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Stax

Stax was established in 2014 and powered by Fattmerchant. Since its inception, the company has served over 12,000 customers and has processed more than $9 billion in payments.

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Written by:Casey Newton

Company Profile

Stax is a payments processing company based in Florida, founded back in 2014 and powered by Fattmerchant. In 2021, the company went through a rebranding, became Stax, and changed some things about its system such as its desktop platform, mobile app, and pricing structure. Since its inception, the company has served over 12,000 customers and has processed more than $9 billion in payments. The service works on a monthly subscription and aims to make the entire payment processing ordeal a lot easier to handle, especially for smaller businesses that make more than $5,000 per month. Here is what you need to know about it.

Why Choose Stax

Stax is a great alternative if you would like to go for a flat monthly subscription and you own a business that makes at least $5,000 per month. Stax is also a company that prefers to talk to its clients on the phone instead of doing everything online. Besides that, this is a good option if your company receives both swiped and keyed-in payments and if you want to be able to process payments easier while also having access to extensive analysis services, all in one place. Keep in mind that in order to receive a quote you will need to contact the company and discuss all the details with a representative.

What Stax Offers - Features and Functionality

Stax has a lot of important features and functionalities that you will find extremely useful for your business, regardless of its size, type, or experience level. Here is a short look at some of the most interesting features.

Features and uses

  •  No markup on interchange rate: the pricing of Stax comes without a markup on the interchange rate. The company works by charging a flat monthly fee that can increase with the volume of your business;
  •  Interesting add-ons: when it comes to add-ons, Stax offers some interesting ones that businesses can use for further customization of their plans. You can get an add-on for creating gift cards for your clients, selling items through an online store, and creating invoices, payments, and receipts;
  •  Readers: with Stax, you can also use mobile or countertop card readers to make your job easier. If you already have one, Stax representatives will reprogram it to be compatible with the company’s system; 
  •  Stax Pay: this platform is meant for managing your accounts more easily because you have them all in one single place. This functions as a dashboard that offers you valuable insights into your sales data. It comes with three tiers that depend on your business necessities and requires you to pay an additional subscription. The top tier is the most useful one as it includes the most valuable tools for insights, a one-click cart, recurring payments, and inventory management, to name a few. The app is available for both Android and iOS devices;
  •  Merchant accounts: Stax also offers merchant accounts that are full-service and come with an individual merchant ID. While this is not a direct processor, the company Worldpay is and can deal with payment processing;
  •  Inventory management: this is an extremely useful feature even if it may not be as complex as an actual POS system. Still, if you are using the mobile app or the virtual terminal, you can benefit from features like discounts, alerts for low stocks, tax rate management, image file attachment, and item categories setting;
  •  Reporting: with Stax, you can also get some interesting reports that are sure to help your business grow. This is a feature that is completely free and which can offer you insights into your item categories and sales along with inventory reports. Plus, you will also be able to see sales channel data from multiple sources. In case you want a more advanced add-on, you will need to pay extra for it or get the highest Stax Pay tier;
  •  Invoicing: you can use the virtual terminal or the mobile app to send invoices easily and quickly. What’s even more interesting is that your item catalog and customer database can be synchronized with this feature so everything can become a lot easier to handle. 

Plans & Pricing

Stax offers its services in packages for which you will have to pay monthly subscriptions. If your business is processing more than $5 million per year, you will have to pick from three separate packages. If you are processing over that sum, you will have to discuss this situation with a Stax representative and get a quote. Keep in mind that swiped transactions are charged $0.08 while keyed-in ones are charged $0.15.

It’s important to know that, with Stax, you will not be paying gateway and batch fees, early termination fees, PCI compliance fees, and you won’t be required a monthly minimum. Here are the three plans that you can pick from with Stax:

  •  The Growth Plan: this one costs $99/month and comes with ticket-based customer support and basic reporting and dashboards;
  •  The Pro Plan: this one costs $159/month and comes with ticket-based customer support, enhanced reporting and dashboards, cards on file, invoicing features, and an API key;
  •  The Ultimate Plan: this one costs $199/month and comes with a dedicated account manager, advanced reporting and dashboards, cards on file, invoicing features, recurring payments, and an API key.

Ease of Use

In general, everything that Stax offers is very easy to comprehend and use, even without too much experience in this domain. In order to apply for its services, you will need to fill out a form on the official website and wait for a company representative to contact you. Usually, this takes place very quickly and you will have the possibility to find out more about what the company offers, the pricing, and all other details.

If you decide to choose Stax as your payment processing ally, you will be requested to give details about your business license and your social security number. The monthly sales of your business will also be necessary so the company can figure out what plan would be the best for you. You will also have the possibility to pick any necessary software and hardware which the company will send to you as soon as possible.

Customer Support

The customer support for the first two plans available at Stax is ticked-based and active 24/7. There haven’t been any complaints about it and, usually, you will receive an answer to your question within a few hours. The most advanced plan comes with a dedicated account manager who will guide you every step of the way.

However, you can also contact the company by calling 833.480.7829 or by using the live chat bubble at the bottom right corner of the website. The website also has a great knowledge base that you can search through to find the answers to your issues. Last but not least, you can send the company fax at 407-986-2735 or find it at 618 E South ST Suite #510 Orlando, FL 32801.

Contract Terms

All the terms and conditions that a client should know are clearly displayed on the official Stax website. What’s important to know is that the company does not require you to sign a long-term contract to use its services. It works based on a monthly subscription that you can opt-out of whenever you want. You will, however, need to send a 30-days notice before doing this. This is truly one of the best solutions that such companies come up with and something that all businesses would like to see more frequently instead of long-term contracts that keep clients bound to a company.

Conclusion

To sum it all up, Stax is a modern, transparent, professional, and useful payment processing service that aims to help businesses of all types grow and develop. What it offers, beyond the obvious features and products, is flexibility and the freedom to customize what you need without having to feel like you are forced into a contract or a certain frame. In short, Stax provides value at an affordable price, especially if you are a business that does some money and can afford to pay the necessary monthly subscription. While there are ups and down to each such company, Stax definitely deserves recognition and to be taken seriously.