Processors change pricing by letter, email, and dashboard notice — easy to miss, expensive to ignore. This page tracks fee changes merchants have reported or that processors have published, what each one does, and what to check on your own statement. It is updated as new notices surface. Nothing here is a substitute for your own notice: your agreement and your statement are the source of truth, and dates below are when the change was reported or took effect for the merchants affected.
Merchant notices reported in October 2026 describe two changes. First, a discount-rate increase on select Global Payments accounts, effective October 1, 2026 — the notice did not state the amount, so the size of it only shows up in your own October numbers. Second, a new $529 "Annual System Enhancement Fee" applied to October 2026 statements — the same shape as the $499 "Infrastructure Upgrade" fee applied in June 2026, so some accounts are seeing two annual fees in one year. October statements typically arrive in November: look for the System Enhancement line, and compare your October effective rate (total fees ÷ total volume) against September's. One related clock: if your September Heartland/Global letter opened the 120-day penalty-free termination window below, a September notice date means that window runs to roughly the end of December 2026 — count the days from your own notice, not from this page. Source: Global Payments merchant notices as summarized in Merchant Cost Consulting's fee-change log (published September 24, 2026; this page checked October 14, 2026).
Merchants on Global Payments/Heartland pricing received a fee-increase letter reflected on September statements. Per the letter's terms as reported by recipients, the increase opened a 120-day penalty-free termination window — merchants who act inside the window can exit without the early-termination fee that would otherwise apply. If you process with Heartland or Global Payments and have not read your September statement letter, that window is the first thing to check: count the days from the notice, and get any decision in writing before it closes. Our rate increase guide covers how to evaluate an increase before deciding.
Merchants using Square's loyalty program reported in October 2026 that features they had been using moved behind a paid tier at $50/month. Add-on repricings of this shape don't change your processing rate — they change your total cost of accepting cards, which is why they belong in the same math. If an add-on you rely on moved tiers, price the year ($600) against what the feature returns, and check whether the same change hit your account on your next statement.
Square's standard in-person pricing has moved in steps over the years: from a flat 2.75% with no per-transaction fee, to 2.6% + 10¢, to the currently published 2.6% + 15¢. The pattern matters: recent changes raised the per-transaction piece, which lands hardest on small tickets. Our Square rate increase guide walks through what to do when a notice lands.
Spotted a fee-change notice we haven't listed? This page is maintained from processor-published notices and merchant reports; entries are labeled accordingly and your own statement remains the authority for your account.
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