Descriptor

The descriptor is the text shown on your customers’ bank account statements, sometimes referred to as “text on statement”.

You can set a descriptor for your authorization (reservation), capture or refund (referred to as a dynamic descriptor) using the descriptor parameter. If no descriptor is set on the authorization, refund or capture, we will default to your account descriptor. The account descriptor is set when you create or update an account, either through our dashboard or through the API.

Format

The format of the descriptor is limited due to legacy in the card network and compatibility across thousands of banks all over the world. The descriptor's length can maximum be 22 and can only contain ASCII printable characters:

Please note that these limitations are not Paylike specific, these are limitations in the card network (e.g. Visa, Mastercard).

Learn more about the descriptor in our documentation on Github.

Content of the descriptor

You should use a descriptor your customers can recognise to avoid disputes. If your legal company name differs from your trading name (e.g. domain), you should use the name which your customers will be able to identify.

In case you use a dynamic descriptor, consider appending e.g. the order ID to your legal/trading name.

The full descriptor we send on each transaction is:

Account descriptor or Dynamic descriptor City, Country

Where City and Country is set by Paylike based on your provided account data.

An example using a dynamic descriptor could be:

CoolSnicks Ltd #2211 London, United Kingdom

Your customer's bank decides how much of the descriptor is shown on their bank account statement.