A charge labeled “credit report services” on your bank statement is almost always a recurring fee for a credit monitoring subscription, identity theft protection plan, or premium credit score product. These charges typically come from Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, or a third-party service like MyFICO, and they usually trace back to a free trial that quietly converted into a paid plan. Monthly fees generally run $20 to $40, and annual identity theft insurance plans can post as a single larger sum that looks alarming on a statement.
Before you do anything else, know two things: you can almost certainly get the core service for free, and federal law gives you specific tools to cancel the subscription and claw back recent charges.
Why the Merchant Name Looks Unfamiliar
These companies rarely use their full names on bank records. You’ll see abbreviated descriptors like “EXPCREDITPLUS” or “TRUCREDITSETTLE,” sometimes with alphanumeric strings attached. That’s the main reason the charge doesn’t ring a bell. Most banking apps let you tap or click the transaction for extended merchant details, including a phone number, which is the fastest way to confirm who is actually billing you.
You Probably Don’t Need to Be Paying for This
Federal law gives you one free credit report every 12 months from each of the three national bureaus. On top of that, the bureaus have permanently extended a program that lets you pull a report from each bureau once a week at no cost through AnnualCreditReport.com.1Federal Trade Commission. Free Credit Reports Equifax also provides six additional free reports per year through 2026 through the same site.
Paid monitoring services add extras like real-time alerts, score simulators, and identity theft insurance. If the charge on your statement caught you off guard, there’s a good chance you’re paying for access you can now get for free. Worth confirming before you cancel one subscription and sign up for another.
How You Ended Up Subscribed
The most common path is a promotional trial. A service offers a few days of access for a dollar, and when the trial ends it automatically converts into a full-priced monthly subscription. People frequently agree to these during mortgage or auto loan applications, where credit monitoring gets bundled in almost as an afterthought. By the time the first real charge hits, the trial is a distant memory.
Federal law requires sellers using this kind of negative-option billing to clearly disclose all material terms before taking your payment information, obtain your express informed consent before charging you, and provide a simple way to stop recurring charges.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 8403 – Negative Option Marketing on the Internet In practice those disclosures sometimes end up buried in fine print, which is why the FTC has pursued companies that fail to make trial-to-subscription terms obvious.3Federal Trade Commission. Time for a ROSCA Recap – FTC Says Risk Free Trial Was Risky and Not Free If you were never shown clear terms before being charged, that fact strengthens your position when asking for a refund.
Is It a Subscription or Actual Fraud?
A few patterns point toward fraud rather than a forgotten signup:
- Small “test” charges of a dollar or two. Fraudsters use these to confirm a stolen card number works before trying bigger purchases.
- Multiple unfamiliar charges within a few days. One forgotten subscription is normal; a cluster of unknown merchants suggests a compromised card.
- A charge that doesn’t match anything you’d plausibly sign up for. If you’ve never touched a credit monitoring product, treat it as suspicious.
If you search the merchant descriptor and nothing credible turns up, skip the cancellation step and go straight to a dispute with your bank or card issuer.
Stop the Charges Going Forward
If the charge is a real subscription you no longer want, cancel directly with the service first. Log into the provider’s website, find the billing or subscription section, and complete the cancellation flow. Save a screenshot of the confirmation screen or email, because disputes over whether you actually canceled are common.
If the company makes cancellation unreasonably difficult, or you can’t reach them at all, you can order your bank to block future recurring debits from that merchant. Federal rules for preauthorized electronic transfers require you to notify your bank at least three business days before the next scheduled charge. Your bank can require written confirmation within 14 days of an oral stop-payment request, and the oral order loses its force if you don’t follow up in writing within that window.4eCFR. 12 CFR 1005.10 – Preauthorized Transfers
A stop-payment order prevents future charges. It doesn’t get your money back for charges already processed. For that, you need to dispute the transactions.
Get Your Money Back
Your dispute rights depend on whether the charge hit a credit card or a bank account. The two run under different federal laws with different timelines.
If It Was a Credit Card
The Fair Credit Billing Act applies. Send a written dispute to your card issuer within 60 days of the statement date that first showed the charge. The notice needs your name, account number, the disputed amount, and why you believe it’s an error.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666 – Correction of Billing Errors Send it to the billing inquiry address on your statement, not the payment address. During the investigation the issuer cannot try to collect the disputed amount or report it as delinquent.
If It Was a Debit Card or Bank Account
Regulation E of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act governs. You have 60 days from the date your bank sent the statement to report the error.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1005.11 – Procedures for Resolving Errors An oral report counts initially, though the bank can require written confirmation within 10 business days.
The bank then has 10 business days to investigate. If it needs more time, it can take up to 45 days, but only if it provisionally credits your account within those first 10 business days so you have access to the money while the investigation finishes.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1005.11 – Procedures for Resolving Errors
The 60-Day Deadline Is the One That Matters
Credit card or debit card, 60 days from the statement date is the outer boundary for reporting the problem. Miss it and your legal leverage drops sharply. For debit cards specifically, failing to report within 60 days can leave you on the hook for the full amount of any unauthorized transfers that occur after the deadline passes.
If a $25 charge has been hitting your account for several months, don’t wait while you research the older ones. File the dispute now for the charges still inside the 60-day window; the oldest ones may already be out of reach.
What to Have in Front of You
Before you call the merchant or your bank, pull the exact date of each charge, the merchant descriptor text copied exactly as it appears, the dollar amount, and the last four digits of the card or account that was charged. Customer service agents on both sides use these details to locate your account, and having them ready makes the call go much faster.
Keep a written log of every call or chat: date, representative’s name, and what was agreed. If a merchant promises a refund, get it in writing through an email or chat transcript. That record is your evidence if the refund never shows up and you need to escalate to a bank dispute.