What a Recurly charge means on your statement
People search RECURLY* because a card line is hard to match to a store. Recurly is a subscription billing platform. The name on the statement is usually the business that sold you the plan, not the word Recurly by itself. Recurly's own support page says Recurly does not control how the charge appears.
Last updated: October 17, 2026
Last checked: Oct 2026
Who puts the text on the statement
Recurly's support article Can I Control How My Transactions Appear on Customer Bank Statements, updated 8 August 2025, says Recurly does not have any control over how transactions appear on customer bank statements. The descriptor is managed by the merchant bank account. The merchant has to talk to that provider to change it. So a line that starts with RECURLY is not a format Recurly promises on that page. If those letters are on your statement, they are what the bank printed. The page does not require them.
Recurly's payment descriptor docs, opened 17 October 2026, describe the text the merchant can send when a gateway supports it. A dynamic descriptor, also called a soft descriptor, is customizable text on the card transaction. Recurly says descriptors are typically limited to 22 characters and follow the format DBA, then a separator that is usually an asterisk, then a description. The prefix is the doing business as name from the business entity. The suffix is a custom field, the plan name, or the invoice description.
For subscriptions, Recurly uses the company name or DBA as the prefix and the plan name as the suffix. For a Visa transaction converting from a trial, Recurly adds the word Trial. The example on the page is AcmeInc*Trial Gold Plan. For a one time charge, the suffix is the invoice description. Examples on the page are AcmeInc*Charge and AcmeInc*One-Time Payment. If no invoice description is provided, Recurly fills in Charge. The first characters of the plan name are the ones a customer can still read if the bank cuts the line.
The full list of these short names is on statement codes. A different billing platform, Stripe, uses its own prefix and suffix rules.
How to find the real merchant
Read the prefix before the asterisk. That is the doing business as name Recurly says it uses when both a company name and a DBA are on file. Recurly says it uses the DBA over the company name for the prefix when both are present. Search your email for that prefix, for the plan name after the star, and for the amount. The receipt is often from the website you signed up on, not from an email with Recurly in the subject.
Recurly says issuers have the final say on what is displayed, and that a gateway may not pass the descriptor on to the card network. Contact the gateway to confirm support. That is why two customers of the same site can see different text. Also, the descriptor prefix cannot be modified for Stripe from within Recurly. Only the suffix is sent to Stripe. If the charge went through Stripe, the prefix is whatever is set at Stripe, which the Stripe guide explains.
Visa trial descriptors are supported on all gateways that support cards, and they add the word Trial. Broader dynamic descriptors need a feature flag on Stripe and Braintree. They are supported without that flag on Commerce Hub, FreedomPay, Checkout.com, and Nuvei. If the line is only a short legal name, the plan name may have been cut by the 22 character limit.
If the charge keeps coming
A Recurly charge is often a renewal. Cancel it on the website that sold the plan. Recurly's docs say the plan name is what customers should recognize. How to cancel a subscription is the general page. The button that stops the next bill is in that merchant's account, not on the bank statement.
If you do not know the merchant, call the phone number on the statement if one is printed. Ask which company billed that amount on that date. If nobody allowed it, use dispute a charge in the US or dispute a charge in Canada.
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 every Recurly charge say RECURLY*?
- No. Recurly's support page says Recurly does not control the bank line. The descriptor docs show the merchant's DBA, an asterisk, and a plan or invoice description, as in AcmeInc*Trial Gold Plan.
- Why does it say Trial?
- Recurly says it adds the word Trial to a Visa transaction that is converting after a trial. That is a suffix on the descriptor, not a separate company.
- How long can the name be?
- Recurly says descriptors are typically limited to 22 characters. The plan name or invoice description is the suffix. Banks may show less.
- Does Expenvo know which site it was?
- No. It lists the description from your statement. You match the DBA and the plan name to your email.
Sources
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