The USCHEEMEX New York NY charge on your bank or credit card statement is a shortened billing descriptor for a New York–based money remittance service, commonly linked to a business operating under a name along the lines of “Cheema Express” or “Cheemex.” Payment processors squeeze merchant names into roughly 5 to 22 characters, which is why the string looks garbled instead of recognizable. If you or someone on your account sent money abroad recently, the charge is almost certainly that transfer. If nobody did, you need to move quickly.
What the Descriptor Actually Says
Break the string into pieces. The “us” prefix flags a United States–based operation. “Cheemex” is the merchant name compressed to fit the character limit. “New York NY” is the registered business address. The gap between a company’s legal name and the cramped string on your statement is the single biggest reason remittance charges get mistaken for fraud.
Money transmitters operating in New York must be licensed by the New York State Department of Financial Services under Section 641 of the Banking Law, which bars anyone from transmitting money in the state without authorization.1Department of Financial Services. Money Transmitter Licensing That means a legitimate charge of this type comes from a regulated entity you can look up and complain to.
How to Verify Whether You Authorized It
Start with the exact dollar amount on your statement, down to the cents. A specific figure like $327.48 is far easier to trace than a round number, because the odd cents usually reflect the transfer fee bundled into the total. Match that amount and the date against:
- Any receipt or confirmation email from a money transfer visit or online transaction.
- Visits by anyone else authorized on the account who might have sent a remittance.
- A transaction reference or authorization code printed next to the merchant name on your statement. That code is the fastest way to get information from the provider’s customer service.
To confirm you’re dealing with a licensed money transmitter rather than something impersonating one, use the New York DFS searchable registry of supervised institutions.2New York Department of Financial Services. Who We Supervise – Guest Applications
If you did authorize a transfer, the receipt amount should match your statement to the cent. If it does, the charge is simply the transfer you paid for.
If You Sent the Transfer but Want to Cancel
Federal rules give you a narrow free-cancellation window. In most cases you have at least 30 minutes after paying to cancel the transfer at no charge, as long as the recipient hasn’t already picked up the funds.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Remittance Transfer Rule Factsheet If you scheduled a transfer for a future date, you can cancel up to three business days before the scheduled send.4eCFR. 12 CFR 1005.36 – Transfers Scheduled Before the Date of Transfer
Once the provider accepts a valid cancellation, it has three business days to refund the amount sent plus any fees. Miss that window and you move into error-resolution territory instead.
If the Transfer Was Sent but Something Went Wrong
You have up to 180 days after the money was supposed to reach the recipient to report an error to the provider.5eCFR. 12 CFR 1005.33 – Procedures for Resolving Errors Covered errors include the wrong amount being delivered, the money never arriving, and incorrect fees or exchange rates.
After you file, the provider has 90 days to investigate. If it confirms an error, it must either refund your money or re-send the transfer at no additional cost. You get to choose which remedy you prefer.5eCFR. 12 CFR 1005.33 – Procedures for Resolving Errors
If You Didn’t Authorize the Charge at All
Your rights and deadlines depend entirely on whether the charge posted to a debit card or bank account, or to a credit card. The difference is substantial, so check the account type before you call anyone.
Debit Cards and Bank Accounts
Unauthorized debits fall under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, and your liability scales with how fast you report:
- Within 2 business days of discovering the unauthorized charge: liability capped at $50.
- After 2 business days but within 60 days of the statement being sent: liability can reach $500.
- After 60 days: you can be liable for the full amount of any unauthorized transfers that occur after that 60-day window.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1693g – Consumer Liability
Once you report it, the bank must investigate within 10 business days. It can extend to 45 days only if it provisionally credits the disputed amount to your account within those first 10 days. For point-of-sale debit card transactions, the window stretches to 90 days.7Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1005.11 – Procedures for Resolving Errors
Credit Cards
Unauthorized credit card charges are governed by the Fair Credit Billing Act. You have 60 days from when the statement was sent to submit a written billing error notice to the creditor.8Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1026.13 – Billing Error Resolution The creditor must acknowledge the dispute within 30 days and resolve it within two billing cycles, with an outer limit of 90 days. While the investigation is open, you generally cannot be held liable for the disputed amount or have it reported as delinquent.
A common mistake: assuming credit card protections cover every card in the wallet. They don’t. A debit card runs on the EFTA rules above, with tighter deadlines and higher potential exposure.
Escalating to Regulators
If the provider stonewalls or your bank’s investigation drags, you can file complaints in parallel.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau takes complaints about money transfer services directly online. Describe the problem, list dates and dollar amounts, and attach supporting documents (up to 50 pages). The CFPB forwards the complaint to the company, which typically responds within 15 days; complex cases can run up to 60 days for a final response.9Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Submit a Complaint
Because the merchant is New York–licensed, you can also complain to the New York Department of Financial Services, which directly supervises money transmitters in the state.1Department of Financial Services. Money Transmitter Licensing Filing both at once is fine and sometimes speeds things up.
When the Charge Points to a Scam
An unauthorized remittance charge isn’t always a stolen card number. Sometimes someone in the household authorized the transfer after being deceived. International wire transfers are a favorite tool of fraudsters because the money is extremely hard to reverse once the recipient picks it up.
Schemes that commonly produce unexplained remittance charges include lottery-winning notices that demand “fees” wired up front, romance contacts asking for money for sudden emergencies, and overpayment setups where someone sends a bogus check and asks the victim to wire back the difference. In each pattern, the scammer insists on a wire specifically because the funds effectively vanish once they leave the country.
Red flags worth flagging to anyone on the account: urgency or secrecy around a payment, requests for bank credentials or PINs, and any request to send money to someone never met in person. If a household member authorized the transfer under false pretenses, the transaction may still qualify as unauthorized depending on the circumstances. Report it to the bank right away rather than waiting to sort out the details.