An AMAZON RETA charge is a charge from Amazon, shown on your statement under a shortened billing name that stops mid-word. It can be a one-off order, a digital purchase such as a Kindle book, or an Amazon Prime membership fee, and the wording on the line does not tell you which.
Amazon publishes no entry for RETA and does not say what the fragment stands for, so treat the wording as a cut-off name rather than a clue. The amount and your Amazon account identify it.
Which Amazon service billed you
Amazon sends a different descriptor depending on what you bought, and publishes the list it uses:
| What Amazon sends | What Amazon says it covers |
|---|---|
AMAZON PRIME*, AMZ*Prime Shipping Club | An Amazon Prime membership fee |
Amazon.com, AMZN.COM/BILL, AMAZON MKTPLACE PMTS, AMZN Mktp US | A purchase from the Amazon store |
Amazon Digital Svcs, Video on Demand | Kindle books, MP3s, app downloads, video downloads, software or game downloads |
Amazon.com*PMT SVC, AMZ* plus a company name, amzn pmts | Amazon Pay used at the checkout of another company's website |
AmazonFresh | An Amazon Fresh grocery order |
Amazon publishes that list for its US store and has no equivalent for amazon.com.au, so read it as the shape of the line rather than proof of which service charged you.
The amount narrows it faster. Amazon Australia charges Prime at $9.99 per month or $79 per year, so an Australian line at either figure is a Prime membership renewal. Any other amount, look at whether it repeats: a subscription lands on roughly the same date every month or every year at the same price, while an order charge appears once and never again. Scanning twelve months rather than one is what catches the annual ones, the same method behind finding hidden subscriptions.
Your account settles it: Your Orders for physical items, Your Transactions for the exact amount charged against each delivery, and your digital orders for Kindle, Prime Video and app purchases.
Why the amount does not match your order
Amazon charges your card when each part of an order is dispatched, not when you place the order. One order sent in three parcels produces three charges, and the three add up to the total you agreed to at checkout. Amazon splits an order when an item comes from a marketplace seller, when items ship from different fulfilment centres, when you chose to have items sent as soon as they become available, or when items go to more than one address. That is the most common reason an Amazon line matches nothing you remember buying: the charge is a fraction of an order rather than the whole of one.
The name and location can also mislead. CommBank warns that businesses process transactions under a different name from the one you know, and that the location shown may be the company's head office rather than where you bought anything, so an Amazon line carrying a city you have never ordered from is normal. If the amount was converted from another currency or carries an international transaction fee, the order was placed on a different Amazon store, not amazon.com.au.
If you recognise it
Nothing needs doing for a one-off order. If it is a subscription you no longer use, the cancellation is a few minutes of work: Amazon Prime, Kindle Unlimited, Audible and Amazon Music each cancel from your Amazon account, and Amazon keeps billing until you do.
If you do not recognise it
Work through these before you call the bank, because most unrecognised Amazon charges are explained by one of them.
- Search your email for "Amazon" plus the amount. Dispatch confirmations and renewal notices carry the exact figure.
- Open Your Orders and Your Transactions in your Amazon account and compare the amount against individual deliveries, not order totals.
- Check your digital orders for a Kindle book, a Prime Video rental or an app purchase.
- Work out who else can charge the card. Amazon lists other accounts linked to the same card, a family member using it, a gift order shipping, a Subscribe and Save order shipping, and a pre-order shipping later than expected.
- Contact your bank if none of that explains it. CommBank takes disputes through its app and NetBank, and cancels and replaces the card for an unauthorised transaction.
Report it rather than wait, because card scheme rules put a deadline on raising a chargeback and Australian banks must investigate a transaction you report as unauthorised under the ePayments Code. CommBank adds one caveat: a subscription you signed up for and forgot is not an unauthorised transaction, so cancel it with Amazon first and dispute it as a subscription payment if that fails.
One Amazon line decoded is a start. Every recurring charge on the statement is the job.
Upload a bank statement to find recurring charges, review your subscriptions and track renewals. No bank login required. Your first scan shows three finds free; the full tracker is $29 AUD once.
See what you're paying forWhen it is an authorisation, not a charge
An authorisation reserves funds until the transaction is processed or the authorisation expires, and banks label these pending or processing. Amazon contacts your bank to confirm the card when you order, so that check reaches your statement without being a charge, because Amazon only charges once the item ships.
On a first order Amazon runs a $1.00 authorisation to confirm the card is valid and has not been reported lost or stolen. The $1.00 never becomes a charge and the authorisation lapses after no longer than 10 business days. Most banks hold authorisations for up to 7 business days, longer on a prepaid card, and an order cancelled before it ships can leave one sitting there the same 7 days.
Telling the two apart takes one look in your banking app. A pending line sits under a pending or processing heading and has not settled, so it either becomes a real charge when Amazon ships or drops off on its own, while a settled charge sits in your transaction list with a posting date. Once a line is pending, CommBank cannot stop or cancel it and only starts investigating a dispute after it has fully processed.
FAQ
Does AMAZON RETA mean Amazon Retail?
Amazon does not publish what the RETA fragment stands for, and there is no RETA entry on its published descriptor list. All the line proves is that Amazon billed the card. Which Amazon service it was comes from the amount and from Your Transactions.
Is an AMAZON RETA charge a scam?
Almost always no. Amazon bills under several abbreviated names, and a line you cannot place usually turns out to be a split delivery, a digital purchase or a renewal you forgot. Check your Amazon account first, then dispute it with your bank if nothing matches.
Why are there several Amazon charges for one order? Amazon charges when each part of an order is dispatched. An order shipped in separate parcels produces a separate charge for each, and the charges add up to the order total.
The charge disappeared from my statement. What happened? It was an authorisation rather than a charge. Amazon confirms your card with your bank when you order, and that hold drops off if the order is cancelled or never ships. Other billing names behave the same way, covered in what to do about a charge you do not recognise.
- Unknown Charges Amazon Australia
- Multiple Charges for the Same Order Amazon Australia
- Authorizations Amazon Australia
- Unknown Amazon Payment Charges Amazon
- Disputing a Transaction Commonwealth Bank
Chris Vine
Chris is the founder of Subtracker. He built this tool after experiencing the pain of discovering thousands of dollars in unused SaaS sprawl just before tax time.