Statement subscription audit · Shopify app charges

Shopify app charges that continue after uninstalling

The Shopify community is full of the same sentence in different words: the app was removed from the store, the monthly charge did not stop. Sometimes one final invoice is legitimate — a billing period that had already started. Sometimes the charge keeps arriving for months, and the merchant only notices when a different problem sends them into the card statement.

The ambiguity is the problem. “I uninstalled it” is a fact about the store. “The charge stopped” is a fact about the card. This page is about checking the second fact with evidence you can show a support agent or a card issuer.

Step 1 — fix the uninstall date

Write down the day the app was removed. If you are not sure, the store’s app history and your own email are the places to look. You need one date; everything else is measured against it. A charge dated before the uninstall is expected. A charge dated after it needs an explanation.

Step 2 — read three months, not one

A single statement cannot show a rhythm. Export three months of the card that pays the Shopify bill, then paste the export into the statement audit tool. It groups charges by merchant and tells you the median gap between them. If the app still bills, you will see a monthly pattern that continues past the uninstall date. If the last charge is before the uninstall and nothing follows, the charge did stop, even if the final invoice felt unexpected.

App charges can appear under several strings: the app’s own name, the developer’s company name, or a Shopify descriptor. The tool normalises processor prefixes, but a name change between months can split one service into two rows. When that happens, look at the amounts and dates side by side — two groups with the same amount and alternating dates are usually one vendor.

Step 3 — check the billing entry in Shopify admin

In the Shopify admin, open Settings → Billing and look at the app charges section of the current and past bills. This is where an app subscription shows up as a line with its own status. Removing an app from the store and ending its subscription are two different actions, and the bill is the place that records which one happened.

If the line is still active, cancel it there before arguing about the past. If it is not listed but the card is still charged, the charge is coming from the app’s own billing system rather than Shopify’s, and the developer is the party to contact.

Step 4 — write one message with the evidence attached

Support agents work from identifiable facts. A message that says “you charged me after I uninstalled” gets a policy reply. A message with the uninstall date, the statement lines after that date, the amount per month and the total gets a refund decision. Include:

• the store domain and the app name;
• the uninstall date and where it is recorded;
• each charge after that date: date, amount, last four digits of the card;
• the billing entry, or a note that none exists;
• what you are asking for: cancellation plus a refund of the post-uninstall amount.

If the developer does not answer, Shopify support can see the app charge history on their side. Ask them to confirm the subscription status rather than to promise a refund. If the charge is genuinely unauthorised, the card issuer is the last step; chargeback windows are limited, so do not spend months waiting on a vendor.

After the refund — stop the next one

A refund fixes one charge. The recurring list is what prevents the next surprise. The audit tool produces a CSV of every repeating charge with the merchant string as it appears on the statement, the cadence and the estimated next date. Keep it next to the card you use for the store, and re-run it when a bill looks wrong. The subscription audit checklist turns that into a monthly routine.

One more trap: a card update. When a card expires, some processors keep the subscription alive through a network updater and the charges move to the new card without an email. If you cancelled a card rather than a subscription, check the replacement card’s statement too.

What this page does not claim

It does not claim that Shopify keeps charging after every uninstall, and it does not claim a refund is owed in every case. It claims something narrower and checkable: the statement shows whether a charge continued, and three months of lines is enough to prove it. The tool above turns those lines into a dated list in your browser, with no account and no bank connection.

The audit tool and this guide are free and need no account. Keeping the list current without exporting another statement is what the paid plans do — see the plans page for what is free and what is not.

Next: subscriptions with no receipt in any inbox — the other case where the statement is the only record.

Built by SaaSClerk. Related: cancelling without access to the account and what a read-only scanner can see.