Introduction

CardX by Stax is a credit card processing company that charges a monthly fee instead of the per-transaction fees usually charged by payment processors. The company likens itself to Costco selling products at wholesale prices. This is because it only charges the card network interchange fee with no markup. Essentially, CardX offers wholesale credit card processing fees and passes along the savings to its customers.

CardX scores highly in customer feedback and reviews. According to its website, its customers save an average of 40% on credit card processing expenses. It has an excellent score of 4.6 on Trustpilot and accreditation from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) with a letter rating of A.

Pros

Transparent monthly subscription payment
No swipe fees
No contracts or cancellation fees
High customer satisfaction ratings
24/7 customer support

Cons

Many higher-risk businesses are excluded
Only available in the US
No price provided online for processing volumes above $500,000

CardX by Stax in Brief

Monthly fee: $55 – $99 per month
Per swipe fee: None
Setup fee: None
Cancellation fee: None
PCI compliance fee: None

Best for

CardX is suitable for small businesses that process credit card transactions over the recommended minimum of $10,000 per month. High-volume companies will also benefit from PCardX’s subscription model by not having to pay interchange-plus pricing. Membership is available to US companies—and currently, CardX specializes in the following industries: retail, restaurants, B2B, mobile, eCommerce, medical, legal, accounting, and professional services.

Terminals

CardX by Stax supplies both smart and standard terminals, which include features like inventory management, discounts, and reporting.

Smart Terminals

Clover Flex—a hand-held POS
Poynt Smart Terminal—a retail solution that lets you run multiple components of your business from one place.

Standard Terminals

Dejavoo Z11 terminal—EMV and NFC Contactless Built In
First Data FD150—Accept EMV and NFC payments.
SwipeSimple Terminal—Works with various smart terminals and devices.

CardX also offers a free virtual terminal for manually entering credit card information. This is a great backup if there are technical issues with other equipment.

POS solutions

CardX by Stax may be able to integrate with your existing point-of-sale (POS) devices. Systems that CardX integrates with include TSYS, First Data, and BridgePay. It also sells the following POS hardware:

Clover Mini LTE—A compact but powerful POS that lets you quickly ring up sales and manage your business.
Clover Station Pro—Clover’s largest and fastest POS system.

Merchant Services

Many credit card processing companies also offer additional merchant services like business loans, accounting software, and online payment gateways. However, these are not available from CardX.

CardX is a no-frills credit card processing company that focuses on one service: processing payments online, in-person, or over the phone—minus the markup. So if you are looking for a company that will also provide business loans, then CardX may not be the best fit for you.

Pricing

Unlike other payment-processing companies, CardX by Stax doesn’t charge a per-swipe fee. Instead, merchants subscribe to a monthly subscription cost based on volume. With the traditional model, payment processors make money by marking up the fees charged by credit card networks like Visa and Mastercard. The more sales a merchant processes, the more they profit.

CardX claims that merchants save an average of 40% on processing expenses with its monthly pricing model. CardX’s pricing is transparent, with no hidden fees. There are three plan tiers, Starter, Starter Plus, and Growth.

Plan	Monthly fee	Processing (per year)
Starter	$59	$125,000
Starter Plus	$79	$250,000
Growth	$99	$500,000

If you need to process more than $500,000 annually, then CardX will provide a custom quote. You can change your pricing plan at any time.

The plans are aimed at the retail, restaurant, B2B, mobile, eCommerce, medical, legal, accounting, and professional services industries. Bear in mind that there are several prohibited industries that CardX doesn’t work with. These include cruise lines, currency exchanges, debt consolidation, extended warranty companies, online gambling, golf clubs, and healthcare plans. Membership of CardX is currently only available in the USA.

Applying and Contracts

You can apply for membership with CardX by Stax by phone or by completing their online form.

To complete the online form, you will need to provide your company name, personal name and contact details, and monthly processing volume. Once this has been done, you will be notified that one of CardX’s representatives will be in touch.

There are no application fees charged for setting up an account. CardX’s pricing model does not lock you into a contract, so you can cancel your membership for any reason without having to pay a cancellation fee.

About CardX by Stax

CardX was founded in 2013 in California by its current CEO, Danny Choi, and is a registered ISO of Wells Fargo Bank. In 2021, CardX was acquired by its biggest competitor—Stax—and now refers to itself as ‘CardX by Stax’.

Customer Support

Customer service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can chat live with a CardX consultant on the website or by telephone.

Although the customer satisfaction rating on Trustpilot is high, several reviews suggest customers have noticed that the quality of CardX’s customer support has declined since its acquisition by Stax.

Summary

CardX by Stax is an excellent choice for businesses that want to avoid long-term contracts and save on processing fees. It doesn’t offer any bells and whistles, but if you are just looking for a company to process your payments quickly and efficiently, then CardX is definitely worth considering.

Customer satisfaction is high, and pricing is very competitive. The monthly membership model means there are no swipe fees, setup fees, cancellation fees, or PCI compliance fees, which makes it an innovative solution that many businesses should consider.