Heartland Payment Systems Review (2024)

Heartland Payment Systems is a subsidiary of Global Payments. Originally founded in 1997, Heartland was acquired by Global for $4.3 billion in 2016.

Today, this payment processor serves more than 750,000 businesses and still operates under the Heartland branding (even though it’s owned by Global). 

Read on for my insider take on Heartland Payments—including its pros, cons, pricing breakdown, hidden fees, and other exclusive insights you won’t find anywhere else online.

MCC Quick Take on Heartland Payment Systems

Heartland is a solid payment processor that’s become one of the top POS system revenue generators for its parent company, Global Payments. 

While Heartland’s rates are definitely higher than other processors, we’ve noticed that they don’t increase their prices as frequently as their competitors. Just make sure you’re on an interchange-plus plan to get the best possible rate from Heartland—and monitor your statements carefully for extra charges that can easily be removed if you take quick action. 

What We Like About Heartland

• Interchange plus pricing is available
• Rates are negotiable
• No liquidated damages clause in its standard merchant agreement
• Rates don’t increase as frequently as other processors

Where Heartland Falls Short

• Lots of extra fees are added to merchant statements
• Flat-rate pricing is the only model promoted on Heartland’s website
• On average, Heartland’s effective rate is higher than market alternatives
• $125 monthly charge for PCI non-compliance
• Early termination fees
• Lack of transparency (beyond the flat-rate processing fees and software charges, Heartland doesn’t publish any other rates online)

Heartland Pricing and Credit Card Processing Rates

Heartland’s flat-rate processing starts at 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction. Avoid this option at all costs. 

While flat-rate pricing is more predictable and easier to understand, it’s significantly more expensive compared to interchange-plus models. So if you’re reading this review because you’re thinking about signing up for Heartland, make sure you request a quote for interchange plus pricing. 

With interchange plus, the exact cost varies per transaction because the interchange rate gets set at the card network level (by Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover). There are literally hundreds of different interchange categories that vary based on factors like the card type, transaction environment, MCC code, and more. But rather than paying a high flat rate, you simply pay the interchange fee plus Heartland’s processor markup. 

Heartland does not publish its interchange plus markups online. But it’s important to understand that these rates are not set in stone and they’re completely negotiable. This holds true whether you’re new to Heartland or an existing customer looking for ways to lower rates. 

We have a separate guide that contains a complete history of Heartland’s rate increases and fee updates over time. 

Heartland Fees to Look Out For

Like many payment processors, Heartland is known for adding extra fees to merchant statements—in addition to the standard per-transaction fees. Here are some of the most common ones that we see when we’re reviewing Heartland statements on behalf of our clients:

• Non EMV Program Fee
• Non EMV Assessment Fee
• PCI Non Compliance Fee
• Supplies Fee
• Monthly vs. Daily Discount Fee
• Customer Intelligence Suite Fee
• Annual Reporting Fee ($245 per merchant location)
• Infrastructure Upgrade Fee

You can get all of these removed from your bill. 

The Non EMV Program Fee is a $25 monthly charge to merchants that process 10% or more of their transactions as non-EMV. The Non EMV assessment fee is 0.65% charged on all non-EMV transactions. 

If you haven’t completed the appropriate PCI compliance forms, Heartland will charge you $125 per month until you’ve handled that and notified them. Don’t blow $1,500 per year on this because you’re in the dark on what you’re supposed to be doing to remain compliant (and Heartland should help you with this). 

Heartland’s supplies fee is just another one of those hidden fees that might as well be disguised as a “statement fee” or “monthly fee” for nothing—although it’s commonly associated with equipment (that you shouldn’t be getting charged for if you’re not leasing it). 

Be Aware of Heartland’s Monthly vs. Daily Discount Fees

Heartland’s discount rate is more expensive if it’s being deducted from your account as a lump sum each month. 

Most merchants like monthly charges because it’s easier to understand, reconcile, and keep track of what’s being paid. But Heartland charges extra for this because they want to get paid upfront—every day, for that matter. 

To avoid this fee you can either switch to daily discounting or do some hard negotiating to get those extra charges removed from your statement. It’s crazy to pay extra for this when literally nothing else is changing (just when Heartland collects from you). 

Should You Switch to Heartland?

You should only consider switching to Heartland if your current processor doesn’t offer interchange plus pricing and won’t lower your rates. 

Otherwise, stick with your current processor and do everything in your power to lower your rates directly with them. 

Switching processors is a pain and it’s much more expensive than you might realize. Even if Heartland is offering you a better rate, the costs associated with switching and re-configuring everything will likely make it a wash. Plus, Heartland can just raise your rates at any point—potentially higher than your current processor.

If you want, you could play hardball with your current processor and just get a quote from Heartland to see what they’d charge you (without actually planning to switch). If that quote is lower than what you’re paying right now, just use that as leverage against your provider. 

Should You Cancel Your Heartland Payment Systems Contract?

Heartland’s contract cancellation process isn’t nearly as strict or expensive as other processors. You’ll just need to pay a $295 early termination fee per location, and a $100 equipment cancellation fee if you’re leasing any hardware. 

There’s no liquidated damages clause, which is definitely something we appreciate seeing—as so many other payment processors use this contract clause to make it nearly impossible for merchants to cancel.

With that said, we still don’t recommend canceling your contract with Heartland.  

If you do cancel, Heartland will automatically open up a reserve account and hold a percentage of your funds for six months. This is clearly stated in Heartland’s merchant account agreement. 

It’s also extremely unlikely that you’ll save money by switching to another processor. Negotiating directly with Heartland is your best option to save money, and switching from a flat-rate plan to interchange plus will save you thousands almost immediately. 

Heartland does negotiate rates. So use this information to your advantage and continue to haggle with them until they lower your costs and remove bogus fees from your statements.

For those of you having trouble with this or just want some extra assistance, our team here at MCC can handle those negotiations on your behalf. 

Why Our Heartland Review is Different (and Trustworthy)

Most reviews of Heartland that you’ll find on the web have some type of hidden agenda. Typically, we see people using Heartland reviews just as a way to earn affiliate commissions (either directly from Heartland or from another processor that they’re trying to promote).

That’s not how we do things here at Merchant Cost Consulting. 

This review (like all of our processor reviews) are simply written to inform our readers about our experience with Heartland and the fees they’re charging. It’s based on years reviewing Heartland statements and negotiating with them to lower fees for our clients. 

And since we also review statements from hundreds of other processors, we can easily spot bogus fees, padded assessments, and other charges that businesses shouldn’t be paying to process cards. 

What else makes our reviews different? We’re not just re-purposing every piece of information that’s publicly available on Heartland’s website. 95% of other Heartland “reviews” are just a re-write of information that could easily be found by going directly to Heartland’s site. 

Instead, we focus on the insider insights that aren’t publicly available.

Our Final Thoughts on Heartland

In our opinion, Heartland is above average. It’s nice that interchange plus pricing is available and that the fees are negotiable. We also like that Heartland doesn’t hold merchants hostage with an iron-clad liquidated damages clause. 

That said, Heartland isn’t the cheapest option on the market. They’ll continue adding extra fees to your statements unless you know how to spot them and try to get rid of them. It’s also a red flag when processors don’t publicly publish their interchange plus markups. This lack of transparency isn’t ideal, but it can potentially lead to cost-saving opportunities if you’re a hard-nosed negotiator. 

Need help lowering your Heartland fees? Reach out to MCC for a free audit and analysis of your statements. We’ll help you save thousands—without switching processors.