Does Square accept Canadian Debit cards?

[sheldon]

I would like this question answered before applying for a Square.

It would save a lot of time if Square had a customer service number for potential clients to call and get their questions answered.

[jburron]

Can we use the swipe square for debit also?

Or is it just tap (with the additional hardware)?

[Russell]

Hi @jburron - 

We are able to support Interac Debit Tap payments using the Contactless + Chip Card reader. Interac Debit is moving away from swipe payments. 

[RDA3440]

I'm glad I found this thread!

No debit chip option is definitely a dealbreaker.

I'll help Russell restate things in a more straightforward 😉 way.

"We currently do not support debit chip cards.  We may in the future, but no ETA has been set."

"We currently do not support debit swipe.  We likely will not support debit swipe before the technology is retired, which will be soon."

"Here is what we do support:

With the free mag reader:

- Credit card mag swipe only.  Nothing else.  We provide this for free.

With the $59 Chip reader:

- Credit card chip

- Credit card tap

- Debit tap ONLY, max $100 (the maximum is controlled by your bank, not us)"

If my statements are accurate, feel free to use them as you see fit.  You're welcome! 🙂

[StephenHutchins]

I'm glad to see you point this out in a succinct format that's easy to understand. It wasn't until this evening when I realized that my client was not able to insert a Debit Card into the chip reader. Complete embarassment and as they don't have tap enabled, I had to ask for a credit card for payment.

I would really like to know if this feature is going to be added and if so what the timeline is. Waited forever and a day just for Square to offer chip reader and now it is highly limited to transactions of $100 or less. I don't mind waiting for new features but it would be nice if Square were a bit more transparent about timelines as well as stating clearly up front that the new reader can't take Debit chip card inserts.

[TDTB]

Great if it works; I just recieved mine and the debit card came back as unknown when I tapped and would not accept the chip.

[bassam64]

comment activer reader square debit carte

[Lesnickavon]

So i have to order and pay 60$$ so i can accept debit? I cant just use the reader I have?

[TDTB]

Yes the tap system is about 60.00; I think they may still have some bugs to work out. I am currently waiting for a replacement to come, as the original did not work for debit cards. and the swipe that came with it didn't work at all. This is new technology to Square, I think it will be great once they iron out the bugs!

[Cpurves]

Being able to only accept up to $100.00 with debit is no help to me.  It looks like this is a bandaid solution.

Most of my sales are over $ 100.00.  

I'm very frustrated with Square.  I am using Dream payments for debit access.  They are not as stable as the square system. 

PLEASE PLEASE get your debit system current so we can accept over $100.00 like every other system. 

[mdomingue]

*** The $100 limit is a banking institution restriction, NOT Square. ***

A turn-around to this would be to make your transactions as split payments - as mentioned multiple times in above comments 

It might help to reads *all* of the comments before making accusations/complaints - and this applies to any and all forums and social media 

[kevinsavage]

My debit card does not have a tap option and Square does not recognize my card. I live in Northern Ontario and most people up here use Caisse Populaire cards which is the card it's not recognizing. I cannot use the Mag strip reader as it tells me to insert the chip. Once I insert the chip it says Cancel Payment and Tap Card or try another payment meothd!!! What good does that do me? I don't understand why I can't insert the debit card into the reader and allow the guest to enter their PIN? I'm assuming Square does not work for companies that have debit without TAP?? Why would they make it with only tap for debit? I need a solution or I have to get Moneris installed which is not what I want to do. 

[Helen]

@kevinsavage I’m very sorry for the frustration this has caused. Currently you can only accept Interac debit cards by tapping your customer’s Interac debit card on the contactless and chip card reader. 

It’s not possible to accept any debit card by inserting it to the chip and contactless reader, or by swiping a debit card in the magstripe reader. If your customer doesn't have an Interac flash debit card you’ll need to ask them for another form of payment.

I’m very sorry that the reader doesn’t meet the needs of your business at this time! I don’t have information on when you’ll be able to accept other debit cards with the chip and contactless reader, but as soon as we have more information we'll let you know. Apologies again for all the trouble this has caused.

[BuyWise]

Can we accept debit transactions greater than $100 using the chip rather than contactless tap?

[Mdecarie]

So I can take debit with tap but not the chip right?

[Helen]

@Mdecarie Correct! You can only accept Interac debit cards using the tap function of the new reader. You can't insert Interac debit chip cards. (You CAN insert credit card chip cards!)

[jacouzi]

Hi,

please do you intent to support payements by Canadian-issued debit cards using the on-card ship? Many customers do not have touchless debit cards and want to use their debit cards.

Thanks,

Jacques Nacouzi

[EJ_]

Hi @jacouzi and @Hardcore_Games

We know how important this feature is to our Canadian sellers, but unfortunately we don't have an ETA on this and we wouldn't be able to share around it at this time. 

I'll continue to advocate for this, and hopefully we can prioritize it to be released in a future product update. If anything changes we'll post the new information for everyone in the Community. 

[RodnJo]

Is there any timeframe on when square will fully support debit payments?

As the article says, Square only accepts debit tap. Users cannot insert their debit card and purchase using a PIN, and the transaction are limited to $100 or less. 

[kazlady]

Still no timeline on this. They are working on it. That's all they can tell us. Because Canadian Debit chips have such strict security it takes time. I know we went with Moneris terminals as they have some very good pricing for wireless terminals. Ours even works off a 3G connection so we don't even have to have an internet connection to use it. As soon as Square supports chip and pin technology we'll be changing over though because it has seemless integration with our eCommerce provider.

[LauraBotsford]

I'm confused:  The chip reader takes debit TAP,  does it take debit CHIP.

The typical purchase here is about $500 to $3000.  Can I take this on a debit card?

[kazlady]

As of now the reader that has you insert the card takes apin. You have to update the firmware but it works. It’s a brand new feature.