A charge labeled “Albert Culver City” on your bank or card statement comes from Albert, a budgeting and cash-advance app headquartered in Culver City, California. In almost every case it’s a monthly subscription fee, an automatic repayment on a cash advance you took through the app, or an automated savings transfer moving your own money between accounts. To stop it, you cancel inside the Albert app and pay off any outstanding advance before closing the account.
The charge can appear under slightly different names depending on how your bank formats merchant descriptions: “Albert Culver City,” “Albert EDI Payments,” “Albert EDI Pymnts,” “Albert Savings EDI Payment,” or “Albert Financial App.” They all trace to the same company at 3528 Hayden Avenue in Culver City.
Match the Dollar Amount to the Cause
The size of the charge usually tells you which Albert feature triggered it.
A Monthly Subscription
Albert currently sells three plans:1Albert. How Much Does Albert Cost
- Standard at $19.99 a month, which includes budgeting tools, savings automation, and access to cash advances.
- Genius at $39.99 a month, which adds human financial advisors and identity protection.
- Family at $39.99 a month, which extends benefits to up to four additional family members.
If your charge is $19.99 or $39.99, a subscription is almost certainly the source. Some longtime users pay between $8 and $16 a month under older pricing.2Albert. Commissions and Fees These fees recur automatically each month until you cancel.
A Cash Advance Repayment
Albert Instant offers short-term cash advances that don’t require a subscription. Each advance carries an up-front service fee deducted from what you receive, so borrowing $100 might deposit $90 to $95 in your account.3Albert. What is Albert Instant Repayments can run automatically through auto-pay or you can pay manually in the app.4Albert. How Does Instant Advance Repayment Work The repayment shows up as another Albert line on your statement, which trips people up when they’ve forgotten the advance.
An Automated Savings Transfer
Albert’s savings feature studies your spending and income, then moves small amounts from checking into a separate savings bucket. These are not fees; they’re your own money being relocated. They still show up as Albert transactions, and if you didn’t realize the feature was switched on they can look like charges. You can pause or adjust them inside the app.
How to Cancel in the App
Future charges stop only when you deactivate or close the account through Albert itself:5Albert. Deactivating or Closing Your Albert Account
- Open the app and tap the profile icon on the home screen.
- Tap the menu icon in the top left corner.
- Select Payments, then Help center.
- Choose Deactivate or close my accounts.
If you want to request a refund on a past charge, call Albert support at (844) 891-9309 or reach them through the help section in the app.6Albert. How to Contact Albert Before you call, pull up your statement and write down the exact date and dollar amount of every charge you want to dispute.
Clear Any Balance Before You Close
This is where people get stuck. Deactivating your account does not erase money you owe on a cash advance. To permanently close the account, you have to bring your Albert Cash balance to $0 and repay every outstanding advance or loan first.5Albert. Deactivating or Closing Your Albert Account If you want Albert fully out of your finances, pay off the advance before you start the closure steps. Otherwise charges will keep hitting your statement after you think you’ve canceled.
If You Never Signed Up for Albert
If you genuinely never downloaded the app or opened an account, someone else may have used your information. Albert directs suspected identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission portal at identitytheft.gov along with a report to Albert support.7Albert. Identity Theft, Fraud, and Scam Resources
Call your bank the same day. The timing of that call controls how much money you can lose. Under federal law, if you report an unauthorized electronic transfer within two business days of discovering it, your liability is capped at $50. Report after two business days but within 60 days of receiving the statement, and liability can rise to $500. Miss the 60-day window and you could be responsible for the full amount of any transfers that happen after that deadline.8eCFR. 12 CFR 1005.6 – Liability of Consumer for Unauthorized Transfers
Your Dispute Rights With the Bank
Once you notify your bank of an unauthorized transfer, it has to investigate. Federal rules give the bank 10 business days to resolve the error. It can take up to 45 days, but only if it provisionally credits your account within those first 10 business days and lets you use the funds while the investigation continues.9Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1005.7 – Initial Disclosures For new accounts, meaning within 30 days of the first deposit, the initial window is 20 business days.
If Albert and your bank both fail to resolve the charge, file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov/complaint. Describe what happened, include the dates and dollar amounts, and attach supporting documents such as bank statements, up to 50 pages. The CFPB sends your complaint to the company, which usually responds within 15 days and has up to 60 days for complex cases. You then get 60 days to review the response.10Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Submit a Complaint Complaint data is published in a public database.