Payment Depot Review

Pros

• Month-to-month billing
• No application or setup fees
• Affordable membership pricing model
• Good customer support

Cons

• Accepts US-based merchants only
• Does not accept high-risk merchants
• Expensive for low-volume & high-volume businesses

What Is Payment Depot?

Payment Depot (now Payment Depot by Stax) is a merchant services provider that uses membership pricing (also called subscription pricing) to save merchants money on overall processing costs and reduce the number of fees they have to pay for payment processing.

With membership pricing, you pay a single monthly subscription fee, rather than an assortment of miscellaneous recurring fees. This fee also covers a good portion of your processing costs, so you won’t pay a percentage-based markup on your transactions. This feature can save a lot of money for businesses with a lot of high-ticket sales.

While this arrangement can be very cost-effective for mid-volume businesses processing up to $20,000/month, it will be expensive for low-volume businesses processing less than around $8,000/month. It can also be expensive for high-volume businesses processing much more than $20K/month due to the monthly fee which increases based on transaction volume.

Products & Services

In addition to the products and services listed below, Payment Depot also offers eCheck and ACH processing services, online shopping cart integration, and developer tools for web designers. The company doesn’t disclose much information about these products on its website, so ask your sales representative about them if you’ll need them for your business.

Payment Depot’s feature set is slightly more basic than Stax’s—the SwipeSimple mobile app is a paid add-on, whereas a free mobile POS app is included with Stax. Also, Payment Depot’s dashboard and analytics are more basic. Finally, the only way to access invoicing with PD is via Authorize.Net, for an added fee.

Fees & Rates

Payment Depot has a membership pricing model (a type of interchange-plus pricing) which is very similar to the pricing offered by Payment Depot’s parent company, Stax. Minimal pricing information is listed on Payment Depot’s website, however, so the company loses some points here for transparency.

Overall, Payment Depot is a pretty good deal for most mid-volume small businesses with monthly processing volumes of roughly $8K to $20K (especially those with a high average ticket size), while Stax is a better deal for higher-volume businesses processing around $20K-$40K/month.

Pricing Overview

Note that the “0.2% - 1.95%” transaction fee range given on Payment Depot’s website should include the interchange fee baked in. Of course, this is a very wide range of possible rates, so this information is not super helpful.

While Payment Depot and Stax have a similar pricing structure, Stax is geared more toward higher-volume businesses; if you process more than $250K/year, your business will probably save more with Stax.

Monthly Plans

Though Payment Depot bills itself as an ideal processing solution for high-volume businesses, this isn’t entirely true, as your monthly fee increases with your transaction volume. If you process more than $20,833/month ($250,000/year) you will have to get a custom quote, meaning you’ll be paying more than $79/month, which is already on the high side.

So it’s a bit misleading to say that Payment Depot is best for high-volume businesses. Most people in the processing industry wouldn’t consider $250,000/year a high-volume business by any means; by most definitions, high-volume means closer to $100,000/month. Comparatively, Stax doesn’t put you in the “custom pricing” tier until you hit $500K/year ($41,667/month).

On the positive side, PD does offer month-to-month pricing and no setup fee; not many specifics are given but it’s implied that the monthly fee covers all or most software features (apart from Clover software fees, which are set by Clover).

However, many recent customer complaints involve unanticipated fees, including PCI fees and miscellaneous package fees.

Sales & Advertising Transparency

Where Payment Depot’s website once disclosed a wealth of information, the current site offers minimal information and looks a bit dated. Additionally, we’re not huge fans of some of Payment Depot’s marketing.

Charts and graphics on the website tend to be vague and oversimplified. Other marketing materials give the impression that you’ll only be charged “wholesale rates” and “no markup” and that Payment Depot somehow cuts out all the middlemen. In reality, you do pay Payment Depot (which is a middleman between you and either Fiserv or TSYS) a markup over wholesale processing rates. The markup is merely in the form of the membership fee and authorization fee, instead of the traditional percentage markup + authorization fee of a typical interchange-plus plan.

Membership pricing should, in theory, be one of the easiest processing models to disclose as it sets standardized pricing for different sales volumes. The fact that Payment Depot no longer does so is cause for concern, especially in light of customer complaints about unexpected stealth charges.

Payment Depot at least uses in-house agents exclusively, so you won’t be subjected to the high-pressure sales tactics that independent agents frequently employ.

Contract Length & Early Termination Fee

One of the most attractive features of Payment Depot’s service is that all accounts are set up with true month-to-month billing. Payment Depot doesn’t enforce its back-end processors’ boilerplate Terms and Conditions, which typically stipulate long-term contracts and early termination fees. You also won’t have to worry about automatic renewal clauses, which make it difficult to close your account before it’s renewed for a new term.

Your relationship with the company will still be covered by a merchant agreement, however. Thoroughly reviewing the terms and conditions of your merchant agreement is essential before signing up with Payment Depot — or any other provider.

Generally speaking, the company does not require advance notice to cancel an account. If you have already run transactions during the month you’d like to cancel, Payment Depot will immediately process the cancellation, but then schedule the actual closure to happen at the end of the month so that the current month’s fees can be collected. Also, note that because customers have up to 120 days to file a chargeback, your account will not be fully closed until after 120 days from the date of your last transaction. However, Payment Depot does not charge you any monthly fees during this period.

Customer Service & Technical Support

Payment Depot offers 24/7 customer service by both telephone, email, and live chat. Note that you’re more likely to reach a full-time company employee if you call during business hours, which are 8 AM to 5 PM Pacific Time, Monday-Friday.

Some technical support issues will be initially covered by the processors (Fiserv or TSYS) outside of these hours. Payment Depot also designates an employee to monitor all after-hours support requests 24/7.

Upon signup, all members are assigned a dedicated account representative that will serve as your primary point of contact.

One improvement we’d like to see is an online knowledgebase for customers with information on how to solve common problems. Payment Depot doesn’t currently offer this option, although there is a basic FAQ on the website. Social media accounts, while they do exist, haven’t recently been updated.

User Reviews

Overall, Payment Depot has mostly positive user reviews, but there are a few troubling trends when you look at the negative reviews.

Final Verdict On Payment Depot

Payment Depot’s membership pricing model was one of the more innovative developments in payment processing several years back. On paper, it should still offer month-to-month billing and predictable monthly costs that separate it from its competitors and provide excellent value for high-volume businesses.

Payment Depot’s lack of full pricing transparency, however, makes it difficult to recommend Payment Depot without any reservations. With some of the best credit card processing companies now also offering more transparent membership processing, there are lower-risk ways to get wholesale pricing.

Credit Card Processor Review Methodology

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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After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Payment Depot for yourself.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

Payment Depot	Visit Site

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Payment Depot for yourself.