Heartland (Global Payments): Rate Increases, Fees, and Updates — 2024

Last Updated: 9/11/2024

Our team is constantly on the lookout for notices, important messages, and rate updates for all major credit card processing companies. We’ve compiled all of the most recent news to Heartland and shared them below.

But if you’re looking for more than just the quick rate changes, we also have a complete Heartland Payment Systems review that dives deeper into Heartland’s pros, cons, and fees you should look out for.

Heartland 2024 Annual Fee

Heartland’s Annual Reporting Fee will appear on December 2024 statements in the amount of $245 per merchant location. 

This fee is (supposedly) to cover reporting costs related to government and payment industry entities. 

Heartland Rate Increase (Effective October 2024)

Heartland is charging some merchants a one-time 2024 Infrastructure Upgrade Fee of $254 that will appear on October statements.   

Furthermore, Heartland just notified its customers of a rate increase at the card network level that goes into effect on October 18, 2024. These changes apply to:

• Visa 
• Mastercard
• Discover
• American Express
• PIN Debit Networks

Heartland’s October statements will include the old rates (from 10/1/24 – 10/17/24) and the new rates (10/18/24 – 10/31/24). 

According to the notice, these changes are being passed-through to merchants without any markup from Heartland. But be sure to double-check your statements to verify that Heartland isn’t raising your rates. If you need help auditing those statements, contact our team here at MCC for assistance. 

Heartland PCI Non-Compliance Fee (Effective May 2023)

Heartland merchants who have not completed their PCI DSS compliance validation by April 30, 2023 have been sent a letter regarding Heartland’s new PCI Non-Compliance fee of $125. Effective May 2023, this fee will be assessed monthly until the merchant has completed and provided Heartland with its PCI DSS compliance validation.

These fees will appear on as a separate line item statements beginning in June 2023, which show the previous month’s activity.

Effective June 2022: Heartland (Global Payments) Updates

In a notice sent to merchants, Heartland (Global Payments) notified customers of changes to PIN debit networks that could impact costs. Merchants may see new fees or notice an increase in:

• Card network fees
• Assessment rates
• Switch fees
• Activity fees
• Settlement funding fees
• PCI non-compliance fees
• Network security fees

Heartland (Global Payments) is reminding merchants to carefully review statements to make sure they’re aware of these changes.

Effective February 1, 2022: Heartland (Global Payments) Updates

Heartland notified customers of the following STAR Rate Fees going into effect as of 2/1/22:

• Debit Network Pre-Auth Switch Fee — $0.10 (previously $0.0325)
• Debit Network Completion Switch Fee* — $0.10 (previously $0.09)
• Debit Network Completion Switch Fee** — $0.10 (previously $0.0325)
• STAR Administrative Fee — Eliminated (previously $0.01)

*Applies to approvals, reversals, returns, refunds, and voids

**Applies to denials

Effective January 1, 2022: Heartland (Global Payments) Updates 

In a notice sent to customers, the following changes are going into effect 1/1/2022:

• A Non-EMV Assessment Fee of 0.65% will apply to card present transactions (including keyed transactions).
• Customers can see these fees under the “HPS Processing Fees” section of their statement.
• Customers who have questions about these fees are advised to contact customer support at 888-963-3600.
• Customers who object to these fees can terminate their agreement without penalty with written notice in accordance with their merchant agreement. The written notice must be sent within 30 days of the first statement date containing the new fees.

Correction Notice: A previous notice from Heartland said that the Non-EMV Assessment Fee would also apply to fallback transactions, contactless payments, and card-not-present (CNP) transactions. This was an error. The fee will only apply to card present transactions, as stated in the first bullet above.

Effective July 1, 2021: Heartland (Global Payments) PIN Debit Increase 

If you are a merchant or a business who is using Heartland, now Global Payments, as your credit card processing company, be on the lookout for this credit card processing rate increase which was put into effect for July 1, 2021 by the Accel Debit Network.

This credit card processing fee is a network fee, that has been adjusted by the Accel debit Network. It is not a credit card processing fee increased by Heartland, and will be passed through with no additional mark up from Heartland.

About Heartland (Global Payments)

Heartland Payment Systems was initially formed in 1997 to offer payment solutions to small businesses. Today, they’re a Global Payments company offering a wide range of solutions, including:

• Payment processing
• Online payments
• Gift card and loyalty
• Capital services
• Bill pay
• Financial services
• ACH
• Instant deposit
• Point of sale (POS) solutions
• Mobile POS
• POS integrations
• Payroll processing
• HR software
• Lending

Global Payments announced its acquisition of Heartland in 2015. The deal was finalized in April 2016.

Use our ultimate guide to interchange to see how interchange works and see the latest updates from credit card networks and processors.