Requirements and recommendations for bank statement descriptor

Statement descriptors are the small bits of text (usually the merchant name) shown next to charges on your customers’ bank statements. Using clear and accurate statement descriptors can help reduce refunds and disputes.

When you set up WooPayments, your statement descriptor will default to your site’s URL, but you can change this under Payments > Settings.

To be considered complete, a statement descriptor must:

• Contain only Latin characters.
  • Japanese merchants will also see descriptor fields for kanji and kana.
• Contain between 5 and 22 characters, inclusive.
• Contain at least one letter.
• Not contain any of these: < > \ ' " *
• Reflect your business name clearly.

You also cannot use some common words, phrases, or place names as your statement descriptor, such as “no website”, “credit card payment”, “texas”, and so on.

If you sell pet toys in U.S. at www.pet-toys.com, some good examples might be:

• PET-TOYS.COM
• PET TOYS Co
• PET TOYS U.S.

Here are some invalid statement descriptors, using the www.pet-toys.com example:

• INSTAGRAM.COM/PETTOYSDOTCOM — This is not where the transaction takes place.
• PTTY — Too short. Use longer alternatives to help identify the charge.
• << PET TOYS CO. >> — Contains forbidden characters.
• +1 (555) 555-1234 — Should contain at least one letter.

Our payment partners communicate some standard information with customers’ banks when a payment is made. This information includes details about your business and the transaction and can include, but is not limited to:

• Your business’s name.
• Your business’s legal entity name.
• Your business address.
• Your support phone number.
• Your website URL.
• The description of the product that was purchased.

In recent years, card-issuing banks have instituted their own “enhanced” statement descriptor logic which takes the raw information that’s passed along and tries to make it more cardholder friendly. As a result, the end descriptor may be a combination of the statement descriptor defined in your settings and this additional bank statement information.

Since this information is pulled from your account, if you would like to change these details, you can update your account information.