What Is a PADDLE.NET Charge on Your Bank Statement?

A PADDLE.NET* charge on an Australian bank statement is a purchase billed by Paddle, an authorised reseller that sells software on behalf of thousands of software companies, so your statement names Paddle rather than the app you subscribed to. The characters after the asterisk are the seller's own short name, and Paddle's free lookup at paddle.net turns the charge into a product name in a couple of minutes.

Start with the lookup at paddle.net

paddle.net is Paddle's buyer support site, built for this question, and it needs no account.

"Look up my purchase" asks for the email address you used at checkout, then lists any products or subscriptions bought from Paddle's sellers with that address.

"I'm not sure why Paddle has charged me" is the route when that search comes back empty, which usually means the checkout used a different address or a mistyped one. It asks for the amount paid and its currency, the payment date, the payment method, and the last four digits of the card.

The same site cancels subscriptions, requests refunds and receipts, and updates your details.

Why Paddle's name is on the statement instead of the app's

Paddle's buyer terms describe Paddle as an authorised reseller of products for suppliers, so you buy the product from Paddle, and the supplier makes it available to you under its own terms. Paddle is the legal seller, so Paddle is the merchant your bank records.

It is the same shape as APPLE.COM/BILL or PAYPAL *, and it is why a descriptor can be completely accurate and still tell you nothing. The wider problem is covered in what an unknown charge on an Australian statement is.

Reading the part after the asterisk

Paddle's seller help centre sets out the format. By default a card payment uses the first ten characters of the company name the seller gave when they joined. Sellers can change it in their dashboard, within limits: 2 to 10 characters, uppercase letters, numbers, spaces and dots. It reaches your statement as PADDLE.NET* COMPANYNAM.

Ten characters is not much room. Company names get clipped and apps get abbreviated into strings you have never seen, even for a product you signed up to yourself. Treat those characters as a search term rather than an answer.

If you paid with PayPal inside a Paddle checkout there is no clue at all. Paddle says PayPal payments through its checkout are not customisable and always appear as PAYPAL *PADDLE.NET. The product name is then in your PayPal activity, not on your bank statement.

What an Australian buyer is charged, and by whom

Paddle's buyer terms set the contracting entity by where you buy from. Australia falls under "rest of world", which is Paddle.com Market Limited, registered in England and Wales under company number 8172165. The software may be built anywhere; your contract is with a UK company.

Australian GST still applies. Paddle's tax documentation lists Australia at 10% GST on standard digital goods for consumers, and Paddle registers and remits it itself. A GST registered business can ask Paddle to refund the tax amount within 60 days of the transaction.

If the charge was taken in a currency other than AUD, the statement amount will not match the price you agreed. CommBank lists a conversion rate on an international purchase as an ordinary reason a transaction looks wrong.

If you recognise it

Check the amount and date against the receipt Paddle emails after every transaction. Paddle subscriptions renew automatically for the same term until cancelled, so note the renewal date if you are keeping it.

To stop it, cancel through the buyer portal linked in your Paddle confirmation email, or the cancel option on paddle.net. Under Paddle's buyer terms cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period, so it stops the next charge but does not refund the last one. A refund is a separate request. A free trial has to be cancelled before the trial period closes, not after the first charge appears.

Doing several of these at once is the same job as cancelling every subscription you no longer use.

If you do not recognise it

Work in this order, cheapest step first.

1. Search your email, spam and promotions for "Paddle", "paddle.net" and the characters after the asterisk. Paddle sends a receipt to the address used at checkout, and it names the product.
2. Run the paddle.net lookup on every email address you might have used, including old ones.
3. If nothing matches, use the paddle.net form with the amount, date and last four digits of the card.
4. Open your App Store, Google Play and PayPal subscription screens, in case the charge is not Paddle's at all.
5. Ask anyone else who holds a card on the account.
6. Still unexplained, report it to your bank.

Australian banks must investigate unauthorised transactions under the ePayments Code, and CommBank opens a dispute once the transaction has finished processing. Chargebacks run to card scheme deadlines, so a charge left for months may no longer be recoverable.

When it is a $0 authorisation rather than a real charge

A pending line is not money leaving your account. When a merchant authorises a card, your bank confirms the card is valid, holds the amount against your available funds, and shows the transaction as pending until it is processed. CommBank says that generally takes 3 to 5 business days and can stretch to 10. A card check placed only to confirm the card works, often for $0 or a token amount, never settles. It disappears from your transaction history and the amount returns to your available balance.

Your banking app separates the two. A pending item is labelled pending and has reduced your available funds while leaving your account balance alone. A settled charge has moved the account balance and carries no pending label. Give a pending PADDLE.NET* line a few days. If it vanishes, nothing was taken. If it settles, go back to the lookup. You cannot dispute a pending line, because CommBank will not investigate until it is complete.

FAQ

Is a PADDLE.NET charge a scam? Almost always no. Paddle resells software for thousands of developers, so the charge is usually a purchase you made under a name you no longer recognise. Check the paddle.net lookup before treating it as fraud.

How do I stop Paddle charging me every month? Cancel through the buyer portal linked in your Paddle confirmation email, or the cancel option on paddle.net. Paddle's buyer terms say cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, with no charges after that.

Why does my statement say PAYPAL *PADDLE.NET with no product name? Because you paid through PayPal inside a Paddle checkout, and Paddle cannot customise that descriptor. The product is named in your PayPal activity instead.

The lookup cannot find my purchase. Is it fraud? Not on its own. The email search only matches the address used at checkout, so a mistyped or forgotten one returns nothing. Try the form that searches on amount, date and last four card digits before going to your bank.