The Cost Answer All states

What is this charge?

That prefix is Square.

A purchase from a business that takes card payments through Square. The business name follows the asterisk, as they typed it into their own system, which is often a legal name rather than the name on the sign.

Square receipt lookup

That is Square's own lookup. It names the business, which nothing outside your account can do from the descriptor alone.

Merchant
SWEET DOZEN
Where
BROOKLYN NY
Dispute window
60 days

The line on your statement

Nothing is sent anywhere. This runs in your browser, like the rest of the site.

13 payment companies are recognised, each of which runs its own lookup. Anything else falls back to the steps below, which work on any descriptor.

What the parts of it mean

  1. The payment company Not the shop. The shop is what follows it.SQ *
  2. The merchant, as they typed it Often a legal name, or a name the till was set up under years ago.SWEET DOZEN
  3. Where it was processed Not necessarily where you were, and for an online purchase usually not.BROOKLYN NY

Banks truncate descriptors to fit their own fields, so the part that identifies the merchant is often the part that got cut. One that ends mid word is normal.

If it turns out not to be yours

A charge you did not make is a billing error under Regulation Z, 12 CFR 1026.13, which is the rule your card issuer has to follow. So is a charge for something you were never given or never accepted.

The deadline is 60 days, and it runs from the statement, not from the charge. Your notice has to reach the issuer no later than 60 days after it sent the first statement showing the charge. A charge made on the first day of a billing cycle can be nearly ninety days old before the clock runs out, and one you spot late on an old statement can already be past it.

Once disputed, the issuer must acknowledge in writing within 30 days and resolve within two billing cycles, in no case later than 90 days. You do not have to pay the disputed amount meanwhile, and they may not report it as delinquent.

Put it in writing to the address the issuer gives for billing errors, which is usually not the address you send payments to. Phoning as well is worth doing, but the protections attach to the written notice. The CFPB's guide walks through it.

What this page does not do

  • Name the specific business. Only the payment company's lookup or your issuer can, which is what the links above are for
  • Tell you a merchant is fraudulent. An unfamiliar name is almost never fraud
  • Cover debit cards, which have different and shorter protections under a different rule
  • Cover anything outside the United States

Information, not legal advice. Deadlines read at 12 CFR 1026.13.

If the prefix is not recognised

  1. Check the amount and the date against what you did

    Most unrecognised charges are recognised the moment the date lands. A subscription renewing, a split bill, a delayed capture from a hotel or a petrol station.

  2. Search the middle of it, not the whole string

    The full descriptor usually finds nothing because it is unique to that merchant. Searching only the merchant part, which the tool above separates out for you, usually finds the business.

  3. Ask anyone else with a card on the account

    Authorised users, a partner, a teenager with a supplementary card. This is the most common answer and the one people check last.

  4. Then call the number on the back of the card

    Your issuer sees the merchant name, the category and often a phone number that is not on your statement. This is the step that resolves it; the three above exist to save you the call, not to replace it.

The prefixes it knows

A prefix is listed only if a page on that company's own domain says what it says. The sites that rank for these searches cite each other rather than a source, which is why they contradict one another. Toast's TST* is the clearest casualty: it is real, it is everywhere, and Toast publishes nothing guest facing that states it, so it is not here.

SQ * also gosq.com

A purchase from a business that takes card payments through Square. The business name follows the asterisk, as they typed it into their own system, which is often a legal name rather than the name on the sign.

Square keeps a receipt lookup that takes the exact amount, the date, and the last four digits of the card. It names the seller without involving your bank. Square receipt lookup

Square, confirmed October 3, 2026 at Square support

PYPL PAYMTHLY

A repayment on a PayPal Pay Monthly instalment plan. It is a loan repayment rather than a purchase, so it appears every month on the same date and does not correspond to anything you bought that month.

PayPal says this descriptor may be edited by the bank, so a variation on it is still the same thing. The plan itself is listed in the PayPal account that opened it.

PayPal, confirmed October 3, 2026 at PayPal help, Pay Monthly

A small PayPal charge with a 4 digit code

A temporary charge PayPal makes when someone confirms a card on a PayPal account. It is $1.95 where the card is in US dollars, it carries a four digit code that is the point of it, and PayPal refunds it as soon as the card is confirmed.

It appears within two to three business days of the card being added, and the refund can take up to thirty days to show. If nobody you know added that card to a PayPal account, this is the one on this page worth treating as suspicious.

PayPal, confirmed October 3, 2026 at PayPal help, card confirmation

PADDLE.NET* also PAYPAL *PADDLE.NET

Software. Paddle resells digital products for thousands of software companies, so the charge is for an app or a subscription and the name after the asterisk is the company that makes it, abbreviated to fit.

Paddle runs a lookup for exactly this, which takes the card and the amount and tells you which product it was. paddle.net

Paddle, confirmed October 4, 2026 at Paddle help, what customers see on their statement

APPLE.COM/BILL also APL*</code>, <code>ITUNES.COM/BILL

Anything bought from Apple: an app, an in-app purchase, iCloud storage, Apple Music, a film, or a subscription renewing. The descriptor does not say which, which is why a recurring one is so often a subscription nobody remembers starting.

Apple lists every purchase against the account that made it, including in-app purchases and renewals, which is the only place the actual item is named. reportaproblem.apple.com

Apple, confirmed October 4, 2026 at Apple Support, charges from apple.com/bill

GOOGLE *

A Google Play purchase. Google says the part after the asterisk is the app developer, the app name, or the kind of content, so GOOGLE *Books is a book and GOOGLE *some developer is whatever that developer sells.

Google has a self service flow for charges you do not recognise that works without waiting for support. Google Play, report a charge

Google, confirmed October 4, 2026 at Google Play Help, charges you do not recognise

XSOLLA also XSOLLA*

A game. Xsolla takes payments for games and game services, so the charge is an in-game purchase, a game subscription, or a card being verified when someone added it to a game account. It is very often a household member rather than a stranger.

A tiny odd amount, typically between $0.20 and $0.90, is not a purchase: Roblox documents that the amount itself is the verification code you type back in, and that it is credited back within one to ten working days whether or not the purchase completes. Otherwise check for game subscriptions and in-game purchases, then contact Xsolla with the date and amount. Xsolla help, unknown charges

Xsolla, confirmed October 4, 2026 at Xsolla Help Center , and Roblox Support, Xsolla verification charges

FSPRG also FS*

Software. FastSpring bills on behalf of software companies, so the charge is an app, a licence or a renewal, and the name you are looking for is the software rather than FastSpring. Their own page says FSPRG is short for FastSpring.

FastSpring runs a portal for exactly this question, with no account needed. questionacharge.com

FastSpring, confirmed October 4, 2026 at FastSpring, question a charge

CLEVERBRIDGE also CLEVERBRIDG

Software again. Cleverbridge resells for software companies, so it is either a new purchase or a subscription renewing, and Cleverbridge says it is often a renewal someone in the household forgot about rather than anything wrong.

Their purchase lookup searches by email address, and it is worth trying more than one address if the first finds nothing. Cleverbridge purchase lookup

Cleverbridge, confirmed October 4, 2026 at Cleverbridge support, what is this charge

CLKBANK*COM also CLKBANK

A product bought through ClickBank, which hosts supplements, ebooks and courses sold by other people. ClickBank say plainly that you will see their name and not the brand of the thing you actually bought, which is why this one is so rarely recognised.

Their customer service site looks up orders by the card and email used, and handles refunds and subscription cancellations in the same place. clkbank.com

ClickBank, confirmed October 4, 2026 at ClickBank support, what is CLKBANK.COM

AMZN Mktp also AMZN.COM/BILL</code>, <code>AMAZON MKTPLACE PMTS</code>, <code>AMAZON.COM</code>, <code>Amazon Digital Svcs

An Amazon order. Amazon publishes which of its descriptors means what: the marketplace ones are a normal purchase, Digital Svcs is a download or a Kindle book, and a Prime one is the membership renewing. Amazon also warns that a bank authorisation can appear on a statement without being a charge at all.

Your Transactions lists every Amazon charge against the account, which is the only place the actual item is named. Amazon, Your Transactions

Amazon, confirmed October 4, 2026 at Amazon Customer Service, identify an Amazon charge

AMZ* also amzn pmts

Not an Amazon order. Amazon Pay lets other shops take payment through an Amazon account, and Amazon says the name after AMZ* is that other company. So this is a purchase from somewhere else entirely, which is why looking through Amazon orders for it finds nothing.

Amazon Pay keeps its own order history, separate from Amazon orders. Amazon says Amazon Pay order numbers begin with P01 and are fourteen digits. Amazon Pay account

Amazon Pay, confirmed October 4, 2026 at Amazon Customer Service, identify an Amazon charge

MICROSOFT* also MSFT*

Anything billed by Microsoft: a subscription renewing, an Xbox or Office purchase, or a game. The name after the asterisk is the thing bought, so Microsoft gives MICROSOFT*CANDY CRUSH as an example, which is a game rather than anything to do with Windows.

Microsoft has an Investigate tool on the payments page of an account, which traces a charge against that account. Microsoft, investigate a charge

Microsoft, confirmed October 4, 2026 at Microsoft Support, investigate a billing charge

SP *

Something you bought from an independent shop that runs on Shopify. The name after SP is that shop. It is not a charge from Shopify, and Shopify cannot refund it: the shop can.

Shopify says to check your receipts for recent purchases and contact the store itself, because the shop holds the order rather than Shopify. Shopify, what is this charge

Shopify, confirmed October 4, 2026 at Shopify, what is this charge for

SHOPIFY*

The opposite of the one above. This is Shopify billing you for running your own shop, and the nine digit number after it is the bill reference. If you do not run a shop, this is the one on this page most worth querying.

The nine digit number identifies the bill in the Shopify account it belongs to. Shopify, what is this charge

Shopify, confirmed October 4, 2026 at Shopify, what is this charge for

Know one that is missing?

Optional, and it is not a way to get an answer: there is no email field, so nobody can reply. What you type is never published either. It goes on a list of prefixes to research, and anything that checks out at the company's own documentation gets added above in our words with that citation.