Payment Depot Review

Payment Depot, now operating as "Payment Depot by Stax," is a California-based merchant services provider founded in 2013 that pioneered the subscription/interchange-plus pricing model for small businesses, but has experienced significant customer service and transparency issues since its 2021 acquisition by Stax.

Estimated annual cost at three realistic processing volumes, using Payment Depot’s published online rate plus monthly fees. Real costs vary with average transaction size, chargeback rate, and any negotiated terms.

How Payment Depot pricing works

Payment Depot built its name on the membership model: pay a flat monthly subscription, process at close to wholesale interchange. That model is gone from its site. The current published schedule keeps the wholesale idea and drops the subscription entirely — you pay interchange with a 0% percentage markup, plus a flat 8¢ on card-present transactions and 15¢ on keyed and online ones, with no monthly fee and no cancellation fee.

Two things stop that from being the whole story. The same pricing page also advertises "variable rates as low as 0.2% - 1.95%" and points every visitor at a consultant for a quote, so the 0% headline is a starting position rather than a guaranteed rate. And the fees Payment Depot does not publish — PCI compliance, chargebacks — are the ones that decide whether a small account is actually cheap. Independent reporting puts the PCI fee at $10 a month, rising to $19.99 if you fall out of compliance, which is the real monthly floor.

Published rates and fees

• Card processing: 0% markup on interchange
• Card present: 8¢ per transaction
• Card not present (keyed and online): 15¢ per transaction
• ACH: 1% per transaction, capped at $10
• Monthly subscription: none on the published schedule
• Cancellation: no cancellation fee; month-to-month terms
• Terminal protection plan: $19/month, optional and cancellable

Payment Depot does not publish a chargeback fee, a statement fee, or its support hours. Third-party guides disagree on the chargeback figure — $15 and $25 both circulate — which is reason enough to get the full schedule in writing rather than trust either number.

What the Stax acquisition changed

Stax acquired Payment Depot in 2021, and the before-and-after in customer reviews is stark. Pre-acquisition reviews praise low rates, transparency, and excellent support; recent ones describe significant fee increases, hidden charges appearing without notice, and support that is nearly impossible to reach — support now routes through Stax channels, on weekday business hours rather than the round-the-clock coverage often attributed to it. Funding itself is competitive at next business day standard, with no same-day option published, but BBB reviewers describe deposits going missing and funds held without explanation, so reconcile settlements carefully in your first months. The pricing model earns the interest; the service record is what pulls the grade down to C+.

What to pin down before you sign

Get three things in writing: your exact interchange-plus markup, since 0% is the published headline and not necessarily your quote; a full fee schedule including the PCI fee and the chargeback fee, neither of which appears on the site; and the cancellation procedure. The last one matters most here — despite month-to-month terms with no early termination fee, reviewers consistently report difficulty cancelling and continued billing after cancellation requests. Cancel in writing, demand written confirmation of closure, and monitor your bank account afterward.