Identify a charge
What is this charge on my bank statement?
Paste the description exactly as it appears on your statement or credit card. We analyse processor prefixes, merchant aliases, locations and trusted public sources to identify the most likely merchant — with the evidence to back it up. Free, no account needed.
Want every line on a statement identified at once? Upload the whole statement or convert it to a spreadsheet.
Decode it yourself
The anatomy of a statement descriptor
Every cryptic line has the same few parts. Learn to read them and half of mystery charges identify themselves — the lookup above handles the other half:
Processor prefix
SQ *, TST*, PP*, PY *
Names the payment platform that ran the card, not the business. Square, Toast and PayPal power millions of small merchants — the real shop is in the text that follows.
Merchant token
BLUBTTL, WM SUPERC
An abbreviated, vowel-stripped version of the trading name, often truncated to fit the field. 'Blue Bottle Coffee' becomes BLUBTTL; store chains append a number.
Location or channel
LONDON GB · 800-555-0100 · .COM/BILL
A city/country pair, a support phone number, or a billing URL. Each is a clue: the phone number is often the fastest way to identify a merchant you don't recognise.
Type codes
POS, DEB, DD, ACH, RECURRING
Bank-added codes describing how the payment happened — point-of-sale, direct debit, ACH transfer, recurring authorisation. Useful for telling a card purchase from a standing arrangement.
Full breakdown with worked examples: the anatomy of a bank-statement descriptor →
Cheat sheet
The prefixes you'll see most often
- SQ *Square — the processor for cafés, salons, market stalls and small shops
- TST*Toast — restaurant point-of-sale; the restaurant's name follows
- PAYPAL * / PP*PayPal — the merchant name (or seller handle) follows the prefix
- APPLE.COM/BILLApple — any App Store, iCloud, Apple TV+ or in-app subscription
- GOOGLE *Google Play or a Google service (GOOGLE *YouTube is YouTube Premium)
- AMZN MktpAmazon Marketplace — a third-party seller order
- MBI*PROBILLERProBiller — a biller for many websites; the site itself won't be named
- CHECKCARD / POS DEBITYour own bank's prefix for card purchases — the merchant follows
All processor prefixes → · Bank type-codes (POS, ACH, DD…) →
Under the hood
How identification works
- 1 —
Normalise
We clean the descriptor and pull out its parts — prefixes, store numbers, phone numbers, locations.
- 2 —
Detect the processor
Prefixes like SQ*, TST* or PAYPAL* reveal who processed the payment — often not who you actually paid.
- 3 —
Match the merchant
Verified descriptor mappings, merchant aliases and abbreviations — then AI and live web research when the database can't answer.
- 4 —
Weigh the evidence
Every conclusion gets a confidence score and a plain-English explanation. When evidence is weak, we say so.
We never present guesses as facts. Results come back as likely merchant, possible match or we could not verify this merchant — each with a confidence level and the evidence behind it.
Before you panic
Is it fraud? Work through this first
Most unrecognised charges turn out to be real purchases in disguise — and disputing a legitimate charge can backfire. Run this checklist before calling the bank:
- Search the exact descriptor (or paste it above) — most 'mystery' charges are real purchases wearing a processor's name.
- Check the amount against receipts, order emails and app-store purchase history — including family members who share the card.
- Look for a matching pending charge that posted later under a different name; pending descriptors often differ from the final one.
- Call the phone number in the descriptor if there is one — legitimate billers answer and can look up the charge.
- If it's recurring, treat it as a subscription first: identify it, cancel it, and only dispute if it genuinely isn't yours — a chargeback on a real subscription can get an account blacklisted.
- If none of that resolves it, contact your bank to dispute — and if the card number itself is compromised, ask for a replacement card.
Deeper guides: what to do about an unauthorised charge · how to dispute a charge properly · a pending charge I don't recognise
If it repeats, it's a subscription
A charge that shows up every month is rarely alone. Upload a statement to find every recurring charge with its yearly cost — then use the step-by-step cancellation guides to stop the ones you don't want.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What is this charge on my bank statement?
Bank statements show a cryptic descriptor — often the payment processor (SQ*, TST*, PAYPAL*) rather than the shop you actually bought from. Paste the exact line above and we identify the most likely merchant using processor prefixes, descriptor databases, merchant aliases and, when needed, AI and live web research — each answer with a confidence level and the evidence behind it.
What do SQ*, TST* and PAYPAL* mean on my statement?
They're payment-processor prefixes. SQ* is Square, TST* is Toast, PAYPAL*/PP* is PayPal — the descriptor names the processor, and the text after it is usually an abbreviation of the real business. See the processor-prefix guides for the full list.
Why don't banks just show the real business name?
The descriptor is set by the merchant's payment processor when the account is created, within tight length limits — and it's often the legal entity or the platform, not the trading name you saw on the door. Add abbreviation, truncation and store numbers, and 'that nice café' becomes SQ *BLUBTTL 0412.
I don't recognise a charge — could it be fraud?
Often a mystery charge is just a cryptic descriptor for a real purchase — identify it first, and check receipts, shared cards and app-store history. Genuine fraud usually shows as small 'test' charges followed by larger ones, or a merchant you can prove you've never dealt with. If it's genuinely not yours, contact your bank to dispute it; we provide informational matches, never financial or legal advice.
The charge repeats every month — what is it?
A recurring charge is almost always a subscription: streaming, storage, an app, a membership, or a free trial that converted. Identify the merchant first, then use the subscription finder to see every recurring charge on your statement with its yearly cost — and the cancellation guides to stop the ones you don't want.
Is the single-charge lookup free?
Yes, identifying a single charge is free. To analyse a whole statement at once — every merchant identified, subscriptions and fees flagged — create a free account and upload it.