The Durbin Amendment, part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, was enacted to provide business owners financial relief from card processing costs as many proprietors struggle to keep their doors open during the economic downturn. The legislation caps debit card interchange rates for issuing banks with more than $10 billion in assets at 21 cents per transaction, plus one cent for issuers with an effective fraud prevention system, and 0.05 percent of the volume of transaction -- a significant reduction from the average of 44 cents that merchants paid per debit card purchase before the Durbin Amendment.

"This $100 million Durbin Dollars savings milestone, in only five months, showcases the magnitude of the reform's effects on the merchant marketplace and on business owners at large," said Bob Carr, Heartland's chairman and CEO. "While several payment processors are lining their own pockets with the savings at the expense of their customers, Heartland is passing the Durbin interchange reductions to its merchants. As these figures show, those pennies add up very quickly. These are tangible savings that are impacting business owners that do business with our company."

With the extra cash, merchants have additional financial resources to improve their business operations and customer service by investing in new equipment and technologies, hiring additional staff, re-evaluating pricing, diversifying product offerings and much more. Lower debit card processing costs also encourage merchants that don't accept cards to start offering the convenience to customers.

Heartland expects its average merchant to save approximately $1,000 annually per location. To ensure that its merchants know exactly how much they are saving, Heartland highlights its Durbin Dollars on its monthly processing statements.