A “Microsoft 36” charge on your bank or card statement is almost always a Microsoft 365 subscription whose name was cut off by your bank’s character limit. The most common amounts are $9.99 a month for Microsoft 365 Personal and $12.99 a month for Microsoft 365 Family.1Microsoft. Compare Microsoft 365 Plans and Pricing If you don’t remember signing up, a free trial that quietly converted to a paid plan is the usual explanation. Here’s how to identify the charge, shut off the billing, and get your money back if you’re entitled to it.
Why Your Statement Shows a Truncated Name
Banks limit how many characters a merchant name can occupy on a statement. Microsoft 365 often gets cut to “Microsoft 36,” “MSFT *365,” or “MICROSOFT*365” depending on your bank’s formatting. The billing is legitimate Microsoft; the odd label is just a display quirk on your bank’s end.
Match the Amount to a Plan
Current consumer prices for Microsoft 365, at the annual auto-renew rate, are:1Microsoft. Compare Microsoft 365 Plans and Pricing
- Microsoft 365 Personal — $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year
- Microsoft 365 Family — $12.99 per month or $129.99 per year
- Microsoft 365 Premium — $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year
If the amount doesn’t line up with any of those, the charge may be for a Copilot Pro add-on or extra OneDrive storage tied to the same account.
The Forgotten Free Trial
Microsoft requires a payment method when you start a trial, and the subscription converts to a paid plan automatically when the trial ends unless you cancel first.2Microsoft. Microsoft 365 Business Standard Free One-Month Trial Business trials generally run 30 days. If you tried Word or Excel months ago and never went back to cancel, the recurring charge on your statement is likely the trial that graduated to a paid plan.
Confirm the Charge in Your Microsoft Account
The quickest way to verify a charge is on Microsoft’s side. Sign in at account.microsoft.com, open Payment & billing, and select Order history.3Microsoft. View Your Microsoft Store Order History The page shows every transaction on the account with the date, amount, and payment method. Compare that against your bank statement and you’ll know within a minute or two whether it matches.
If You Can’t Remember Which Account You Used
Most people get stuck here: the charge is real, but the Microsoft account it belongs to was set up with an email address they’ve since forgotten. If you added a phone number or recovery email when you created that account, Microsoft’s username-lookup tool will send a security code to it and then display a partially masked username (something like j*******@outlook.com) to help you figure out which address to use.4Microsoft Support. Forgotten Your Microsoft Account Username
A single phone number can be tied to more than one Microsoft account, so run through every possibility the tool surfaces. If you never added recovery info, search your inboxes for “Microsoft” or “order confirmation.” That often turns up the original signup email faster than any recovery flow.
Cancel the Subscription
Once you’re inside the right account, go to Services & subscriptions at account.microsoft.com/services.5Microsoft. Change Your Microsoft Subscription Payment Method and Options Find the Microsoft 365 entry and click Manage. You have two options:
- Turn off recurring billing. The subscription stays active through the end of the current billing period, but you won’t be charged again after that date.6Microsoft. Turn Recurring Billing On or Off for a Microsoft Subscription
- Cancel immediately. Select Cancel and confirm through the follow-up screens.7Microsoft. Cancel Your Microsoft Subscription
If the Manage link isn’t there and you see “Turn on recurring billing” instead, the subscription is already set to expire on the date shown and no future charges will be billed.7Microsoft. Cancel Your Microsoft Subscription Save the confirmation email Microsoft sends. That’s your proof if a charge shows up later.
If You Bought Through Apple or Google
Subscriptions purchased through the Apple App Store or Google Play aren’t cancelled through Microsoft. You have to go back to the platform you bought them on.8Microsoft Support. Cancel a Microsoft 365 Subscription On iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions, and cancel Microsoft 365 there. On Android, open the Google Play app, tap your profile, then Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions. Refund requests go through Apple or Google, not Microsoft.
You can tell where the subscription was bought by looking at the statement line. Apple charges usually read “APPLE.COM/BILL,” Google charges begin with “GOOGLE*,” and direct Microsoft charges read “MSFT” or “MICROSOFT.”
Whether You Can Get a Refund From Microsoft
Microsoft’s refund policy is narrower than most people expect. When a refund is available, the system offers it during the cancellation flow itself. For Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, and Basic, prorated refunds are only available in certain countries — Canada, France, Israel, Korea, and Turkey. In the United States and most other countries, prorated refunds on those plans aren’t offered. Microsoft 365 Premium and Copilot Pro are a bit more forgiving: in most countries you can get a prorated refund if you cancel within 14 days of the initial purchase.9Microsoft. Microsoft Subscription Refund Policy
If the automated system doesn’t offer a refund and you think you’re owed one, contact Microsoft support. A representative can sometimes process a manual refund, particularly for charges tied to accounts you didn’t knowingly create or trials you didn’t realize had converted.
When the Charge Really Isn’t Yours
If you’ve checked every Microsoft account you can think of and the charge still isn’t yours, treat it as unauthorized and contact your bank.
Federal law sets the clock. Under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, you have 60 days from the date your bank sends the statement showing an unauthorized charge to report it.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1693g – Consumer Liability Report it inside that window and your liability for the unauthorized transfer is capped at $50. Miss the deadline and you can be responsible for further unauthorized charges that happen after the 60 days run out.
Once you file, Regulation E gives your bank 10 business days to investigate and report back. The bank can extend that to 45 days, but only if it puts a provisional credit on your account within the first 10 business days, so you have the money back while the investigation continues.11Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1005.11 – Procedures for Resolving Errors
Before you open the dispute, confirm that no one else on the card — a spouse, a child, a roommate you share a payment method with — started a Microsoft service. Disputes that turn out to be charges someone in your household authorized can create friction with both Microsoft and your bank.