What is the SHOUTORBIT* charge on my card?

A creator opens an Orbit for something they are about to publish and promises a shout-out in it to the few who bid highest. Bidding is free. Only the bids that win a place are charged, and only the amount bid.

Bids placed before October 8, 2026 also paid a small listing fee, win or lose. So a charge from before then can be that fee alone.

A receipt naming the creator and the Orbit is emailed to the account that bid, the moment the bid is placed. Stripe, which handles the card, usually sends its own receipt too when the charge goes through.

The handle belongs to the creator, not to the person who paid. Only its letters and digits make it onto the line, and a statement line holds 22 characters at most, so a long handle is cut short: @maya_builds_things becomes SHOUTORBIT* mayabuilds.

Banks do not all print it the same way. Some use capitals, some shorten it further, and some show SHOUTORBIT on its own.

A payment taken from a bank account rather than a card shows SHOUTORBIT alone, with no handle after it.

Placing a bid saves the card — or, above $300, a US bank account — and charges nothing, so there is no pending hold. The first time a card is saved, the bank may ask for a code and may briefly show a $0 or $1 card check.

If the bid wins a place in the shout-out, it is charged once, for exactly the amount bid, within 4 days after bidding ends: when the creator says yes, or automatically when their 2-day check ends. A bid that does not win is never charged, so there is nothing to refund.

A payment from a bank account takes about 4 business days to go through, and shows on the statement as SHOUTORBIT.

Older bids and contract budgets are still held on the card: one pending hold for the amount, which becomes the charge if the bid wins and is released if it doesn’t. A released hold drops off on the bank’s own schedule, which can take a few days. If such a bid was raised, a second pending hold can show for a short while; only one is ever charged.

If the creator never publishes — nothing by their own publish date plus 7 days — everyone who was charged is refunded in full.

Signing in needs no password: we email a code. You land on My bids, and each row opens its receipt, which shows the creator, what they promised, the pitch, and exactly what was charged. The link in the receipt email opens the same page without signing in.

A bid is final once it is charged. If something went wrong, press “Ask for a refund” on the receipt and a person will sort it out — please use that rather than your bank. Once the creator has published, the receipt has a Refund me button for 7 days: in full, no reason needed. An older bid that put a pending hold on the card keeps its Refund me button for 30 days after the bid instead.

Nothing on My bids? Use the link in the receipt email, which opens the receipt without signing in. Or the charge may be on another email address you use, so try that one, or write to us below.

Please try this before your bank. A dispute costs us many times what a refund does, and the refund reaches you sooner.

The plan costs $199 a month or $999 a year, and it renews every month or every year until it is cancelled. It prints as SHOUTORBIT, with no handle after it, because no creator is paid from it.

To cancel it, write to us at the address below from the email address the receipt went to, and a person will cancel it. Cancelling stops the next renewal; the plan lasts until the end of the period already paid for.

If you did not start it, write to us at the address below and a person will look into it and refund it.

This page cannot look a charge up by card or email address, and that is on purpose: a search box that answered would tell anyone whether somebody else had bought something. Send us the date, the amount and the last four digits of the card, and a person will find the charge and refund it.

If you think somebody else has your card details, tell your bank as well, so they can replace the card.