Card Holds and Reversals: New Canada Fee

What changes on October 19

Canadian processor notices from PayFacto and Fiserv say that on October 19, 2026 Mastercard stops charging its Acquirer Clearing Fee in Canada and starts charging the NABU fee instead. PayPal Braintree's guide, dated September 4, 2026, describes the same switch with the same fee name and says the fee is charged at authorization, but it lists the change under a Visa heading. The public notices do not agree on the card brand. Separately, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business reported that Visa plans its own new network fee on Canadian domestic transactions from April 2027, which we cover in our article on that fee. So the safe step is simple: ask your processor which card brands carry a NABU fee on your account, and from what date.

Why a cancelled hold can cost twice

An authorization is the approval you get when a card is first run. A reversal cancels all or part of that approval, for example when a hotel releases part of a deposit hold or a bar closes a tab for less than the amount it held. The old clearing fee was charged on sales that cleared. The new fee is charged on the authorization, and processor notices list a separate, smaller amount for reversals. That means a hold that is later cancelled or cut back can carry one fee when it is approved and another when it is reversed. In the words of PayPal Braintree's guide, the fee "can be billed twice on an authorization reversal." Each fee is small: under four US cents per event in every notice we checked. The amounts differ between processors; our Mastercard NABU article shows the figures each notice published.

Who should look first

If none of these sound like you, the change may still show on your statement, but holds and reversals will be a small part of it.

Three questions for your processor

1. Is the NABU fee passed through on my account, for which card brands, and at what amount: at cost or with a markup? 2. How many authorizations and how many reversals did my account have last month, and what did they cost? 3. Can my terminals or POS be set to cut holds and reversals we do not need? Ask in writing and keep the replies with your merchant agreement. On a flat or tiered rate you may never see the fee as its own line, so the second question matters even more: the count of reversals tells you how exposed you are.

Ways to cut reversals you do not need

Look at how your system takes payment before you change anything. If a sale amount is already known, you may not need a hold at all. If staff void and re-run cards to fix mistakes, ask whether your POS can adjust the sale instead. Check whether a pre-authorization is set to run on every sale by default, and whether the hold amount is far above a typical bill. For tips, follow the card rules on adjusting an approved amount rather than running a new one; our guide to tip adjustment explains those rules. Small settings changes like these reduce the number of events that carry a fee, without changing how customers pay.

What changes for multi-location and enterprise operators

A fee per event becomes real money across many lanes, rooms or rental counters. Ask your processor for a monthly count of authorizations and reversals by location, card brand and channel, then multiply by the amounts it confirms in writing. Compare locations: one site with far more reversals than its peers usually points to a setting or a staff habit, not to customers. Check that hold amounts and pre-authorization settings are the same on every device. If you are on interchange-plus pricing, confirm that new network fees pass through at cost. If you are on a bundled rate, ask whether the rate will change because of this fee, and how much notice your agreement requires.

We will show you where they appear

CELER Merchants is an independent agent, not a processor. Send us a recent statement and we will show you, line by line, where network fees and reversal charges appear on it, and which questions to put to your processor. The review is free.