thread Re: What is the hold up for accepting Debit Card Chip in Canada? in Payments Troubleshooting

How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square

Russell — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 17:52:18 GMT

I know a lot of Square Canada sellers are starting to accept Interac Debit tap payments using the Contactless + Chip Card reader. To make sure you're set up for success with the new reader, I've put together this quick reference guide for you to review and share with your staff members. Following these steps will ensure you can process tap payments correctly.

With the Square Contactless + Chip Card reader, you can accept Interac Debit tap cards using the Contactless + Chip Card reader (you can also accept chip and tap credit cards, Apple Pay, and Android Pay using this reader).

When accepting Interac Debit tap payments, keep in mind that:

We are only able to process tap Interac Debit cards at this time.
Interac Debit tap payments have a limit of $100 per transaction.
You must follow the tap payment flow using the Contactless + Chip Card reader in order to capture your customer’s payment.

Watch this video to see how to accept payments with the Contactless + Chip Card reader (skip ahead to 00:38 for the Interac Debit tap payment flow).

To accept Interac Debit tap cards on Point of Sale:

add item(s) to the sale
from the Point of Sale app, tap Charge
ask your customer to tap their Interac Debit card
wait for card to authorize and payment to complete (you'll see four green lights on the reader and hear a beep)

If you have tipping enabled, please note the payment flow is a little different:

add item(s) to the sale
from the Point of Sale app, tap Charge, then tap Contactless (If you are using a phone instead of a tablet, you won't need to tap Contactless)
ask your customer to tap their Interac Debit card
show the tip screen to your customer, allowing them to select a tip
wait for card to authorize and payment to complete

(Please note that some sellers use a third party debit processor and are able to record these transactions in the Point of Sale app using the "Other tender" option. Tapping "Other tender" will not enable you to process Interac Debit cards with Square).

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square

jgonzalez — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 21:00:55 GMT

Thank you for sharing this guide, Russell! These tips are super helpful for merchants in Canada.

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square - over contactless limit debit

RepRapWarehouse — Fri, 29 Dec 2017 20:09:56 GMT

This has now happened twice where either the customer's card was worn out and chip not working OR just today, the purchase was above contactless $100 limit.

Are we limited to contactless only and not Chip/PIN transactions?

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square - over contactless limit debit

Russell — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 01:30:19 GMT

Hey there @RepRapWarehouse - welcome to the community!

We really want to empower our sellers to be able to accept every form of payment, and this includes Interac debit transactions. Debit contactless is an important first step. We know that higher limit Interac Debit processing is a very popular payment feature request and our Product Team is tracking these requests.

We'll be sure to make a big announcement if we add a new payment feature like chip card with PIN processing.

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square - over contactless limit debit

TheCryptoShop — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 19:45:10 GMT

Thank you

We need the Chip payment asap as we process orders over 100$ mainly

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square

stonyplainpies — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 20:26:04 GMT

I have the chip/tap reader, the stand with the magstripe... for debit tap only, it brings up an error message "Try Another Card - This card cannot be used for this contactless transaction. Return to checkout to try a different payment method." We operate a small cafe, so transactions are always under $100. This happens with my own debit tap card, which I can use at other merchant types just fine, as well as customers. The reader also will not allow that card to be processed as a chip card, and asks to tap the card... keying in the card is the only option that works.

Tap credit cards work fine.

Declined transactions seem to be only from cards issued by one particular (although the most common in the area) bank.

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square

JPWilkinson — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 16:20:36 GMT

@stonyplainpies

Is the card from - from the local bank that is being rejected - a credit union by chance?

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square

JPWilkinson — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 16:31:13 GMT

@Russell

The video above does not make sense... a chip card that has tap activated will "tap" before you get a chance to put it into the reader. It's a proximity reader and doesn't actually need to be tapped... just waved close to the reader. A chip card that does not have tap activated - will require a PIN to process. RIght now, we are getting error messages that the card cannot be used if non-tap activated or doesn't have tap at all. Currently we are sending people to an ATM to get cash to come back to complete the sale. Please advise as this is a huge nuissance for us and has resulted in people not coming back to pay...

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square

Russell — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 03:23:21 GMT

Hey there @JPWilkinson - thanks for flagging this.

It sounds like you may be trying to process Interac debit cards using chip + pin. At this time, Square can only process Interac debit cards with tap enabled.

You're totally right that a card does not need to be physically tapped to process. If this is happening with credit card payments and causing confusion, you can insert the credit card first and then press charge from the Point of Sale app.

Let me know if you need anything else!

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square

stonyplainpies — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 04:17:13 GMT

@Russell

I get debit customers with VISA debit AND Interac debit on their cards. Does VISA debit only work tap as well? If credit cards work with the chip/pin, why can't debit cards, in case the tap isn't working for any reason?

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square

stonyplainpies — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 04:18:45 GMT

No, a top-4 major bank.

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square

Russell — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 05:56:05 GMT

Hey there @stonyplainpies -

Great question - currently, Interac requires that all debit cards (including cards co-branded with Visa or Mastercard) be processed as debit only. This means that Interac debit cards with a Visa or Mastercard logo will still need to be processed using the contactless tap feature on your Contactless + Chip Card reader.

A handy tip with co-branded Interac debit cards is that they can be used as a credit card for online payments. This means you could send your customer a Square Invoice to receive payment using a co-branded card without running into the tap limits set by Interac and banks.

Still, I understand that this may not be the best solution for all business types and will definitely share this example with our Canada team.

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square

JPWilkinson — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 21:43:06 GMT

@Russell

I understand about the Inerac / Visa / Mastercard needing to be transacted as debit. I have one usch card - can pay online with it but the transaction accesses my Chequeing account - not my Visa.

We have also attempted to - if a Visa or MC does not tap, to have the card slid into the reader and we get the PIN pop-up and the transaction completes.

What do we do with cards that have no tap feature and those cards that tap has been turned off?

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square

JPWilkinson — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 21:44:20 GMT

Darn! I had hoped it might be a credit union - which would / could explain issue.

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square

Helen — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 20:27:53 GMT

@JPWilkinson Helen here stepping in for Russell!

For now if your customer's card isn't an Interac debit card you won't be able to process it with the Square reader. You can record transactions made with other debit cards in the Square app, but you'd need to process the debit card transaction outside of Square.

I know this isn't ideal but we are working hard to make sure you can accept all types of payments cards from your customers using the reader. We'll certainly announce any updates and we really appreciate you bearing with us in the meantime!

What is the hold up for accepting Debit Card Chip in Canada?

Dave4 — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 20:08:03 GMT

I am fairly new to Square in Canada.

As a big feature why I switched to Square is that it is accepting Debit Cards now in Canada.

When I was going through the thread and seeing how many and for how long people are asking for an answer regarding Debit Card Chip.

Square staff is constantly says we are working on it it is our top priority.

I dont understand why it is not already working, the debit card in canada uses the same chip as the credit cards here in Canada.

So since we can process a credit card by sliding into the reader why is it not possilbe with a Debit card ?

I fear that it is Square which doesnt want that feature, since they re not making as much as when a credit card is used.

I am very disapointed and probably will look for a new way to accept payment for my store, since I have a lot of older customers which dont have tap on their debit cards and do not want to use or dont have a credit card.

Please fix, or explain what the hold up is.

Re: What is the hold up for accepting Debit Card Chip in Canada?

Helen — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 20:43:59 GMT

@Dave4 I'm very sorry for the disappointment. I know that being able to accept all forms of payment is critical to your business. The Payments team certainly wants you to be abe to accept more more card types, but unfortunately, we can't share timelines here the Community.

Thanks also for letting us know that many of your customers do not have Interac Flash enabled on their cards. That's an important insight that I'll surface to the team.

I've added your post to this thread. That you'll automatically be notified of any updates and hopefully you'll consider using Square in future.

Re: What is the hold up for accepting Debit Card Chip in Canada?

eclipsvianet — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 14:51:46 GMT

I too, would like an explanation for the hold-up. I agree that since it is the same chip as credit cards use, there is no reason why debit cards should not be accepted as well. I have begun looking for another POS system to use, as the inconvenience of not being able to accept debit cards that are not flash-enabled, or exceeds $100 represents the majority of my sales. If that was corrected by Square, I will be a very happy merchant and will stay with them. It just needs to. be soon, or I will find another provider first.

Re: What is the hold up for accepting Debit Card Chip in Canada?

puka — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 18:57:46 GMT

Hey @eclipsvianet - This thread may offer some clarification that you're looking for. We understand that we may not have all the tools that businesses need at the time that it is needed which is why we encourage our Sellers to do what is in the best interest of their business. If this includes moving away from Square products for you, we wish you continued growth and success!

Re: How to process Interac Debit tap payments with Square

EOWELLTH — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 20:34:43 GMT

Interac tap and pin does not work for me. CC was fine debit did not work at all.