Merchant Services in Souris, PE

Accept Credit Cards & Debit Cards in Souris

CTMA has run the crossing between Souris and Cap-aux-Meules since the service came here in 1971, and it runs year-round: about 300 trips a year, more than 100,000 passengers and 41,000 vehicles, with the Madeleine carrying 750 people and over 200 vehicles at a time on a five-hour sailing. That is not a trickle of foot traffic. It is a block of customers arriving and leaving together, many of them from Quebec, many of them paying with cards issued outside Prince Edward Island.

Two practical things follow. Sailing days put a lot of transactions into a short window, so terminal speed and a reliable connection matter more than they would if the same volume were spread over a week. And if a good share of your customers are French-speaking, it is worth checking what language your terminal's customer prompts are set to, and what your receipts say.

Basin Head sits east of town, outside the town line, and its concessions, washrooms and beach services take payment in a compressed summer season, outdoors, from people who are not carrying much. That is a portable-terminal problem more than a countertop one — small amounts, tapped quickly, in a place where signal and battery are real considerations.

The Souris East Lighthouse works differently again. The Souris Harbour Authority took ownership in 2009 and reopened it in 2010 as an interpretive centre and gift shop, charging admission during its season. Visitors climb past the Fresnel lens and the sea glass exhibit to the lantern room above Colville Bay, then buy something on the way out. Admission and retail on one account is a normal setup, but a seasonal operation should look at what it pays monthly against the months it actually processes.

The harbour has minimal fast ice and sits closer to major shipping routes than anywhere else on the Island, which is why the ferry link is federally supported infrastructure rather than a summer novelty. For local suppliers, fishing-related businesses and trades, that means invoicing and card-not-present payments carry on well after the beach traffic ends — and those transactions price differently than a tap at the counter.

If you are trading in Souris, Souris West or out toward Basin Head and Lower Rollo Bay, RKP Atlantic Business Services can go through your current processing statement and set up terminals that suit how your year actually runs.