On a bank statement, CHG is short for “charge” and simply means money left your account. It’s a generic label banks use because statement descriptions have limited space, so the useful detail comes from whatever prefix, suffix, or merchant name sits next to it. On its own, CHG tells you only that your balance went down.
The Codes You’ll See Paired With CHG
Most banks combine CHG with a short tag that names the type of charge. The common ones:
- SVC CHG or SERV CHG — a service charge, almost always a monthly maintenance fee. These run roughly $5 to $25 depending on the account.
- OD CHG — an overdraft fee, charged when the bank lets a transaction through even though your balance couldn’t cover it.
- RET CHG or NSF CHG — a returned-item or nonsufficient-funds fee. The bank rejected the transaction and still charged you. If the same payment gets resubmitted and bounces again, some banks charge another fee each time.
- INT CHG or INTCHG — an interest charge, typically on a credit card or line of credit.
- POS CHG — a point-of-sale charge from an in-person debit card purchase, usually followed by a merchant name.
Monthly maintenance fees are the CHG entry that catches most people off guard. At major banks these range from about $5 for basic checking to $25 for premium accounts, and many can be waived by meeting a minimum balance or setting up direct deposit.1PNC Bank. Consumer Schedule of Service Charges and Fees Checking, Savings and Money Market Accounts
Bank Fees vs. Merchant Charges
CHG entries fall into two broad groups, and the split matters when something looks wrong. Internal bank charges come from your own institution: account maintenance, overdrafts, returned items, wire transfers, paper statement requests. These usually don’t carry a merchant name.
Merchant charges come from businesses you’ve paid. A gym membership, a utility bill, or an online subscription might appear as a company name followed by CHG. Recurring merchant charges tend to hit on roughly the same date each month for the same amount, which makes them easy to match against your own records. One-time purchases are harder to trace because many businesses process payments through a parent company, so a coffee shop purchase can show up as a holding company you’ve never heard of.
How To Identify a CHG Entry You Don’t Recognize
Start with the dollar amount and the date. Most people can place a charge once they match those two details against a receipt or email confirmation. If that doesn’t work, read the full description line. Banks usually include a merchant ID, a partial address, or a phone number alongside the CHG label, and searching that identifier online often surfaces the actual business.
Your bank’s app or online portal typically shows more detail than a printed statement. Clicking into a transaction may reveal the full merchant name, the category code, and whether the payment was processed as one-time or recurring. If the same amount appears month after month, it’s almost certainly an automatic subscription or bill payment; checking your recurring payment list, or searching your email for subscription confirmations, usually clears it up.
When the description shows a parent company name, a quick web search of that name plus “charge on bank statement” often turns up other people identifying the same merchant. That’s one of the fastest ways to resolve a mystery charge before you escalate to a dispute.
Signs a CHG Entry Might Be Fraud
Not every unfamiliar charge is fraudulent, but a few patterns should raise your guard. Small charges between $0.01 and $0.99 from merchants you’ve never used are a classic test-charge tactic: criminals verify that a stolen card number works before running larger purchases. A cluster of tiny unauthorized charges is an emergency, not a curiosity.
Other warning signs include charges from cities or countries you haven’t visited, duplicate charges on the same day for different amounts, and CHG entries that appear soon after you used your card on an unfamiliar website. Act quickly. Federal law ties your liability directly to how fast you report.
Report Fast: Your Liability Runs on a Clock
For debit cards and bank accounts, federal law sets a tiered liability structure that punishes delay:
- Within 2 business days of learning about the loss: your maximum liability for unauthorized transactions is $50.
- Between 2 and 60 days: your liability can climb to $500 for unauthorized transfers that happen after those first two business days.
- After 60 days: you can be on the hook for the full amount of any unauthorized transfers that occur after the 60-day window closes. There is no cap.
These deadlines run from the date your bank sends your statement, not from the date you open it.2eCFR. 12 CFR 1005.6 – Liability of Consumer for Unauthorized Transfers A statement sitting unopened in a mailbox is burning through your protection window, which is the single best argument for reviewing statements promptly or setting up transaction alerts.
Credit cards offer much stronger protection. Federal law caps your liability for unauthorized credit card charges at $50 regardless of when you report, and most major issuers waive even that.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1643 – Liability of Holder of Credit Card An unauthorized $2,000 charge on a debit card could cost you $500 if you wait three weeks to report it. The same charge on a credit card could cost you nothing.
How To Dispute an Unauthorized CHG
Debit Card and Bank Account Disputes
For debit cards and bank accounts, Regulation E governs the process. You can report the error by phone or in writing, and your notice must reach the bank within 60 days of the date the bank sent the statement showing the charge.4eCFR. 12 CFR 1005.11 – Procedures for Resolving Errors Include your name, account number, the date and amount of the charge, and why you believe it’s an error.
Once the bank receives notice, it has 10 business days to investigate and resolve the issue. It can extend the investigation to 45 calendar days, but only if it deposits a provisional credit into your account within those first 10 business days.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 1005.11 Procedures for Resolving Errors That provisional credit gives you access to the disputed funds while the review continues. If the bank ultimately finds the charge was authorized, it will pull the credit back and send you an explanation.
Keep a written record of everything: your dispute letter or confirmation number, the date you reported it, and any responses from the bank. If you report by phone, follow up in writing so there’s a paper trail. Save receipts, screenshots, and emails that support your claim, because the bank may ask for evidence before finalizing its decision.
Credit Card Disputes
Credit card disputes fall under the Fair Credit Billing Act, and the process is a bit more formal. Send a written dispute to your card issuer’s billing inquiries address within 60 days of the statement date. The issuer must acknowledge your dispute within 30 days and resolve it within two billing cycles, up to a maximum of 90 days. While the dispute is pending, you can withhold payment on the disputed amount without penalty, and the issuer cannot report you as delinquent for that portion.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1643 – Liability of Holder of Credit Card