Privacy Policy & Legal

WhatIsThisCharge.net is a free tool that helps users identify unknown charges on their bank statements. We use a combination of a crowdsourced database and AI technology to identify billing descriptors and provide information about the companies behind them.

We collect the charge descriptor strings that users type into our search bar. We do not collect any personal information, bank account details, credit card numbers, or financial credentials. We never ask for or store login information for any bank or financial institution.

When users submit reports or confirm charges, we store an anonymized hash of the IP address to prevent duplicate submissions. This hash cannot be reversed to identify you.

The charge descriptors you search for are used to:

- Improve our database of known charge descriptors

- Identify trending and popular searches

- Train our AI model to better identify unknown charges

We never sell your data to third parties. We never share individual search queries with advertisers.

We use Google Analytics to understand how users interact with our site. This includes pages visited, time spent, and general geographic region. We do not use cookies to track you across other websites.

We may display advertisements through Google AdSense. Google may use cookies to show you relevant ads based on your browsing history. You can opt out of personalized ads at adssettings.google.com.

Some charge identifications are generated by AI (Claude by Anthropic). While we strive for accuracy, AI-generated results may occasionally be incorrect. We always label AI-identified charges clearly.

WhatIsThisCharge.net is an informational tool only. We are not a financial institution and do not provide financial advice. Always verify charges directly with your bank if you suspect fraud.

We use the following third-party services:

- Supabase — database hosting (supabase.com/privacy)

- Anthropic Claude — AI charge identification (anthropic.com/privacy)

- Vercel — website hosting (vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy)

- Cloudflare — DNS and security (cloudflare.com/privacypolicy)

- Google Analytics — usage analytics (policies.google.com/privacy)

- Google AdSense — advertising (policies.google.com/privacy)

You have the right to:

- Use our service without creating an account

- Submit corrections to incorrectly identified charges

- Request that any data associated with your searches be deleted

Since we only store anonymized IP hashes and charge descriptors (no personal data), there is very little personal data to delete. Contact us if you have concerns.

We take security seriously. All data is transmitted over HTTPS. Our database uses Row Level Security (RLS) to prevent unauthorized access. We do not store sensitive financial information of any kind.

WhatIsThisCharge.net is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13.

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will post the updated date at the top of this page. Continued use of the service after changes constitutes acceptance of the new policy.

If you have questions about this privacy policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

privacy@whatisthischarge.net

We aim to respond to all privacy inquiries within 48 hours.