What Is the SQ Alma Charge on Your Bank Statement?

An “SQ * ALMA” charge on your bank statement is a card payment processed through Square for a business registered in Square’s system under the name “Alma.” Square adds the “SQ *” prefix to every transaction it handles, then appends the seller’s name. In most cases the charge came from a local restaurant, café, or shop you visited. Less commonly, it points to a European buy-now-pay-later provider that shares the name.¹

What the SQ Prefix Tells You

Square processes card payments for millions of small businesses that use its point-of-sale hardware and software instead of a bank-issued terminal. Because Square is a payment facilitator, its sellers share Square’s umbrella processing account rather than each holding a separate merchant ID with Visa or Mastercard. That’s why the statement leads with Square’s prefix rather than just the store name. Your bank may strip the asterisk or reformat the entry, so you might see “SQ ALMA,” “SQ*ALMA,” or “SQ * ALMA” depending on the issuer.¹

Who Alma Might Be

The word after “SQ *” is whatever name the business chose in its Square dashboard. Usually “Alma” is a local business, and often the name on your statement won’t match the sign on the door. Small businesses frequently operate under a “doing business as” name that differs from their legal entity. A café you know as “The Sunny Spot” might process payments as “Alma Enterprises” because that’s the entity on its tax filings.² This mismatch trips people up constantly, but it’s normal.

There is a second, less common possibility. Alma is also a French buy-now-pay-later company that processes installment payments for online retailers across Europe.³ If you recently bought something from a European online store and split the cost into installments, the charge may have come from that Alma rather than a Square merchant. BNPL charges from Alma generally will not carry the “SQ *” prefix, since Alma processes its own payments separately from Square, though statement formatting varies by bank.

How to Identify the Charge

Square offers a free receipt lookup at squareup.com/receipts. You’ll need the last four digits of the card that was charged, the transaction date, and the exact dollar amount. If the tool finds a match, it pulls up details about the merchant behind the charge.⁴

Also check your email. Square merchants often send digital receipts automatically, and one from the transaction date may already be sitting in your inbox. Searching for “Square” or “Alma” plus the dollar amount usually turns it up in seconds.

If the receipt lookup returns nothing and your email is clean, that’s a meaningful signal. It doesn’t prove fraud, but it removes the two easiest explanations and means you should start treating the charge more seriously.

Quick Checks Before You Dispute

A few steps resolve most mystery charges without a formal dispute:

Ask anyone with access to your card. A spouse, family member, or employee may have made the purchase.
Match the exact amount to recent bills, including tip. A $47.83 charge you don’t recognize might match a $41 dinner plus gratuity.
If you identified the business through Square’s receipt lookup, call or email the merchant directly. Double charges and keying errors happen, and most businesses will refund on the spot rather than deal with a chargeback.

If none of that clears things up and you believe the charge is unauthorized, lock your card through your bank’s app or phone line to prevent further charges while you dispute the one on your statement.

Credit Card vs. Debit Card Protections

Speed matters more with a debit card than a credit card, and the gap is large enough to change how you should react.

Under the Truth in Lending Act, your maximum liability for unauthorized credit card charges is $50, and most major issuers waive even that.⁵ You have 60 days after the statement reflecting the error is sent to notify the issuer in writing. The issuer must acknowledge your notice within 30 days and resolve the dispute within two billing cycles, capped at 90 days. During the investigation, it cannot try to collect the disputed amount or report it as delinquent.⁶

Debit cards fall under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, and liability depends on how quickly you act:⁷

Within 2 business days of learning about the unauthorized charge: maximum $50 liability.
After 2 business days but within 60 days of your statement: maximum $500 liability.
After 60 days: you could be responsible for the full amount of any unauthorized transfers that occur after that window closes.

A fraudulent $400 charge on a credit card costs you nothing if you report it within 60 days. The same charge on a debit card could cost you $500 if you wait longer than two business days, and the money is already out of your checking account while the bank investigates.⁸

Filing a Formal Dispute

If the merchant can’t help or you can’t identify one, escalate to your bank. The process differs by payment type.

Debit Card

Under Regulation E, your bank must investigate within 10 business days of receiving your notice. It may extend the investigation to 45 calendar days, but only if it provisionally credits your account within those initial 10 business days. For point-of-sale debit transactions, international transfers, or accounts open fewer than 30 days, the extended window stretches to 90 days.⁹

Credit Card

Send written notice of the billing error to the address your issuer designates for billing inquiries. This is usually different from the payment address, and using the wrong one can void your protections. The issuer must acknowledge receipt within 30 days and complete its investigation within two billing cycles, up to 90 days.⁶

For either type, gather documentation before you file: screenshots of the statement entry, correspondence with the merchant, results from Square’s receipt lookup, and notes on when you first noticed the charge. Banks move faster when the paper trail is clean from the start.

If the Charge Came from Alma Buy-Now-Pay-Later

If the charge is actually an Alma installment rather than a Square merchant payment, the dispute path is different. Alma pays the retailer upfront and collects installments from you, so it doesn’t handle product returns or refunds directly.

Contact the merchant first to request a refund or resolve the issue. If the merchant doesn’t respond within a few days, escalate through Alma’s online contact form with the email and phone number you used at purchase, the transaction amount, and the date. When a refund is approved, Alma reimburses installments already paid to the card on file and cancels any remaining ones. The refund can take up to ten days to appear.¹⁰

No federal law currently extends the same dispute protections to BNPL transactions that cover traditional credit cards. For now, BNPL disputes depend on the provider’s own policies and whatever state consumer protection laws apply, a meaningful gap if the merchant goes dark and the installment charges keep hitting your account.

1
Square Developer. Statement Descriptions – Card Payments
2
U.S. Small Business Administration. Choose Your Business Name
3
Alma. Alma in Your Country
4
Square. Receipt Lookup
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1643 – Liability of Holder of Credit Card
6
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1026.13 – Billing Error Resolution
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1693g – Consumer Liability
8
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1005.6 – Liability of Consumer for Unauthorized Transfers
9
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1005.11 – Procedures for Resolving Errors
10
Alma. I Wish to Get a Refund on My Purchase