A second charge from GOOGLE*TextMe on your bank or card statement is almost always a recurring subscription to Text Me: Second Phone Number, a mobile app that bills weekly or monthly through Google Play and keeps billing until you cancel it inside the Play Store. When the charge looks duplicated, the usual culprits are a temporary bank authorization hold sitting next to the real charge, two separate subscriptions on different platforms, a delayed retry of a payment that failed earlier, or a purchase someone else in your household made on your device. You stop the billing by canceling the subscription in Google Play, and you recover money by requesting a refund from Google.
What the Charge Is
Text Me: Second Phone Number is an app published by TextMe, Inc. that gives you an extra phone number for calls and texts.1Google Play. Text Me: Second Phone Number App Listing It has a free tier and a premium subscription sold weekly or monthly, and the premium plan auto-renews until you cancel it.2TextMe Support. What Is Included in My Premium Subscription
Anything bought through Google Play shows up on your statement with a descriptor that begins “GOOGLE*” followed by the app or developer name, which is why this one reads as “GOOGLE*TextMe” or similar.3Google Play Help. Report Unauthorized Charges on Google Play If the line on your statement doesn’t start with “GOOGLE,” it didn’t come through Google Play, and the fix below won’t apply.
Why You’re Seeing a Second Charge
Four explanations cover most cases. Work through them before assuming fraud.
A Temporary Authorization Hold Sitting Next to the Real Charge
When Google Play processes a payment, your bank places a temporary hold on the funds, which can appear on your statement as a separate line labeled “GOOGLE *TEMPORARY HOLD” alongside the actual charge.4Google Pay Help. Find Google Transactions on Your Statement The hold should drop off once the transaction finalizes. If Google cancels a transaction but the hold stays, banks usually clear it within 3 to 14 business days.5Google Play Community. Google Charged My Account but Cancelled My Transaction Past that window, call your bank and reference a cancelled transaction causing a pending authorization hold.
Two Active Subscriptions on Different Platforms
A genuine duplicate often means you have two subscriptions to the same service, one through Google Play and one bought directly from the developer’s website. Google Play and the developer’s own billing run independently, so subscribing in one place does not cancel the other.6Google Play Community. I Got Double Billed You have to cancel each one in its own system.
A Delayed Retry of a Failed Payment
If an earlier subscription payment failed because of insufficient funds, an expired card, or a network error, Google Play may retry the charge days or weeks later. When the retry goes through, it can land on your statement looking like an unexpected new charge rather than the one you’d forgotten about.7Google Play Community. Duplicate Subscription Charge
Someone in Your Household Bought It
If another person has access to your device or to the payment method saved on your Google account, they may have subscribed without your knowledge. Google asks about this before accepting an unauthorized-charge report because it accounts for a lot of mystery charges.8Google Payments. Report Unauthorized Transactions Children are a frequent source, especially during the password-free window after an initial authentication.9CNBC Select. Who’s Responsible for Kids’ Unauthorized Credit Card Charges
Check Your Purchase History First
Before you cancel or dispute anything, confirm what was actually bought and when. In the Google Play app, tap your profile icon and go to Payments & subscriptions, then Budget & history. Your full order history is also at play.google.com/store/account/orderhistory.10Google Play Community. Child Used My Phone for In-App Purchases For a wider view that includes Google Pay, sign in at pay.google.com and look through your subscriptions and transactions.11Google Payments Center. Fix Issues With a Purchase on Your Google Account If you find more than one active Text Me subscription, that’s your duplicate.
How to Cancel the Text Me Subscription
TextMe says it cannot cancel subscriptions from its side. All subscription management, including cancellation, has to go through Google Play on Android or the Amazon Store on Kindle.12TextMe Support. How Do I Cancel My Subscription Deleting the app or deleting your TextMe account does not stop the billing. The subscription itself has to be canceled in Play.
On Android, open Google Play, tap your profile icon, go to Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions, find Text Me, and tap Cancel. Canceling stops future charges but does not automatically refund what you’ve already paid.13Google Pay Help. Cancel or Change a Payment
How to Get a Refund
Once the subscription is canceled, you have three ways to try to recover the money, in order of least to most risky.
Ask Google Play for a Refund
At play.google.com, select your profile icon, then Payments & subscriptions and Budget & order history. Find the charge, click “Report a problem,” pick the option that fits, and submit the form. Google usually makes a refund decision within one to four days, and sending the same request multiple times won’t speed it up. For purchases more than 48 hours old, Google suggests also contacting the developer directly, since developers can grant refunds under their own policies.14Google Play Help. Request a Refund for a Google Play Purchase
Report It as an Unauthorized Transaction
If the charge was truly unauthorized, meaning neither you nor anyone with access to your device made it, file a claim at payments.google.com/payments/unauthorizedtransactions. You’ll need your payment method details, the date and amount of the transaction, and a description of the circumstances, including who else has access to your device and whether biometric authentication is on. Claims have to be filed within 120 days for credit, debit, or PayPal charges, and within 60 days for mobile carrier billing.3Google Play Help. Report Unauthorized Charges on Google Play Google sends status updates by email, usually within seven business days.
There’s a consequence to know about. If Google confirms the claim, the Google payment profile tied to the transaction may be restricted, which can block future purchases through Google by the account holder and any linked family members.8Google Payments. Report Unauthorized Transactions
Dispute the Charge With Your Bank
You can always dispute the charge with your bank or card issuer. The Fair Credit Billing Act lets consumers contest unauthorized charges on credit cards.9CNBC Select. Who’s Responsible for Kids’ Unauthorized Credit Card Charges A chargeback on a Google Play charge carries a real risk: Google may suspend the associated account, which can affect Gmail, Drive, and other services tied to it.7Google Play Community. Duplicate Subscription Charge It’s generally worth running Google’s refund and unauthorized-transaction processes first.
Stop It Happening Again
If someone else on your device caused the charge, a few settings close the gap. In the Google Play app, go to Settings, then Authentication, then Require authentication for purchases, and pick “For all purchases” so every transaction needs a password or biometric check.10Google Play Community. Child Used My Phone for In-App Purchases For a child’s account, Google’s Family Link app lets a parent approve or deny purchases remotely. You can also remove saved payment methods at pay.google.com so a shared device can’t make a one-tap purchase.
A Note on Scam Texts
If the “second charge” showed up in a text message rather than on your actual statement, treat it with suspicion. A legitimate Google Play charge appears in your Google purchase history and on your bank statement with a descriptor starting “GOOGLE*”. A text that urges you to click a link to review or cancel a charge is not how Google communicates. Go directly to play.google.com or pay.google.com to check.11Google Payments Center. Fix Issues With a Purchase on Your Google Account