What a Clover or CKE* charge means on your statement

What Clover says will show

Clover's developer page Set soft descriptors says soft descriptors let merchants provide customers with information about the business that processed a charge with the Ecommerce API. These descriptors appear on the customer's card statements. They can include the doing business as name, the address, and contact information. The page has a United States label and a Canada label, so the same feature is documented for both.

The doing business as name is a string of up to 38 alphanumeric characters. Clover says it could be a merchant name, a product, or a service. The example in the docs uses the doing business as name Clover, plus a street, a city, a US region as a two character postal abbreviation, a postal code, a three digit country code, and merchant contact info. That example is a sample request. It is not a promise that your line will say Clover.

Merchant contact info is the merchant's phone number or email address. Clover limits that field to thirteen characters for both Discover and Visa transactions. If your statement shows a short phone number after a shop name, that cap is why it may be cut off. Some Clover merchants cannot process soft descriptors at all. Clover says an attempt to include them returns a warning in those cases, and that you can check a supported flag before the charge. If the merchant cannot send a soft descriptor, the statement shows whatever the card network and the bank use instead.

The full list of these short names is on statement codes. A different processor prefix, such as SP * for a Shopify store, is not a Clover line.

How to find the shop

Copy the whole description, not only the first three letters. The useful part is the doing business as name Clover says the merchant can send, plus any street, city, or phone that fit. Search email for that name and for the amount. A receipt from a shop that uses Clover often uses the shop's real name. The statement uses the short descriptor.

Call the phone number on the line if one is printed and it fits in those thirteen characters. Ask which store billed that amount on that date. Then open that store's order history. A family member or a saved card can be a real purchase. Match the date before you call it fraud.

Clover's soft descriptor page is written for the merchant who sends the charge. It does not publish a shopper lookup tool, and it does not print CKE* as a required prefix. If the letters on your statement are CKE*, treat them as text your bank printed. Use the words after them. Do not assume every Clover purchase in the world starts with those three letters, because Clover's own page does not say that.

If you are the merchant

The descriptor the customer sees is the one you send on the charge. Clover's example puts the shop name in dba_name. If customers do not recognize the legal name, the page says the doing business as name can be the merchant name, the product, or the service, within 38 alphanumeric characters. A name that is only a legal entity is a common reason a customer calls the bank.

If you are looking at a bill Clover sent you for processing, that is your own Clover invoice, not a shopper's card line. This guide is about the text on a customer's statement. Your Clover account is where a processing bill would be listed. Do not use a customer's card descriptor to explain a fee Clover charged your business.

A charge you want to stop from happening again is how to cancel a subscription, which only works if the shop is billing you on a schedule. One purchase at a counter is not a subscription. Upload the statement on Expenvo. The PDF stays on your device. Expenvo lists the lines so you can match a short name to a date and an amount. It does not call the bank, and it does not dispute a charge.

Questions

Does Clover say the statement shows CKE*?

No. The Set soft descriptors page does not print CKE*. It says the customer's statement can show the doing business as name, address, and contact information the merchant sends.

How long can the shop name be?

Clover says the doing business as name is limited to 38 alphanumeric characters. Contact info is limited to thirteen characters for Discover and Visa.

Why might the line not name the shop?

Clover says some merchants cannot process soft descriptors. In that case the statement shows whatever the card network and the bank use instead of the merchant's descriptor.

Does Expenvo know the store?

No. It lists the description from your statement. You match the name and the phone number to a receipt.

Sources

• Clover: set soft descriptors

Related guides

• Statement codes
• Unknown charge on a statement
• What an IN * or Intuit charge means