Launched in 1971, First Data Corporation has become a large presence in the financial services industry. It has much to do with the financial institutions’ point of sale (POS), ATM, and online payment solutions, which fall under the firm’s STAR Network. With access to over 2 million ATM locations and 134 million cardholders, STAR Network is the largest interbank network in the United States. This expansive outreach is also the backbone of First Data merchant services, making the institutions’ services a highly sought-after solution by a variety of businesses, vendors, and financial institutions.
With extensive connectivity and robust infrastructure, First Data Corporation provides highly reliable payment processing services to companies across various industries. But these solutions do not come cheap. In fact, they come at a pretty penny as compared to many other merchant services providers. The company’s reputation often proves as a selling point for its higher costs. It encourages new well-funded merchants to choose it over other providers who vow to offer the same level of services.
If you are currently starting your business operation, this could create some valid questions. Is going with First Data worth it? Are the costs high enough to affect your profitability? How do the solutions stand as compared to other merchant services providers?
To help you find answers to these questions and similar inquiries, here is a detailed comparison of First Data versus Stax.
Key Features of First Data Merchant Services
When it comes to finding reliable merchant services, there are a few key features to keep in mind at all times. If any critical functionalities are missing from your merchant services, it could compromise your small business operation and put you at a disadvantage in your sector.
Acceptability of Popular Payment Networks
Suppose you cannot accept debit cards or credit cards from popular payment networks such as Visa and MasterCard. In that case, it renders you unable to service a large segment of your audience. This requirement applies to both in-person transactions and online or eCommerce payments. If your business operates through a hybrid model, this aspect of card processing ensures that you don’t have to turn every other patron away due to payment restrictions.
First Data excels at fulfilling this requirement and provides support for popular payment networks for its merchant services.
Variety of POS Devices
Whether you run a brick-and-mortar operation or a delivery service, it’s essential to have the latest POS equipment to serve your customers. With the U.S. launch of Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) chip cards in 2015, it is highly recommended that companies use payment terminals that accept these highly secure payment cards. With the emergence of contactless card payments and mobile wallets, having a POS device that also accepts these payment types helps optimize your business.
First Data merchant account services provide an extensive selection of POS equipment, which allows you to pick and choose a POS device that fulfills your business-specific needs.
Availability of Latest Security Features
Since payment processing services allow small businesses to take payments through an electronic capacity, you need to protect your customers’ personal and financial data in a failsafe way. Measures such as Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard ensure that you adhere to necessary processes to safeguard your customers’ data.
All credible payment providers comply with these data protection practices to maintain proper security without requiring you to do much as a small business. First Data complies with these requirements and also uses security mechanisms in its equipment. This First Data aspect ensures optimal safety for your customers during and after payment processing.
Option to Access a Virtual Payment Gateway
As the name suggests, these solutions allow you to process payments by entering customers’ credit card or debit card details into a virtual payment platform. These solutions are highly secure but will enable you to take remote credit card payments in settings where your customers cannot perform online or in-person transactions. These card processing solutions work for both brick-and-mortar and eCommerce operations and provide an additional option for your clients to make their payments.
First Data merchant services offer a virtual payment gateway to its clients, fulfilling this requirement with relative ease.
Affordability of Your Required Payment Solutions
Not all businesses require mobile POS solutions. Similarly, not all operations call for a virtual payment gateway. Sometimes, even an essential payment card reader can suffice for your needs. First Data knows that there are scenarios where you need an all-in-one payment solution with all the features mentioned earlier in one place.
Regardless of the type of solution you need, it has to be affordable for your business. This refers to the setup cost and points to the ongoing expenses of maintaining merchant services for your operations. Some services only charge a transaction fee for each payment you process through their network, while others also put a maintenance fee on top of their existing charges. Apart from seeing the frequency of these costs, you also need to check how competitive these prices are as compared to similar solutions in the market.
Due to First Data’s high costs, First Data falls flat in this aspect. Its solutions are priced at an elevated price point as compared to many other merchant services providers.
First Data Merchant Services Vs. Stax Services
First Data delivers in all critical aspects except for pricing. But seeing that affordability is the highest point of concern for most business owners, it provides a big enough reason for you to compare the company’s solutions with other merchant services.
Acceptability of Popular Payment Networks
Both First Data and Stax offer support for popular payment networks, which gives them equal standing in this aspect.
Variety of POS Devices
First Data merchant services and Stax provide a wide range of mobile and in-store POS systems equipment that can fulfill your specific needs. This lets you select a POS device that caters to your business’ operations.
Availability of Latest Security Features
First Data and Stax both offer PCI compliance with their business solutions and use highly secure equipment to power their services.
Option to Access a Virtual Payment Gateway
Stax offers a more holistic virtual terminal with its Stax Platform. The all-in-one payment solution makes it simple for business owners to enter payment and customer data one time and use it for later transactions. The platform’s compelling features create real long-term value by saving time and costs better spent on core operations.
What else does the Stax Platform offer?
- Send Digital Invoices. Let customers know if a payment is due by sending a digital invoice through email or text and quickly set reminders so you can mark these tasks as complete.
- Provide Text2Pay. Give your customers convenience and simplicity by empowering them to pay via text. In an era of simplicity, the feature goes a long way in expediting the process.
- Optimize for Recurring Payments. It doesn’t make any sense to manually input payments for a recurring transaction. That’s why the Stax Platform enables business managers to set their system up to obtain future recurring transactions with one setting. A nifty feature here is that the Stax system will automatically update credit card information so you can focus on the bigger picture.
- Access in-depth Data Insights with Customer Overviews. The best businesses have access to their data and know how to use it to further their business. That is why Stax enables users to have simple access to their customer buying behavior within a single dashboard, allowing them to have a comprehensive view of the business.
- Obtain the Details You Need. Find out what products sell more by adding line items to customer invoices. You can use that information to optimize your inventory and your business toward the right products.
- Swipe. Customers have the flexibility to swipe their cards from anywhere with bluetooth-enabled countertop terminals.
- Credit and Cash in One Place. View credit and cash transaction data in one place, allowing you to simplify your payment reconciliation.
- Sync Payments to QuickBooks. From invoices to receipts, sync your Stax Platform to QuickBooks Online to simplify your accounting.
An all-in-one payment platform enables you to think about the bigger picture and focus on customers. Further, individuals can be more ready for surprises by having the right information and taking the right actions.
Affordability of Your Required Payment Solutions
Stax realizes that businesses can only succeed if they are lean in this highly competitive era. That is why it offers its solutions in a highly cost-effective way.
The payment structure breaks down into two categories:
The subscription costs for swiped payments include:
- $99/month plus 0.08 cents per transaction and direct interchange costs for businesses doing up to $500,000 per year.
- $199/month plus 0.06 cents per transaction and direct interchange for businesses processing more than $500,000 yearly.
- Custom enterprise package for companies processing $5,000,000 annually.
Stax makes certain to ensure for credit card processing and business customer service while presenting affordability as well
Choosing Stax
Small businesses appreciate that Stax offers a subscription-based merchant service option. As such, SMBs have full transparency over their expenses and don’t have to worry about revenue leaks in unexpected, confusing cost structures.
Stax realizes that businesses don’t have time for opaque fees, varying markups, and lack of transparency.
That is why Stax offers processing, data analytics, and reporting through its secure Stax platform. From software integrations and credit card processing to next-day funding and mobile processing, Stax offers an expanse of solutions to cover your every need.
Finally, one critical differentiator is real, human customer service. Instead of a robot, with Stax, you have access to a team of real people ready to address all of your payment questions.
Learn more about how you can save time and money by optimizing your payment processing solutions with Stax today.
