What To Do About Unauthorized Subscription Charges

Two very different situations wear the same "I don't recognize this charge" label. One is genuine fraud: a subscription set up with your card details that you never signed up for. The other is a real subscription you did authorize—a trial that converted to paid billing, an annual renewal you lost track of, or a signup buried in a confusing checkout flow—that you simply forgot about. The remedy, and what you can honestly tell your bank, depends on which one it is.

Pull up the billing descriptor and search it online; unfamiliar merchant names often trace back to a service you recognize. Check the email tied to your card and to your app store account for signup or renewal receipts. If you find that you did agree to it, you are seeking a refund or cancellation, not reporting fraud. If you truly never authorized it, treat it as an unauthorized transaction and use the protections below.

Whichever situation you're in, time is your most valuable asset. Federal consumer-protection laws tie both your rights and your maximum liability to how quickly you report a problem, so a charge you dispute today is easier to reverse than one you flag next month.

Before you contact anyone, take screenshots of the charge and note the date, amount, and the exact merchant descriptor. Save any related emails, order numbers, and cancellation confirmations. Contacting the merchant or app store first is often the fastest route to a refund, and banks generally expect you to attempt that for ordinary billing disputes—though you are not required to resolve outright fraud with the merchant before going to your bank.

If the line item shows Apple or Google rather than the app's own name, the platform processed the payment, and each has its own refund path that is usually faster than a bank dispute.

For Apple, sign in at reportaproblem.apple.com, choose "I'd like to," then "Request a refund," pick a reason, select the item, and submit. Be truthful about the reason—choose "I didn't mean to subscribe" if that's what happened, rather than claiming you didn't authorize a purchase you actually made. You can check the request's status at the same site.

For Google Play, go to play.google.com, open your profile, then Payments & subscriptions and Budget & order history, choose "Report a problem" on the order, and complete the form noting that you want a refund. Purchases are often refundable directly within 48 hours; after that window, Google may direct you to contact the app's developer.

If the merchant or app store won't help, or the charge is outright fraud, your bank or card issuer is your next line of defense. Your rights differ by how you paid, so use the right framework.

Credit card: Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, an unauthorized or incorrect charge counts as a "billing error." You must dispute it in writing within 60 days of the first statement that shows it. Send the letter to the issuer's billing-inquiries address—not the payment address—keep a copy, and consider certified mail with a return receipt. Federal law caps your liability for unauthorized credit-card use at $50, and most issuers apply a $0 zero-liability policy. The issuer must acknowledge your dispute within 30 days and resolve it within two billing cycles.

Debit card or bank account (ACH): The Electronic Fund Transfer Act (Regulation E) governs these. Notify your bank as soon as you spot the transfer—call first, then follow up in writing. If you report an unauthorized transfer within 60 days of the statement that shows it, you generally owe nothing; wait longer and you can be liable for transfers that happen after that window. Once notified, your bank generally has 10 business days to investigate and must correct a confirmed error within one business day of finding it.

Reversing the charge you can see does not stop the next one. To end recurring billing you usually need to do two things: cancel with the company and, if the charges keep coming, block your bank from paying them.

The CFPB's guidance is to call or write the company to revoke your authorization for automatic payments, then tell your bank or credit union that you've done so. You can also place a "stop payment order" directly with your bank; for a scheduled electronic payment, give that order at least three business days before the next payment date. Banks and credit unions may charge a fee for a stop-payment order.

One caveat: cancelling a payment is not the same as cancelling the underlying agreement. If you genuinely owe the money—say, under a gym or installment contract—stopping the payment does not erase the debt. You still need to formally cancel the agreement or settle what you owe through another method.

If your bank or the merchant won't make it right, escalate rather than absorb the loss. Submit a complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which forwards it to the company and typically secures a written response. Report fraud and deceptive subscription tactics to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and consider your state attorney general's office—especially for auto-renewals that were hard to cancel or never clearly disclosed.

Throughout the process, keep every confirmation number, email, and letter in one place. A tidy paper trail is what turns a "we can't help you" into a reversed charge, and it protects you if the same merchant tries to bill you again later.