem- and the customer was offered a receipt right after I tapped, so I assumed all was well. Some chose to take one- some didn’t. Only noticed later that I didn’t receive the usual email confirmation.

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

Chad — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 00:56:37 GMT

@Clayshapes, we use symbols to define the tender types for transactions. When looking at your transaction list do you see a little rectangle with three dots? This would indicate that Other Tender was selected.

Re: Square Reader for Contactless and Chip is Now Accepting Debit Tap in Canada!

Clayshapes — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 01:01:47 GMT

Yes I see three dots. No idea what other tender means though. I tapped, and it offered a receipt. What does this mean? I had multiple sales...