A charge reading “Miami Gardens Sq 1 Inc” on your credit or debit card statement is a purchase from Tootsie’s Cabaret, an adult entertainment nightclub at 150 NW 183rd Street in Miami Gardens, Florida. The club’s legal corporate name is Miami Gardens Square One, Inc., and that’s the name its payment processor sends to card networks.1Florida DBPR. License Detail – Miami Gardens Square One Inc If no one with access to your card visited the club, treat the line as a potential unauthorized charge and dispute it with your card issuer within 60 days of the statement date.
Why the Charge Shows a Corporate Name
Every business carries two names: the legal name on its formation documents and bank accounts, and the “doing business as” name customers actually see on the storefront.2Bank of America. What Is a DBA and What Does It Mean for Your Business Card network rules say the descriptor on your statement should use whichever name is most recognizable to you, but many merchants’ systems default to the legal corporate name instead.3Visa. Visa Merchant Data Standards Manual That’s why a visit to Tootsie’s Cabaret can land on a statement as a truncated version of Miami Gardens Square One, Inc., a Florida corporation filed in November 2003 at the same address as the club.4Florida Division of Corporations. Miami Gardens Square One Inc – Corporate Filing Detail The club is a subsidiary of RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc., a publicly traded Texas company.5Fintel. RCI Hospitality Holdings Inc 10-K Filing
Before assuming fraud, check the obvious. Ask anyone with authorized access to the card — spouse, partner, adult child, employee — whether they used the card in the Miami area on the date of the charge. The transaction date, amount, and location on your statement are the quickest way to jog a memory. The club holds an active Florida retail beverage license, so bar tabs, cover charges, and ATM fees inside the venue all run through the same corporate name.1Florida DBPR. License Detail – Miami Gardens Square One Inc
How to Dispute an Unauthorized Charge
If the charge is genuinely unauthorized, federal law caps your liability at $50 under the Fair Credit Billing Act, and most major card issuers waive even that.6Federal Trade Commission. Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges To keep the full protection, you need to send a written billing-error notice to your card issuer within 60 days of the statement date showing the charge. Send it to the address listed for “billing inquiries,” not the payment address, and include your account number, the disputed amount, and the reason you believe it’s an error.7Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Do I Dispute a Charge on My Credit Card Bill Calling the number on the back of the card to open the dispute is fine and often faster, but the written notice is what triggers the statutory protections.
Once your issuer gets the notice, it has 30 days to acknowledge the dispute and up to two billing cycles (no more than 90 days) to resolve it. While the investigation is open, you can withhold payment on the disputed amount, and the issuer can’t report the account delinquent or send that amount to collections.6Federal Trade Commission. Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges If the card number itself may be compromised, ask the issuer to close the account and reissue a new card at the same time you file the dispute.
If the issuer sides against you and you still believe the charge is wrong, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Florida residents can also contact the state Attorney General’s consumer-protection hotline at 1-866-9-NO-SCAM.8Florida Attorney General. How to Protect Yourself – Credit
If You Recognize the Merchant but Want a Refund
The 60-day billing-error process is designed for unauthorized charges and billing mistakes. If someone with authority to use the card made the purchase and the dispute is really about whether you want to pay for it, that’s a different conversation — one between you and the cardholder, not you and the bank. Issuers will generally not reverse an authorized charge from a bar or nightclub as a billing error.
If you believe you were overcharged at the venue itself (for example, a tab run up without your knowledge, or an amount that doesn’t match what you signed for), start by contacting the club directly with your receipt and the statement entry. If that doesn’t resolve it, raise the overcharge with your card issuer as a disputed amount, which is narrower than a full fraud claim but still falls within the FCBA billing-error framework.7Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Do I Dispute a Charge on My Credit Card Bill