A “PHX THE TODAY SHOW” line on your statement is almost always a recurring subscription tied to NBC’s Today franchise, usually a Peacock plan or a Today-branded digital app that you or someone in your household signed up for, often through a free trial that converted. The PHX Today Show charge on a credit or debit card is fixable in two steps: cancel the subscription at the source, then dispute the charge with your bank if it was unauthorized or keeps hitting your account after cancellation.
What the Charge Actually Is
NBC’s Today brand extends well beyond the morning broadcast. The franchise runs a dedicated Today All Day channel on NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock,1Peacock. Watch TODAY All Day Now and NBC News also offers subscription products under the Today name, including a wellness app called Start Today. Any of these can produce a recurring charge.
The “PHX” prefix is a payment-processing tag, not the product. Large media companies route transactions through regional billing hubs, and the abbreviation that lands on your statement rarely resembles the name of the service you actually used. That mismatch is why the charge looks foreign even when it isn’t.
Check Whether You Signed Up
Before assuming fraud, rule out the ordinary explanations. Free trials are the most common source. You enter a card for a seven-day or 30-day trial, plan to cancel, forget, and the service quietly rolls into a paid plan. Household sign-ups are the second: a partner, roommate, or child using a saved card on a shared device.
Search your email inbox for messages from Peacock, NBC, or Today, and for terms like “subscription,” “welcome,” or “billing confirmation.” A confirmation email almost always turns up if the charge is a real subscription. If nothing surfaces after a careful search, treat the charge as unauthorized and move to the dispute step.
Cancel the Subscription First
If you find the subscription, cancel it directly through the service before contacting your bank. For Peacock, sign in at peacocktv.com, open your account settings, go to Plans and Payment, and cancel from there.1Peacock. Watch TODAY All Day Now If you originally subscribed through Apple’s App Store or Google Play, you have to cancel through that store; the streaming service can’t touch a subscription that a third-party app store controls.
For other Today-branded products, go to nbcuniversal.com and use the support or contact page. Keep the sign-up email, the charge date, and the last four digits of the card in front of you so support can pull up your billing profile. Ask for a cancellation confirmation number or email and save it. That confirmation is what you’ll need if the charges keep coming.
Disputing the Charge on a Credit Card
If the charge is genuinely unauthorized, or if you cancelled and the billing continues, the Fair Credit Billing Act gives you the right to dispute it with your card issuer. You have 60 days from the date the issuer mailed the statement containing the charge. Miss that window and you lose FCBA protection for that charge.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666 – Correction of Billing Errors
The detail people miss: the dispute has to be in writing. A phone call to customer service does not trigger your FCBA rights, even if a representative opens a case. The statute requires written notice sent to the creditor’s billing dispute address, which is not the same as the payment address.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666 – Correction of Billing Errors Most issuers accept online dispute forms through their website or app, and those electronic submissions meet the written-notice requirement. A phone call alone leaves you without the statute’s protections.
The notice should include your name and account number, identify the charge, state the amount, and explain why you believe it’s an error. During the investigation, the issuer can’t try to collect the disputed amount or report it as delinquent.
Disputing the Charge on a Debit Card
Debit card protections are weaker and the clock is tighter. These disputes fall under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, not the FCBA. If you report an unauthorized charge within two business days of discovering it, your maximum liability is $50. Wait longer than two business days but report within 60 days of the statement date and your exposure rises to $500.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1005.6 – Liability of Consumer for Unauthorized Transfers
Past 60 days from the statement date, you can be on the hook for the full amount of any unauthorized transfers that occurred after that window closed.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1005.6 – Liability of Consumer for Unauthorized Transfers Debit disputes can be filed by phone, unlike credit disputes. If you spot a suspicious debit charge, call your bank the same day. Every day of delay increases your potential loss.
Federal Rules That Back You Up
Two federal rules give you leverage if the merchant makes cancellation difficult. The Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act requires any business selling an online subscription or automatic renewal to clearly disclose all costs and billing frequency before taking payment, obtain your informed consent before the first charge, and provide a simple way to stop future charges.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 8403 – Negative Option Marketing on the Internet Pre-checked boxes and buried terms don’t count as valid consent.
The FTC’s Click-to-Cancel rule builds on that by requiring cancellation to be at least as easy as sign-up. If you enrolled online, the company has to let you cancel online too.5Federal Trade Commission. Federal Trade Commission Announces Final Click-to-Cancel Rule Making It Easier for Consumers to End Recurring Subscriptions and Memberships A company that forces you through a retention call or a chain of screens to cancel a two-click sign-up is out of step with federal consumer protection law.
Keeping It From Happening Again
The reliable defense against odd billing descriptors is scanning your statement every month rather than trusting alerts to catch everything. Five minutes a month is enough. When you start a free trial, put a cancellation reminder on your calendar for the day before it converts.
Many banks and card issuers now flag new recurring charges or let you set alerts on specific merchants. Virtual card numbers, offered by several major issuers, let you generate a temporary number for a trial and shut it off before the conversion date. If the merchant tries to bill the deactivated number, the charge simply declines, and you never have to argue about a cancellation that supposedly didn’t go through.