Transaction Express merchants have been through two migrations already and are about to face the last one. TransFirst became TSYS, TSYS became Global Payments, the TXP gateway became TransIT, and the Transaction Express virtual terminal is being retired. This page collects the dates, what to do before them, and why the change is the right time to look at pricing.
The timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2016 | TSYS acquires TransFirst, including the Transaction Express gateway and virtual terminal |
| 2019 | Global Payments merges with TSYS |
| July 31, 2023 | Global Payments sunsets the TXP gateway; merchants automatically migrated to a TransIT proxy with a new reporting center and virtual terminal in the Merchant Center |
| October 1, 2026 | Transaction Express virtual terminal retired; merchants directed to the TransIT WebPass virtual terminal and the Global Merchant Portal |
Dates are from Global Payments merchant communications as reported in 2026 industry coverage. Confirm your own account’s notices.
What to do before October 1, 2026
- Export reporting. Download transaction history, settlement reports and anything needed for accounting or open disputes. The old portal becomes inaccessible after retirement.
- Register for the Global Merchant Portal and, if staying, set up users in the TransIT WebPass virtual terminal.
- Check integrations. Anything that posted to TXP was moved to a TransIT proxy in 2023. Confirm the software vendor supports TransIT natively going forward, or plan to move.
- Record recurring schedules and stored customers so they can be recreated or migrated.
- Pull the processing statement and compute the effective rate. Decide whether to follow or leave.
The pricing question
TransFirst-era accounts commonly show tiered pricing (qualified, mid-qualified, non-qualified) with monthly, PCI and annual fees added over the years. Effective rates over 3% are not unusual. Global Payments may offer better pricing to keep you through the migration, and it is worth asking. If they do not, the migration cost is being paid either way, so the marginal cost of moving to an independent gateway on interchange-plus is small. How to compute the rate is on the statement guide.
Options
| Path | Effort | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Follow to TransIT WebPass on Global Payments | Low: new portal, retraining, integration check | Pricing is fair or renegotiated, integration is supported |
| Independent gateway (accept.blue, NMI, Fluidpay) on a new merchant account | Medium: new account, plugin or terminal change, stored-card export | Pricing is stale, you want interchange-plus and a person to call, or you want dual pricing at the counter on the same account |
| Authorize.net direct | Medium | You want published pricing and the widest plugin catalog |
Migration to an independent gateway
Statement review, new merchant account on interchange-plus, gateway boarded with virtual terminal users set up, request stored-card export from Global Payments encrypted to the new gateway, import and remap, recreate recurring schedules after the last billing run, live tests, cutover. Three to five weeks. The generic sequence is in switching from Authorize.net and applies with the export request pointed at Global Payments.
Do it before October. A forced cutover with no plan is how businesses end up unable to key a payment for a week.