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POS and payments news 2026: what changed for small merchants (updated October 20, 2026)

By Kareem FaridPayments analyst·Updated October 21, 2026·How we score

We update this page as things change. Every item is dated, and its source is in the list at the bottom. Company announcements, filings and regulators are stated as fact; items we could only confirm through press reports say so.

Timeline: POS and payments news, newest first

"Press" means we could confirm the item only through the outlet named, not a company or government source. Links are in the sources list at the bottom.

Card fees: the Visa/Mastercard settlement, Durbin and surcharging

Nothing in the courts or Congress has lowered US card fees yet. Several cases and bills could, but none has finished.

The merchant settlement

Visa and Mastercard announced a proposed settlement with US merchants on November 10, 2025. The court gave it preliminary approval on June 9, 2026, and scheduled the fairness hearing for November 16, 2026. The settlement site says the court "has not yet given its final approval".

If it's approved, Visa's filing and the settlement FAQ describe:

• average credit interchange at least 0.10 points lower for five years;
• standard consumer credit cards capped at 1.25% for eight years;
• the right to accept or decline premium, commercial and standard credit cards separately;
• credit surcharges up to 3%, or your cost of acceptance if lower.

Walmart, the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association are among the objectors, Payments Dive reported on October 16, 2026. NACS, the convenience-store trade group, also objected in September and wrote that any decision on final approval "is likely to be appealed".

Credit Card Competition Act

Senators Marshall and Durbin reintroduced the bill on January 13, 2026. It would require banks with more than $100 billion in assets to enable a second card network outside Visa and Mastercard. It is still in the Senate Banking Committee and has not passed.

The debit cap (Regulation II)

The federal cap on big-bank debit interchange still stands at 21¢ + 0.05% + 1¢. The Fed's 2023 proposal to lower it has not been finalized. A North Dakota court ruled the cap unlawful in August 2025 but kept it in force pending appeal; the 8th Circuit heard arguments on May 13, 2026, and no decision had been reported as of September 20, 2026, according to legal and industry trackers.

Surcharging and state laws

Oklahoma has allowed credit surcharges since November 1, 2025, capped at 2%. Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts still prohibit them. Network rules cap surcharges at 3% (Visa) and 4% (Mastercard), and debit can never be surcharged.

In Illinois, a federal judge on June 1, 2026 blocked the state's ban on interchange on sales tax and tips for national banks, out-of-state banks and the card networks, the ABA Banking Journal reported. Lawmakers also voted to push the law's start date to July 1, 2027, PYMNTS reported; we could not confirm that the governor has signed that change.

Square: new plans, a higher online rate, new hardware

Square rebuilt its pricing in late 2025 and raised one rate in 2026. In-person rates didn't change.

• October 6, 2025: three plans, Free ($0), Plus ($49) and Premium ($149) per location a month, replace 18 separate subscriptions. In-person rates are 2.6%, 2.5% and 2.4% + 15¢.
• January 13, 2026: Square Free's standard online rate (Square Online, Payment Links, online prepayments, subscriptions and eGift Cards) rose from 2.9% + 30¢ to 3.3% + 30¢, a Square staff member said on Square's Seller Community.
• February 4, 2026: Square Register 2nd generation, from $899.
• April 28, 2026: Managerbot, an AI assistant that proposes actions for sellers to approve, in open beta at no added cost.
• October 14, 2026: Square Kiosk with AI voice ordering, $1,999 plus $99 a month per device, on Plus or Premium only.
• January 1, 2027 (upcoming): Square's 0% Bitcoin payment fee is scheduled to rise to 1% per transaction.

The online change in dollars: $10,000 a month online in 250 orders was $365 at 2.9% + 30¢ and is $405 at 3.3% + 30¢, $40 more a month, or $480 a year.

Square also had two notable outages: about 15 hours on September 7–8, 2023 (a DNS failure) and about 43 minutes of payments impact on February 26, 2025 (a certificate problem). Separately, Block said it expected to cut its workforce by more than 40% (filing dated February 26, 2026). The 2025–2026 penalties and settlements involving Block (the CFPB, NYDFS, state regulators and state attorneys general) concern Cash App, not Square seller accounts.

Toast: the 99¢ fee, rate rises and AI bundles

Toast's pricing has changed in small steps since 2023, and its contract allows that.

The 2023 guest fee

Toast added a $0.99 fee, paid by guests, on online orders of $10 and over placed through Toast's online-ordering channels. The Boston Globe reported it on June 19, 2023; it took effect nationwide on July 10, the Globe and Nation's Restaurant News reported. Restaurants couldn't opt out, and at least one offered to absorb the fee and was refused, the Globe reported.

After a backlash from restaurants and competitors, CEO Chris Comparato said on July 19, 2023 that Toast would remove the fee by the end of that week: "We made the wrong decision." That was nine days after the national rollout. It was a 99¢ fee on online orders, not a 10¢ charge on every transaction, as it is sometimes remembered.

Rate rises since

In September 2024, Toast raised card rates by 0.05 to 0.23 points for some small and mid-sized restaurant clients, its first increase in 12 years, Payments Dive reported, citing a William Blair note. Its CFO later told investors Toast was "building a motion for ongoing small targeted price adjustments". Toast's own Q2 2026 investor remarks list "small targeted pricing moves" among the reasons its payments take rate grew.

On $50,000 a month in card sales, 0.05 points is $25 a month and 0.23 points is $115: $300 to $1,380 a year.

New products and offers

• May 5, 2026: Toast IQ Grow, a $499-a-month bundle of an AI marketing agent (in beta), a human marketing manager, loyalty, gift cards, websites, online ordering and ads.
• Through December 31, 2026: a promotion of 60% off the hardware in an eligible new customer's first order (a limited-time offer, not list price).
• Toast's surcharging tool is credit only, capped at 3% (2% in Oklahoma), and not available in Connecticut, Maine or Massachusetts.

Clover and Fiserv: a reset after a fee backlash

Clover's owner, Fiserv, cut its outlook and changed CEOs in the past year. Its own filings show the reset; press reports tie it to Clover fees.

• October 29, 2025: Fiserv cut its 2025 outlook to 3.5% to 4% organic growth and launched a "One Fiserv" plan that includes Clover. Its shares fell more than 40% that day, a record drop, according to press reports.
• Bloomberg reported on October 30, 2025 that the drop followed complaints from Clover clients about "superfluous fees". Other press reports said Fiserv planned to roll back some of those fees.
• June 15, 2026: Takis Georgakopoulos became Fiserv's CEO after Mike Lyons left for Truist.

Lightspeed: a $400 fee, a review, and a narrower focus

Lightspeed has been reshaping itself since 2023, and US restaurants are no longer its focus.

• March 27, 2023: Lightspeed began selling POS and payments as one bundle, and existing customers who use another processor were told they would pay a fee, The Logic reported. Its page today says that fee is "an additional $400 a month for lower volume merchants" or up to 0.58% of volume for higher-volume merchants.
• February 6, 2025: a strategic review ended without a sale. Lightspeed said it would focus on retail in North America and hospitality in Europe.
• April 29, 2026: Lightspeed sold Upserve, its US restaurant product (about 3,200 locations), to Skyview Equity for up to $81 million.
• October 13, 2026: Lightspeed cut 250 roles through layoffs and unfilled vacancies, to simplify its operations, The Canadian Press reported via BNN Bloomberg.

Shopify POS: POS Go discontinued, Stocky retired

Shopify stopped selling one device and shut down one app.

• POS Go is no longer sold. Its mobile selling will end on May 26, 2027, when it will switch automatically to countertop payment terminal mode. To keep selling on the move, Shopify points owners to the Verifone Victa Mobile ($399) or Tap to Pay on a phone.
• Stocky, Shopify's inventory app, is no longer available after August 31, 2026. Shopify points merchants to its built-in inventory tools; purchase orders and transfers are in Shopify admin.

Revel, SkyTab and Shift4: products that changed hands or names

Shift4 said on June 14, 2024 that it had completed its purchase of Revel, and Revel's site now redirects to Shift4. Then on May 12, 2026, Shift4 renamed SkyTab POS to Shift4 Dine, telling customers their experience "remains the same".

Canada and Quebec: lower card fees, a certified billing rule

More Canadian small businesses will qualify for lower Visa rates, new network fees are coming, and Quebec restaurants must use certified billing.

• October 19, 2024: federal agreements with Visa and Mastercard cut eligible small businesses' in-store credit interchange to a 0.95% weighted average, up to 27% lower overall.
• October 24, 2026 (upcoming): Visa will widen its small-merchant tier to businesses with up to C$750,000 a year in Visa volume (from C$300,000) and cut its core in-person rate from 0.77% to 0.70%. Mastercard is keeping its C$175,000 limit and extending a 1.8-US-cent fee to all domestic transactions, and Visa intends to charge the same fee from April 2027, the CFIB said on October 14, 2026.
• Surcharges are allowed in Canada up to 2.4%, except in Quebec.
• Since June 1, 2025, Quebec restaurants, bars and caterers covered by mandatory billing must send transaction data through a sales recording system certified by Revenu Québec and linked to WEB-SRM, and give every customer a bill from it.

The Visa change on C$100,000 a year of in-person core-card volume: 0.77% = C$770, 0.70% = C$700, a saving of C$70 a year, if your processor passes it on.

Terminals, outages and offline mode

Outages have hit big POS and payments providers since 2023, so how long a POS keeps taking cards offline matters.

• The July 19, 2024 CrowdStrike failure hit NCR Voyix's payments gateway, which NCR Voyix said was restored at 6:03 a.m. Eastern; it added that "the timing of the incident and offline processing helped mitigate the impact". Square went down for about 15 hours in September 2023 and had a shorter payments outage in February 2025.
• Mastercard says US banks will no longer have to put a magnetic stripe on chip cards from 2027, and no new Mastercard cards will have one from 2029. US terminals must still accept stripes.
• More sellers take cards on a phone: Visa said in March 2025 that Tap to Phone use grew about 200% year over year worldwide.
• The search of payment-terminal maker PAX's Florida office and warehouse by FBI and US Customs officers happened on October 26, 2021, not more recently as some articles say. We found no US charges or public findings since.

Fee-disclosure rules: what applies to you

Two "junk fee" rules made headlines, but only California's reaches restaurants and shops.

• The FTC rule (effective May 12, 2025) covers live-event tickets and short-term lodging only. Restaurants and retail aren't covered.
• Under California SB 478 (effective July 1, 2024), the advertised price for most consumer sales must include every mandatory fee. Restaurants and bars are exempt if the fee is "clearly and conspicuously displayed wherever prices are shown". A card fee generally needn't be in the price if customers can avoid it by paying another way.

We found no primary Visa document behind recent claims of a 2026 "dual pricing crackdown", so we haven't reported one. If you run a cash-discount or dual-pricing program, check the current rules with your processor.

What these changes say about choosing a POS in 2026

The thread through this news is control. Fees went up in small steps, products were retired or sold, and each big outage since 2023 hit every merchant on the affected system at once.

• Lock-in: when the POS company is also your processor, you take its rate changes or replace your whole system. That's true of Square, Toast and Clover (see processor lock-in).
• Contracts: read the rate-change and termination clauses. Toast's lets you leave without the early termination fee if you object in writing before a rate change takes effect.
• Offline: ask how long the system keeps selling without internet, and what still prints.
• Exit: ask what happens to your hardware and data if you leave, or if the vendor retires the product.

Some systems separate the POS from the processor so you can switch processors without replacing the POS. KORONA and TouchBistro say they work with other processors, and so does JET, which is made by the company that publishes WHICHpos. They have trade-offs of their own; JET, for example, runs on Android only and has no kitchen display system. Compare all of them on price in our POS price comparison.

Keep reading

• Visa & Mastercard processing fees
• Toast POS pricing 2026
• Processor lock-in
• Square vs Toast vs Clover
• Lightspeed vs Shopify POS
• POS price comparison 2026

Sources

Every price and rate on this page was checked on October 20–21, 2026 against the pages below. Something out of date? Tell us and we fix it with a visible note.

1. Toast: CEO letter: Update on Toast Digital Ordering (July 19, 2023)
2. Toast Form 8-K, July 19, 2023 (SEC)
3. Nation's Restaurant News: Toast adding 99-cent surcharge (June 21, 2023)
4. Boston Globe: Toast's new 99-cent fee (June 19, 2023)
5. Payments Dive: Toast processing fee increase (October 9, 2024)
6. Toast: Q2 2026 prepared remarks (PDF)
7. Toast: Toast IQ Grow and Spring Release 2026 (May 5, 2026)
8. Motley Fool: Toast Q3 2024 earnings call transcript (November 7, 2024)
9. Toast: Merchant agreement (rate changes, §6.2)
10. Toast: Hardware 60% off promo terms
11. Toast Support: Credit card surcharging FAQ
12. Toast: Offline credit card payments (platform guide)
13. Square: Unified pricing and packaging (October 6, 2025)
14. Square Seller Community: online processing fee change on January 13, 2026
15. Square: Register second generation (February 4, 2026)
16. Square: Managerbot open beta (April 28, 2026)
17. Square: Square Kiosk (October 14, 2026)
18. Square: Square Bitcoin (October 8, 2025)
19. Square: Incident summary, September 7, 2023
20. Square: Analysis of the February 26, 2025 outage
21. Square: Offline mode help
22. Block Form 8-K, February 26, 2026 (SEC)
23. CFPB: Block, Inc. enforcement action
24. NYDFS: Block, Inc. penalty (April 10, 2025)
25. Illinois IDFPR and CSBS: $80 million multistate action against Block (January 15, 2025)
26. California Attorney General: $45 million multistate Cash App settlement (July 8, 2026)
27. Fiserv Q3 2025 earnings release (SEC)
28. Bloomberg: Fiserv stock plunges as results confound Wall Street (October 29, 2025)
29. Bloomberg: Fiserv's $30 billion plunge followed client backlash on fees (October 30, 2025)
30. EMARKETER: Fiserv's Q3 earnings and Clover fees
31. Fiserv: CEO appointment, June 15, 2026 (SEC exhibit)
32. Clover developer docs: Handling offline payments
33. The Logic: Lightspeed begins charging customers for using other payment platforms (April 14, 2023)
34. Lightspeed: Switch to Lightspeed Payments (third-party fee)
35. Lightspeed: Results of strategic review (February 6, 2025)
36. Lightspeed: Upserve divestiture (April 29, 2026)
37. BNN Bloomberg: Lightspeed cuts 250 roles (October 13, 2026)
38. Shopify Help: POS Go
39. Shopify Hardware: Verifone Victa Mobile (POS Go FAQ)
40. Shopify Help: Stocky
41. Shopify Help: Purchase orders
42. Shift4: Completion of the Revel acquisition (June 14, 2024)
43. Shift4 release notes: SkyTab becomes Shift4 Dine
44. Interchange equitable relief settlement: official site
45. Interchange equitable relief settlement: FAQ
46. Payments Dive: Visa, Mastercard urge court to approve fee settlement (October 16, 2026)
47. NACS: NACS objects to swipe fee settlement (September 15, 2026)
48. Visa Form 8-K, November 10, 2025 (SEC)
49. Sen. Roger Marshall: Credit Card Competition Act reintroduced (January 13, 2026)
50. GovInfo: S.3623, Credit Card Competition Act (introduced text)
51. The Lobby News: S.3623 bill timeline (tracker)
52. Federal Reserve: Regulation II interchange fee standards
53. Cooley: District court vacates Regulation II's debit fee standard (August 15, 2025)
54. Pulse: Regulation II vacated and stayed: appeal status (September 20, 2026)
55. ABA Banking Journal: Illinois IFPA injunction (June 2026)
56. PYMNTS: Illinois delays swipe fee ban another year (June 1, 2026)
57. Mastercard: Merchant surcharge rules (US)
58. Government of Canada: Credit card fees cut for small businesses (October 2024)
59. Visa Canada: Upcoming changes to interchange rates (PDF)
60. CFIB: Visa lowers interchange fees; new card fees on the horizon (October 14, 2026)
61. Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: Credit card fees for merchants
62. Revenu Québec: Tax evasion in the restaurant sector (WEB-SRM)
63. Mastercard: The end of the magnetic stripe
64. Visa: Tap to Phone adoption soars (March 3, 2025)
65. PAX: A message from PAX Global (2021)
66. CISA: Widespread IT outage due to CrowdStrike update (July 19, 2024)
67. NCR Voyix: CrowdStrike outage resolved
68. FTC: Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees
69. California Attorney General: Hidden fees (SB 478)
70. KORONA POS: Merchant services (choose your processor)
71. TouchBistro: Payments