A Paystar charge on your bank or card statement is a payment processed through Paystar, an online bill-payment platform that utilities, water districts, and municipal governments use to accept electronic payments. The line item almost always represents a bill you (or someone on your account) paid to one of those billers, plus a small service fee. The descriptor reads “Paystar” instead of your water company or city hall because Paystar is the processor sitting between you and the biller.1Paystar. Platform
Why the Charge Doesn’t Say Your Utility’s Name
Paystar is operated by Integrated Payment Solutions, LLC, a software company founded in 2014 and based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.2Paystar. Legal3Inc. Integrated Payment Solutions Company Profile It builds the payment portal that billers plug into, so when your water authority or town office adopts Paystar, your online payments start running through Paystar’s system. The clients are mostly small and mid-sized: water authorities, utility districts, and municipal governments across states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Colorado, and Missouri.4MyPaystar. MyPaystar Home If you recently paid a utility or municipal bill online, by phone, or through an autopay you set up on a biller’s website, that’s almost certainly the source of the charge.
The Service Fee on Top of Your Bill
Paystar adds a service fee to the bill amount, and the fee depends on how you paid and which biller you paid. The Altoona Water Authority’s published schedule is representative:5Altoona Water Authority. Paystar: Our New Cost-Friendly Electronic Payment Portal
- One-time ACH or e-check: $1.50 flat, for payments up to $5,000.
- ACH autopay from a bank account: no fee.
- Card payment from $0.01 to $50.00: $1.95 flat.
- Card payment from $50.01 to $100.00: $2.50 flat.
- Card payment above $100.00: 2.5% of the payment.
Fees vary by biller. The Village of Whitehouse in Ohio, for example, uses a similar structure but charges $2.75 for card payments between $50 and $100 and 2.75% for card payments over $100.6Village of Whitehouse. Whitehouse Updating Credit Card Processing and Payments to Paystar Once a card or bank account has been charged, Paystar’s terms say the service fee is nonrefundable unless Paystar itself made a processing error.2Paystar. Legal
How to Find Out Which Biller Got Paid
Paystar runs a payment-lookup tool at secure.paystar.io/payments/lookup that lets you search for a transaction and see which biller received it and when.7Paystar. Making a Payment If you’d rather ask someone directly, Paystar customer support is reachable at (225) 228-6250 or help@paystar.io.8Paystar. Contact
One boundary worth knowing: Paystar handles the payment, not the bill itself. If your issue is that the water bill was higher than you expected, or the meter reading looks wrong, that’s a conversation with the utility or city office. Paystar’s terms are explicit that disputes about what the biller charged are between you and the biller.2Paystar. Legal
Canceling Autopay So It Stops
If the Paystar charge is coming back every billing cycle, you’re enrolled in autopay. Paystar’s autopay adjusts to whatever you owe that month rather than pulling a fixed amount, so the debit will keep coming as long as the enrollment is active.2Paystar. Legal
To stop it, cancel the enrollment through Paystar’s customer portal. The terms require cancellation at least 24 hours before the next scheduled payment date, and the responsibility to cancel is on you: moving away, closing the account with the biller, or simply changing your mind does not end the autopay on its own. If you also set up automatic payments directly through your bank at some point, separate from Paystar’s autopay, you’ll need to cancel those with the bank so you don’t end up paying twice.2Paystar. Legal Paystar’s public documentation doesn’t include step-by-step screenshots of the cancellation flow, so if the portal is confusing, calling support is the practical fix.
Disputing a Charge You Didn’t Authorize
If the charge is genuinely unauthorized, meaning neither you nor anyone with access to your account made the payment, you can dispute it with your card issuer or bank. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, you send a written dispute to the address your card issuer lists for billing inquiries, within 60 days of the statement date. The issuer must acknowledge the dispute within 30 days and resolve it within 90. You don’t have to pay the disputed amount while it’s under investigation, and the issuer can’t report you delinquent on that charge during that time.9Federal Trade Commission. Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges
If it looks like identity theft, the FTC directs consumers to IdentityTheft.gov. Billing disputes that don’t get resolved can also be filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau through its complaint portal.9Federal Trade Commission. Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges
Avoiding the Fee Next Time
The service fees Paystar charges are convenience or “pay-to-pay” fees, which the CFPB describes as charges for using a particular payment channel when other channels may be free.10Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Is a Convenience Fee or Pay-to-Pay Fee To avoid the fee, most Paystar-enabled billers let you enroll in ACH autopay from a bank account at no charge, and paying by mailed check or in person at the utility office typically carries no processing fee at all.