A line on your bank statement reads TST* followed by half a name you almost recognise. According to ExplainCharges, that line usually means you paid a restaurant, cafe, bar, bakery or food truck, and the payment ran through Toast’s point-of-sale system. ExplainCharges also notes that Toast’s support documentation lists TST*Restaurant Name as a statement description for purchases made at a Toast restaurant. The name after the asterisk is the restaurant name as it appears in the descriptor, which banks or payment processors may shorten or vary, and the exact wording may vary by bank, processor and merchant. No guest-facing Toast page stating what TST* means was found in the research for this guide, so a guest looking for Toast’s own consumer explanation will not find one. And the descriptor alone cannot tell you whether the charge is legitimate, because a real meal and a stolen card used at a real restaurant look identical on a statement.
What does TST mean on a bank statement?
TST* is the statement prefix Toast’s system puts in front of the merchant name, according to ExplainCharges’ reading of Toast’s support documentation. Toast describes itself as a technology platform built for restaurant and retail businesses, and its restaurant ordering pages state that orders placed through a restaurant’s Toast ordering page go directly to the restaurant. So the line represents a purchase at the place you ate, not a purchase from a company called TST. You usually did not buy anything from a business named TST. The reason the name looks unfamiliar is mundane, and ExplainCharges gives the same explanation: statement descriptors have limited space, banks shorten or truncate merchant names, and a restaurant’s legal business name can differ from the name on its sign. The posting date can also differ from the day you ate there, because banks and merchants can take time to settle and post a transaction, as ExplainCharges notes.
Is TST* a fee?
One descriptor guide, CashVapour, calls the TST* line a processing fee charged by Toast and deducted before the merchant receives its funds. That reading is misleading, and it is worth naming plainly because it changes what you do next. If TST* were a fee, there would be a second, larger charge for the purchase itself. The purchase-line sources identify the TST* line as that purchase. Our own count of the descriptor sources read for this guide puts it at 5-to-1 against the fee reading: ExplainCharges, DecoderAtlas, LowScout and ReceiptNest, plus LetsWeel’s merchant pages, identify TST* plus a name as the restaurant purchase line, while one guide calls it a separate fee. The sharper distinction comes from Toast’s own descriptors: ExplainCharges notes that Toast says certain merchant billing debits can appear as ACH Toast, INC, a business-billing descriptor that is different from the TST*Restaurant Name purchase line. Toast’s ordering-page wording that orders go directly to the restaurant points the same way. The Cost Answer, another descriptor guide, notes the same gap: no guest-facing Toast page stating what TST* means was found.
How do I find which restaurant charged me?
Work through these in order.
- Search the exact words after TST*, not just “TST”, across your email, messages and banking app.
- Check paper receipts and emailed or texted digital receipts from around the charge date itself.
- Check your calendar for a restaurant visit near the date the charge appeared on your statement.
- Ask other household members whether they recognise the restaurant from the name or the amount.
- Contact the restaurant with the date, the amount and the last four digits of your card.
- Contact your card issuer if the restaurant cannot locate the check or the charge looks fraudulent.
When you contact the restaurant, give it the date, the amount and the last four digits of the card, which is the detail set the descriptor guides suggest for looking up the check. A restaurant can confirm a charge from its own records, case by case. No guest-facing Toast lookup for resolving a TST* line was found in the research for this guide.
Why is my TST* charge higher than my receipt, or still pending?
A pending amount may not include the tip yet, where the tip is added after the card is authorised. Merchant pages describe a pre-authorisation for the base check amount, later adjusted after tip and signature, so the final posted charge can reflect the full total including tax and gratuity. That adjustment can explain the higher final figure and a pending figure that later changes, though a genuinely duplicate charge is a different problem worth raising with the issuer. Two narrower variants appear in merchant pages and are labelled here as examples, not common cases: merchant pages give reordering online with a card saved with Toast as a case that can auto-charge, and institutional dining pages, Elior’s among them, mention prepaid meal plans or catering. Guests automatically receive a receipt by email when a saved card is charged, according to Toast Central, but that statement covers the Catering and Events Pro saved-card flow specifically, not every Toast restaurant charge.
Is a TST* charge fraud?
The descriptor is a clue, not a verdict. A TST* line proves neither that a charge is legitimate nor that it is fraud. A real restaurant purchase and a stolen-card purchase processed through a real system can produce the same kind of statement line, and from the descriptor alone the two are indistinguishable. Before disputing, run the matching steps above: search the name after the asterisk, check receipts and your calendar, and ask the household. If nothing matches and the restaurant cannot find the check, that is the point to involve the card issuer rather than the point to declare the charge a scam from the descriptor alone.
How do I dispute a TST* charge I don’t recognise?
For credit cards, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sets out a process with two separate clocks. Call the card company right away and tell it about the problem. To protect your rights, also send a written billing error notice within 60 calendar days after the charge appeared on your statement. After receiving the notice, the company has 30 days to send a letter confirming it received the dispute, unless it has already completed the required resolution steps. Keep copies of everything, write down the dates of follow-up calls, and keep the information together in a file. If you already paid the disputed charge, you can still dispute it, though you probably will not get the money back until the company decides you were right. If it finds you correct, the charge must be removed; if it finds the bill correct, it must tell you why in writing, with how much you owe and when payment is due. These clocks are for credit cards only. The CFPB page read for this guide gives no debit-card deadline, so do not apply the 60-day figure to a debit charge. Debit and ACH rules differ.
What Toast does not offer guests matters for where you go next. No guest-facing Toast page explaining the TST* descriptor was found in the research for this guide, no guest receipt-lookup tool was found, and no guest support contact for resolving a TST* charge was found. ExplainCharges notes that Toast generally directs diners to the restaurant for delivery or refund issues. That leaves two doors: the restaurant, which can look up the check, and the card issuer, which can dispute the charge. Match first, dispute second, and on a credit card, watch the 60-day written-notice clock.
