A charge showing “1955 Broadway Oakland CA” on your bank statement almost always comes from a small business that takes payments through Block, Inc., the company formerly known as Square. That address is Block’s corporate office, and it defaults onto the statement whenever the merchant hasn’t set up a custom billing name. You can usually trace the charge to a specific purchase in a few minutes without calling your bank.
Which Business Actually Charged You
Block, Inc. is a payment aggregator. It bundles thousands of small sellers under one merchant account rather than giving each one a direct relationship with Visa or Mastercard. Its legal address, 1955 Broadway, Suite 600, Oakland, CA 94612, is registered with payment networks as the default billing location for transactions flowing through its system.1Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Block, Inc. When a coffee shop or market vendor swipes your card through a Square reader and hasn’t customized the receipt settings, the network falls back on Block’s address instead of the seller’s name.
So the transaction is probably legitimate. The task is figuring out which seller it was.
It Might Not Be a Square Card Reader
Square’s point-of-sale readers aren’t the only Block product that produces this descriptor. Block owns Square, Cash App, Afterpay, and TIDAL, among others.2Block. Block, Inc. Afterpay’s own terms list 1955 Broadway, Suite 204, Oakland, CA 94612 as its legal address.3Afterpay. Installment Agreement (USA) A Cash App transfer you sent, an Afterpay installment that just came due, or a subscription payment could all route through the same corporate infrastructure. Think past in-person card swipes when you’re trying to place the charge.
Reading the Rest of the Descriptor
The Oakland address alone tells you little, but the text next to it often names the business. Square-processed transactions tend to follow a few patterns:
- SQ *[Business Name] — the most common format. “SQ *JOES TACOS” means a purchase from Joe’s Tacos through a Square terminal.
- SQC * — typically a Cash App transaction rather than a point-of-sale purchase.
- GOSQ.COM — usually an online payment processed through Square.
- SQUAREUP — a generic identifier that appears when the merchant name is missing.
Banking apps sometimes truncate the descriptor on the main screen. Tap into the transaction detail view. The expanded string often reveals a merchant name, a transaction ID, or a reference number you can use to look it up.
Looking Up the Receipt
Square runs a free receipt lookup for consumers trying to identify unfamiliar charges, at squareup.com/receipts.4Square. Receipt Lookup You enter the date and the exact amount, and the tool returns the business name tied to that transaction. That is usually enough to jog your memory.
If nothing comes back, the charge may have come from Cash App or Afterpay, which use separate systems. Check your Cash App transaction history or Afterpay order history directly. For charges you still can’t place, Square support at 855-700-6000 can trace the transaction manually.
If You Still Don’t Recognize the Charge
If the lookup tools return nothing and you’re confident you didn’t make the purchase, open a dispute with your bank or card issuer. Before you call, gather the exact date and dollar amount, the full descriptor text, and any transaction or reference ID your bank shows. Specific data moves disputes faster than a general complaint that something looks wrong.
The rules differ by card type, and the difference matters.
Debit Cards and Bank Accounts
Unauthorized electronic transfers from a bank account are governed by federal Regulation E. Your bank has 10 business days to investigate after you report the error. It can extend the investigation to 45 days, but only if it provisionally credits your account within that first 10-day window.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1005.11 – Procedures for Resolving Errors
Your liability depends on how quickly you report. Prompt notice caps your loss at $50. Miss the two-business-day window after you learn the card was lost or stolen, and the cap rises to $500. Wait more than 60 days after your bank sends the statement showing the unauthorized charge, and you can be liable for the full amount.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1693g – Consumer Liability Hospitalization or extended travel can extend those deadlines, but you’ll need to explain the delay.
Credit Cards
Credit cards carry stronger protection. Federal law caps your liability for unauthorized credit card use at $50 regardless of when you report it, as long as the charge happened before you notified the issuer.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1643 – Liability of Holder of Credit Card Most major issuers waive that $50 under their own zero-liability policies.
For billing errors, you have 60 days from the date the issuer sends the statement to submit a written dispute. The notice must identify your account, explain why you believe there’s an error, and state the amount in question.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666 – Correction of Billing Errors The issuer must acknowledge the dispute within 30 days and resolve it within two billing cycles, not to exceed 90 days. While the investigation is open, it cannot try to collect the disputed amount or report it as delinquent.
When to Replace the Card, Not Just Dispute
One unrecognized charge from 1955 Broadway is usually a forgotten purchase. Several unrecognized charges from that address, or a mix of unfamiliar charges from different merchants, suggests the card number itself is compromised. Ask your bank to issue a new number right away rather than disputing transactions one by one. That stops further use of the old number while the disputes work through.
If the unauthorized activity is on a bank account rather than a credit card, that 60-day Regulation E deadline is firm and can cost you real money. Review statements regularly instead of waiting for a large charge to catch your eye.