by Matt Rej
Global Payments officially completed its acquisition of Worldpay on January 12th.
This is something we’ve been monitoring closely for the last nine months when the two companies first announced the deal. So for merchants using Worldpay, this shouldn’t come as a major surprise.
But the question still remains: now what?
If your business processes payments via Worldpay and you’re not sure how this merger is going to impact you, here’s what you can expect:
- Nothing changing immediately
- Rate hikes likely by end of 2026
- New fees common to Global added to your account
- Foreshadowing on Global’s quarterly earnings calls
- Notices of upcoming “changes” to your account (aka rate increases)
Read on for a more in-depth dive on what you need to know and how you can prepare accordingly.
Don’t Expect Major Changes Right Away
In terms of your day-to-day payment acceptance, nothing is changing right now. Global just acquired roughly one million accounts from Worldpay, and attempting to force equipment changes or new gateways would be a logistical nightmare that they have no interest in.
- Your existing equipment will still work.
- You can keep processing payments exactly the same way.
- Your online login credentials are the same.
- All of your statements will still have Worldpay branding.
While Global Payments is now technically the parent company of Worldpay, the Worldpay branding isn’t going anywhere yet.
We’ve seen Global make several major acquisitions over the years (TSYS, EVO, OpenEdge, Heartland, etc.), and those brand names lived on after the merger. Some still exist. For example, Global kept Heartland’s branding for roughly a decade after they acquired this processor (phasing it in December 2025), and we still see TSYS and EVO branding and statements.
So right now (today, tomorrow, next week, and probably next month), nothing is happening.
But Prepare For New Fees and Rate Increases Within the Next 6-24 Months
That said, your fees are almost guaranteed to rise at some point this year.
It’s what Global has done after every acquisition, so we fully expect them to follow the same playbook with Worldpay merchant accounts. This can come in the form of:
- Increases to your discount rate
- New fees added to your account
- Rate hikes other charges (auth fees, per item fees, etc.)
One thing that’s tricky about Global Payments is that they aren’t always transparent about rate hikes. Our clients often see notices that say something ambiguous like “you may see new fees and/or changes to your account.”
This type of notice always means your rates are going up.
Sometimes these rate hikes are smaller (5-10 basis points) while others are more significant (35-40 basis points). But we’ve also seen some massive rate hikes, including one example where Global tripled a merchant’s effective rate during a single monthly increase.
I post updates of upcoming Global pricing changes here, so you can always check this page to keep yourself informed.
Educate Yourself on the Types of Fees That Global Payments Adds to its Accounts
One silver lining of Worldpay being acquired by a major processor like Global is that their fees aren’t a secret. And Global is fairly consistent about slowly but surely applying its fees across all accounts under their umbrella.
Some examples of Global Payments fees to watch out for include:
- Risk Assessment Fee
- Settlement Funding Fee
- Infrastructure Upgrade Fee
- Network Security and Compliance Fee
- Global VPN Fee
- VPN W/AVS Fee
There are more, but these are typically the most costly that we find when auditing statements for our clients.
In some cases, these fees can total several thousand dollars per month. And many can either be eliminated altogether or negotiated to a much lower rate.
Learning about these fees now can help you spot them early if they start popping up on your statements. Once that happens, you’ll know that Global is officially starting to target your account with its standard billing tactics.
Listen to Global’s Quarterly Earnings Calls (or Read the Summaries)
Quarterly earnings calls are designed for investors, not merchants. But the information during these calls can foreshadow account changes and fees that your processor will be applying to your account.
Global is no exception to this. And as a publicly traded company, it’s fairly easy to find this information online.
In some cases, executives will blatantly say that they’re planning rate increases. Other times, you need to read between the lines. For example, Global execs talked about “margin expansion” during their 3Q25 call, and then increased rates in 4Q25.
The Worldpay merger has been discussed on every Global call since the deal was first announced.
Most recently, Global Payments CEO Cameron Bready was on CNBC the day the Worldpay merger was finalized. And he was talking about how the investment would allow Global to drive better returns for investors.
On top of that. Global’s investor press release about the merger explicitly says that Global plans to reduce its adjusted net leverage to 3.0x within 18-24 months.
Translation: they just invested $24.5 billion in Worldpay, and they need to pay down debt while simultaneously generating ROI for shareholders.
While they didn’t actually come out and say (yet) that they are going to increase rates on Worldpay accounts, I don’t see any other viable option for them to achieve this in such a short period of time. Hence why I said earlier that you can expect your rates to increase within the next 6-24 months.
Keep a Closer Eye on Your Monthly Statements
You should always be monitoring your monthly merchant statements. But if you haven’t been doing this thoroughly or you normally just glance at those statements before throwing them in a drawer, that needs to change ASAP.
More specifically, here’s what I recommend:
- Look at your last 3 months of statements before the acquisition (Oct, Nov, Dec of 2025).
- Calculate your effective rate and use this as a baseline moving forward.
- For future statements, see if you notice any new fees that weren’t previously there.
- Write those fees down, including the amount of each.
- Continue to calculate your effective rate each month.
- If your rate goes up, then new fees are being applied to your account somewhere, and you need to identify them.
This will take some time. But it’s well worth the effort.
For the initial audit of your last three months, I’d carve out at least an hour of time to review everything.
Go through line by line and scrutinize every detail. If you need any assistance with that, just reach out to my team here at MCC, and we’ll do it for free.
Don’t Ignore Communication or Notices From Your Processor
The majority of communication you’re getting in the short term should still be coming from Worldpay. If you’re getting Worldpay processing through an ISO, third-party, or an integrated solution, they should continue passing any pertinent info along to you as they always have.
But you may also start to get additional notices from Global.
Regardless of where it’s coming from, don’t ignore this stuff.
The way basically 99.9% of every merchant account agreement is written allows your processor to increase your rates as long as they give you advance notice (normally 30 days, sometimes 60).
So don’t assume that you’re “locked in” to certain rates just because you’re only 12 months into a 36-month contract or something.
Have a Plan in Place For When Your Rates Inevitably Increase
Being proactive can save you thousands of dollars. Here’s why:
Your rates are going up. It’s just a matter of when.
When this happens, it’s likely going to be applied across hundreds of thousands of other Worldpay accounts at the exact same time. So trying to scramble when you have just 30 days to act will likely mean you’ll be hit with those increases.
But here’s what you can do right now to prepare:
- You don’t have to wait for a rate increase notice to get cheaper rates.
- You also don’t have to switch processors to save money.
- Contact customer service ASAP to negotiate better terms.
- Getting an adjustment now can help reduce the chances of you being impacted by the first wave of rate hikes (Ex: If you get new terms in March, you probably won’t be hit with an April increase).
- If you’re ultimately affected by a rate hike, it won’t hurt as much if it’s being applied to your already-reduced rates.
- Contact customer service anytime a new fee appears on your account and ask them to remove it.
Be persistent whenever you’re dealing with customer service.
You may still have the same point of contact at Worldpay. Or there’s a chance you’ll be routed to Global’s support.
In either scenario, your rates are still negotiable and you can successfully push back against new fees and increases. It just takes a little effort, and maybe your second or third phone call for it to work.
And if you need help, our team at MCC can do it all on your behalf.