That payment on your bank statement — what is it actually?

You are going through your bank statement and there is a payment you do not recognise. It might be STRIPE followed by a company name that means nothing to you. It might be something that looks like a shop name but you cannot place it. It might be TIKTOK* something, or SKOOL, or a string of letters that looks like a reference number.

The instinct is to leave it and deal with it later. Later rarely comes. Another month goes by and another payment goes out.

This post is a plain-English guide to the most common confusing bank statement entries — what they actually are, and how to find out when you genuinely cannot tell.

The most common confusing entries

STRIPE [name]* — Stripe is the payment technology behind thousands of subscription services and online shops. When you pay for something on a site that uses Stripe, the charge shows as STRIPE* followed by a company name — often the legal registered name rather than the product name you remember signing up for. Search the name that follows the asterisk and you will almost always find it.

PAYPAL [name]* — A payment processed through PayPal to a third-party service. The name shown is often the company's legal entity rather than the product name. Google the exact text on your statement.

APPLE.COM/BILL or ITUNES — Any subscription billed through Apple. This covers App Store purchases, iCloud storage, Apple TV, Apple Music, Apple Arcade and any third-party app with an in-app subscription. On your iPhone go to Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions for the complete list.

AMZN or AMAZON — Could be Amazon Prime, Kindle Unlimited, Audible, Amazon Music or an Amazon Business account. Check your Amazon account under Memberships and Subscriptions.

GOOGLE [service name]* — Google One storage, Google Workspace, YouTube Premium, or a third-party app purchased through Google. Check myaccount.google.com under Payments.

STAN or STANSTORE* — Stan Store is a platform used by creators and coaches to sell digital products, courses and memberships. If you have ever bought something from a creator's "link in bio" store, the charge may show as STAN or STANSTORE on your statement rather than the creator's name. Check your email for a receipt from Stan Store if you cannot place it.

SKOOL [group name]* — Skool is a platform for paid online communities and courses. If you have joined any paid group or course recently, the charge will show as SKOOL followed by the group name — which may be different from how the creator markets it. Log into your Skool account and check your active memberships.

WWW.[something].COM — Direct billing from a subscription service using their website address. The website name is usually the product name.

A string of letters or numbers you do not recognise at all — These are usually payment processor references. Search the exact text on Google — include the amount if it helps. Someone else will almost certainly have asked about it.

The one that catches most people

The platforms that host online communities and courses — Skool, Kajabi, Teachable, Podia, Circle and others — are worth checking specifically if you have ever signed up for a paid group, a membership site or an online course. The charge on your statement will usually show the platform name rather than the creator or course name, which makes it easy to miss or misidentify.

If you joined a group six months ago and quietly stopped engaging with it, there is a reasonable chance you are still paying for it and the payment is sitting on your statement looking like something you do not recognise.

When you genuinely cannot work it out

Search the exact text from your statement. Include the amount if it helps narrow it down. Someone else will almost always have encountered it and asked about it online.

If a search does not resolve it, your bank can often identify the merchant from their internal records. Contact them and ask.

If you find something you cannot identify and cannot resolve, you can dispute it with your bank and ask them to block future payments from that merchant while you investigate.

The reason this is worth doing properly

The most common reason people keep paying for things they do not use is not forgetfulness — it is that they cannot immediately work out what the payment is for. So they leave it for another time. And another month goes by.

If identifying the payment is the barrier, removing that barrier removes the excuse. The free Subscription Audit spreadsheet I have put together has an Identify link built into every row — click it and it runs a search on that exact payment name so you can find out what it is in one click. There is also a Cancel link that takes you to a resource rating how difficult each service makes cancellation, with the direct route where one exists.

It takes about an hour to work through properly. Most people find something they had genuinely forgotten about.

→ Get the free Subscription Audit

Rosie

Rosie Glassey

Rosie has run Pooil Vaaish Engraving on the Isle of Man for 27 years. She knows what it’s like to be the person who does ALL THE THINGS — from designing and making custom products to marketing, finances and brewing the tea. Just Three Places is the system she built to keep the making part from drowning in everything else.

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