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Transaction Description

This guideline applies only to card payment methods. Other payment methods may have different requirements for transaction descriptions.

What is the transaction description?​

The transaction description (also known as the merchant descriptor or billing descriptor) appears on the cardholder’s statement after a purchase, helping customers recognize their transactions, reduce confusion, and minimize chargebacks; however, we recommend avoiding sending the description field whenever possible, as it is not always necessary.

We recommend not sending the description field whenever possible.

A well-structured transaction description should:

  • Clearly identify the merchant to the customer.
  • Be consistent with the brand name.
  • Follow card network formatting rules to ensure visibility on statements.

Requirements​

  • The maximum length of the transaction description is 25 characters, including spaces. If the name is longer than 25 characters, use an abbreviation that retains the most recognizable part of the brand.
  • The merchant name should match the brand name that customers see on the website or at checkout.
  • Including the domain helps customers immediately associate the charge with your website, reducing confusion and support inquiries.
  • If your store name is too long, prioritize clarity over truncation. Avoid abbreviations that could confuse customers.
  • Only use printable ASCII characters (codes 32-126) to prevent automatic normalization or removal of special characters (for example, ü and é normalized to u and e respectively).

Examples of acceptable abbreviations​

Name: NEW YORK HOME HARDWARE DISTRIBUTORS (35 characters)

Possible abbreviations:

  • NY HOME HARDWARE DISTR
  • NEW YORK HOME HDW DISTR

Additional Information for specific transactions​

In certain cases, additional details should be included in the transaction description to help customers recognize charges. These details appear after the merchant name and must always remain within the 25-character limit.

First recurring transaction at the end of a trial period, discounted introductory offer, or promotional period​

If a customer signed up for a trial or promotional period, the first recurring charge should include a note indicating the start of regular billing. For example, in English, this may be any of the following:

  • "End Trial"
  • "End Offer"
  • "End Free Trial"
  • "End Trial Period"
  • "End Discount"
  • Other similar language

Other language or transaction-specific details (for example, universal resource locator (URL) or order number) maybe be used to help the cardholder identify that their trial period, discounted introductory offer or promotional period has ended, and that the regular price now applies for the subscription.

Example: MERCHANT NAME END TRIAL

Standard purchases of goods or services​

For one-time purchases, no additional information is required. However, order numbers or reference IDs may be appended using an asterisk (*).

If the transaction is an installment transaction, installment information (1 of 2, 2 of 2, etc.) must appear after the asterisk.

For vehicle rental and hotel Merchants, the Merchant name must not be truncated in order to place supplemental information.

Example: ELECTROGADGETS*REF98765

No-Show transactions​

If a customer fails to show up for a scheduled service and is charged a no-show fee, the descriptor should include "NO SHOW".

Example: YOURHOTEL NO SHOW

Marketplace transactions​

Marketplaces may choose to display:

  1. The marketplace name only (if that’s what customers expect to see).
  2. The marketplace name + seller name, separated by an asterisk (*).

Example:

  • BIGMARKET*SELLER101
  • FASHIONPLATFORM*DESIGNERX

Payment facilitator transactions​

If the transaction is processed by a Payment Facilitator, and the submerchant block is present in the API request, then the transaction description is automatically formatted as: PayFacName*SubMerchant. For the formatting, it will be used the payment facilitator name configured in Nomupay side and the submerchant name on the request.