CardX by Stax is at the forefront of credit card surcharging compliance. But is this processing solution right for your business?
WRITTEN & RESEARCHED BY
Expert Contributor
Last updated onUpdated
REVIEWED BY
Expert Contributor
| Total Rating | 4.5 |
|---|---|
| Fees & Rates4.5 | |
| Products & Services4.3 | |
| Contract5.0 | |
| Sales & Advertising Transparency4.2 | |
| Customer Service4.2 | |
| User Reviews4.4 | |
Table of Contents
Owned by Stax, CardX is a fully compliant surcharging solution allowing businesses to pass credit card processing fees to customers, thereby reducing the business’s costs associated with accepting credit cards.
Businesses can use CardX to take 0% fee credit card payments in-person, online, or via a virtual terminal. Businesses in Connecticut and Maine cannot legally use credit card surcharging solutions such as CardX.
| Products & Services4.3 |
|---|
| Software & Services 4.3 |
| Hardware & Equipment 4.2 |
CardX is a payment processor that lets businesses accept credit cards without having to pay the usual interchange fees and processor markup. Instead, the customer pays these fees. Note that the customer also has the option of completing the sale via debit card, in which case they pay no fee, and the business pays the processing fee.
CardX doesn’t include too many bills and whistles, but since the company is owned by Stax, you should be able to integrate with various Stax products if you need added features like recurring billing. Or alternatively, you can use Stax’s API to build your own customized payment solution.
Find more details about CardX features and credit card surcharging program below.
| Fees & Rates4.5 |
|---|
| Pricing 5.0 |
| Affordability 4.0 |
Overall, CardX offers good pricing and moderately good transparency when it comes to the fees and rates it charges for its credit card surcharging solution.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Pricing Range | $29-$199/month, depending on sales volume |
| Account Setup Fee | $0 |
| Contract Length | Month-to-month |
| Processing Model | Credit card surcharging |
| Card-present Transaction Fee | 0% for credit (customer pays 3%); 1.25-2.91% + $0.25 for debit (customer pays 0%) |
| eCommerce Transaction Fee | 0% for credit (customer pays 3%); 1.25-2.91% + $0.25 for debit (customer pays 0%) |
| Equipment Cost | $35-$39/month to rent; $375-$540 to purchase |
Note that debit card processing fees can vary depending on the backend processor CardX sets you up with. You also will not be able to get the lowest rate if you enter a credit card number into your physical terminal (for phone orders, for example); you should use the virtual terminal to get the lowest rate on keyed-in transactions.
| Sales & Advertising Transparency4.2 |
|---|
| Sales Practices 4.4 |
| Web Presence 4.0 |
CardX exclusively uses an in-house sales team, which is a big point in its favor when it comes to sales and advertising transparency.
CardX has a professional informative website, which does a good job explaining its product as well as the laws surrounding surcharging. CardX also has its Terms & Services on its website and maintains active social media accounts on LinkedIn and X.
Still, it would be ideal if CardX displayed all of its pricing information prominently on its website. Instead, CardX is repeatedly described on its website as “0% cost,” which isn’t entirely true when considering that merchants will be paying a $29/month fee, or more, if they rent their terminal or process more than $120K/month.
| Contract5.0 |
|---|
| Commitment 5.0 |
| ETF & Other Fees 5.0 |
One thing I really appreciate about CardX is that the company has a month-to-month contract, as outlined in the Terms of Service posted on the CardX website. You can cancel your contract at any time as long as you give CardX 30 days’ notice.
You will need to return your terminal if you’re renting it, but you won’t be charged any other termination or account closure fees.
| Customer Service4.2 |
|---|
| Personal Support 4.9 |
| Self-Service 3.4 |
CardX offers multiple channels of customer support including email, 24/7 technical support via phone, and other channels offered from Stax directly, including a live chat function and an online knowledgebase (though CardX does not have its own dedicated knowledgebase).
| CardX By Stax Customer Service | Availability |
|---|---|
| Phone Support | |
| Email Support | |
| Support Tickets | |
| Live Chat | |
| Dedicated Support Representative | |
| Knowledge Base or Help Center | |
| Videos & Tutorials | |
| Company Blog | |
| Social Media |
Overall, CardX seems to have adequate support resources, and 24/7 phone support is always a good thing. However, some customers have complained about the quality of Stax’s customer service, which is likely the same entity that provides customer service for CardX.
It’s also unclear what level of technical support you will receive if you do not opt for the terminal rental plan.
| User Reviews4.4 |
|---|
| Customer Feedback 4.0 |
| Review Site Aggregate 4.5 |
Frustratingly, there are no user reviews of CardX to be found online. CardX does have a BBB profile (which predates its acquisition by Stax), but it has no comments or complaints.
However, there are plenty of reviews of CardX’s parent company, Stax. Stax reviews are mixed, but mostly positive. As such, we consider Stax to be one of the best small business credit card processors, period.
As CardX is a service of Stax, it makes sense to evaluate the user reviews of Stax when deciding whether to use CardX (especially given the lack of CardX reviews at our disposal).
Here are some positive and negative things Stax merchants have to say online.
On the whole, CardX by Stax can be a good surcharging solution for businesses that want to implement this credit card processing model to save on fees. Just be aware that using CardX does not mean you can process cards without incurring any fees—monthly account fees and debit card processing fees will still apply.
Surcharging is not right for all businesses, but CardX’s automated compliance makes it a good choice if you do want to use this type of processing, particularly if you own a larger business and want to save on processing fees while also protecting your business from possible legal ramifications of noncompliant surcharging or cash discount implementations.
Since CardX doesn’t make its monthly fee structure completely clear on its website, be sure to get in writing exactly what terms and fees you’ll be agreeing to before you sign up—this is actually true for any payment processor. But from what I can tell, CardX’s terms look pretty above-board and merchant-friendly, especially considering the contract is month-to-month.
If you’re interested in ways to reduce your credit card processing fees in general, check out our post on how to offset or reduce your credit card processing fees.
We evaluate and test each payment processor that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on certain key characteristics in order to generate our granular ratings for merchant accounts and credit card processors.
For payment processing reviews, we use a 24-point rubric to evaluate the provider. First, we look at pricing structure – interchange plus, subscription-based, tiered, or hybrid – giving the most points to providers that provide fair, transparent pricing and docking those that rely on tiered models. Then we examine rates, the presence and transparency of early termination fees, and any additional fees.
We also look at contract length and fairness and test out sales staff and customer service channels ourselves to ensure that the company uses reputable, above-the-board sales techniques. Finally, we take the company’s online reputation into account, reading customer reviews and comments.
Read more about how we rate payment processors.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
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CardX By Stax
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After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see CardX By Stax for yourself.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
|
CardX By Stax
|
|---|
After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see CardX By Stax for yourself.
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Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
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Our team of experts spends hours on every review so that we can find the best companies to recommend to our readers. CardX By Stax made the cut.
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