A Stamps.com charge on your bank statement is almost always one of three things: the recurring monthly subscription fee for the service (plans start at $14.99), a postage purchase or auto-refill against your prepaid postage balance, or a post-shipment adjustment the carrier billed back after measuring your package. Which one you’re looking at usually determines how to stop it and whether you can get any money back.
Read the Descriptor First
The exact wording next to the charge tells you what kind of billing event it was. You might see “STAMPS.COM” on its own, or a more specific line like “STAMPS.COM SUBSCRIPTION,” “STAMPS.COM SERVICE FEE,” “STAMPS.COM POSTAGE,” “STAMPS.COM AUTOFUND,” “STAMPS.COM BALANCE RELOAD,” or “STAMPS.COM ACCOUNT RENEWAL.” A “subscription” or “service fee” line is your monthly plan. “Autofund” or “balance reload” means the system topped up your postage account. If two Stamps.com charges hit in the same month, you’re almost certainly seeing a subscription fee and a postage transaction side by side.
The Monthly Subscription Fee
This is the most common Stamps.com charge people don’t recognize. Plans run from $14.99 to $24.99 per month depending on tier, with higher tiers adding features like multi-user access, batch label printing, and advanced reporting. Billing is in arrears, so the charge at the end of your cycle covers the month you just used. A mid-cycle change or cancellation can produce a prorated amount.1Stamps.com. Terms and Conditions
You get billed whether or not you printed anything. The fee pays for software access and discounted USPS, UPS, and DHL rates. Depending on your state, sales tax is added on top, which is why the amount might not be a round number: a $17.99 plan could land at $19.43 after tax.
Postage and Auto-Refill Charges
Postage is billed separately from the subscription. Stamps.com runs on a prepaid balance: you load funds into a digital postage account, and labels print against that balance. When the balance drops below a set threshold, auto-refill charges your card to top it back up.1Stamps.com. Terms and Conditions
The timing is what throws people. You can go weeks with no postage charge, then see one the day after a batch of shipments. The refill amount depends on settings inside your account. If a postage charge truly doesn’t belong to you, check whether anyone else uses the account or whether an online store or shipping integration is printing labels automatically.
Trial You Forgot to Cancel
A large share of surprise Stamps.com charges come from the free trial. The trial lasts four weeks and requires a payment method up front. If you don’t cancel before it ends, Stamps.com charges you retroactively for the entire trial period as your first month of service and keeps billing monthly from there.1Stamps.com. Terms and Conditions
Any promotional postage credited during the trial is non-refundable and expires when the account closes.1Stamps.com. Terms and Conditions So if you signed up months ago and never formally closed the account, the monthly fees have been accruing the whole time.
Charges That Appear Weeks After Shipping
A Stamps.com charge dated well after a shipment usually isn’t a mystery charge. It’s a carrier adjustment. USPS runs an Automated Package Verification system that re-measures packages and bills back the difference when the weight, dimensions, or package type you entered doesn’t match what actually shipped.2Stamps.com. USPS Automated Package Verification (APV) System
Common triggers are entering the wrong weight, leaving dimensions blank (which can activate dimensional weight pricing), or picking the wrong package type. On top of whatever USPS charges, Stamps.com adds its own Adjustment Processing Fee of 20% of the adjustment, with a $0.50 minimum and $5.00 maximum per shipment.2Stamps.com. USPS Automated Package Verification (APV) System These come out of your postage balance or hit your card without warning, which is why a charge can appear long after you thought a package was paid for.
How to Cancel
You can cancel online or by phone at 1-888-434-0055 (Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific). On the website, go to Account, then Manage Account, Account Settings, Subscription Plan, and click Close Account.3Stamps.com. Close Your Account
Before the cancellation finishes, Stamps.com will usually offer a pay-per-print plan as a retention offer. That option drops the monthly fee and instead charges 25 cents per stamp or 10% of each label cost (with a $1 minimum) only when you actually print. If you ship rarely but want to keep access, it’s worth hearing out before closing entirely.3Stamps.com. Close Your Account
Your subscription stays active through the end of the current billing cycle, and no further charges hit after that. Closing the account does not refund the unused portion of the month you already paid for.3Stamps.com. Close Your Account
What You Can and Can’t Get Refunded
Any remaining non-promotional postage balance is refunded four to eight weeks after you close the account.3Stamps.com. Close Your Account Promotional postage from a trial or offer is not refundable and disappears the moment the account closes.1Stamps.com. Terms and Conditions
Monthly service fees themselves are non-refundable. The terms state that service fee credits are “not redeemable or refundable,” so past months of charges you didn’t notice won’t come back just because you weren’t using the service.1Stamps.com. Terms and Conditions If you owe service fees or have a pending postage refund request when you cancel, Stamps.com may delay the postage refund or apply it to what you owe.
Disputing the Charge With Your Bank
If Stamps.com won’t refund the charge and you believe it was unauthorized, you can dispute it with your credit card issuer. Federal law gives you 60 days from the date the first statement containing the charge was sent to file a written dispute. Send it to the billing inquiries address, not the payment address, with your account number, a description of the charge, and any supporting documents.4Federal Trade Commission. Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges
The issuer has 30 days to acknowledge the complaint and 90 days to resolve it. You can withhold payment on the disputed amount while the investigation runs, without being reported delinquent. For genuinely unauthorized charges, such as ones on a card you never used to sign up, federal law caps your liability at $50.4Federal Trade Commission. Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges A charge from a free trial you forgot about is harder to win as a dispute, because entering your payment information did authorize the billing. Cancel the subscription before filing the dispute either way; it strengthens your position.