LinkedIn: unauthorized charge
Check purchase history first. LinkedIn lists an ended free trial, an active subscription, job post or ad, a bank authorization hold, or someone else using your card as common causes.
What does this mean?
Grade A (high: almost everything comes from official pages read directly). 100% of 29 sources are the organization's own pages or government sites.
Collect
- card statement line
- receipts from purchase history
Steps
Compare the charge with your LinkedIn purchase history. You can see receipts only for purchases on your own account.
If someone else used your card on their LinkedIn account, ask them to remove it; if they cannot, they can contact LinkedIn.
If you still do not recognize the charge, review the refund policy and contact LinkedIn; report fraud to your card issuer.
More contacts for this issue
Facts you can cite
- Policy
LinkedIn says an unrecognized charge may come from a current or former employee, family member or friend using the payment method on LinkedIn, an ended Premium free trial or promotion, an active subscription, job posting or advertisement, or a bank authorization hold.
Source: linkedin.com, verified 2026-10-13
- Policy
User Agreement 2.3: "We may store and continue billing your payment method (e.g., credit card), even after it has expired."
Source: linkedin.com, verified 2026-10-13
- Policy
For users outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland, "the laws of the State of California, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of laws rules, shall exclusively govern," and claims are litigated in federal or state courts in Santa Clara County, California (User Agreement section 6, effective November 3, 2025).
Source: linkedin.com, verified 2026-10-13
Rules in force
- Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA) negative option requirements15 U.S.C. 8401-8405
A seller that charges consumers online through a negative option feature (for example an automatic renewal or a free trial that converts to paid) must clearly disclose all material terms before taking billing information, get the consumer's express informed consent before charging, and provide simple mechanisms to stop recurring charges. The FTC enforces ROSCA.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
4 citable points
- Policy
Before obtaining the consumer's billing information, the seller must provide text that "clearly and conspicuously discloses all material terms of the transaction".
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
The seller must obtain "a consumer's express informed consent before charging the consumer's credit card, debit card, bank account, or other financial account".
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
A post-transaction third-party seller may not charge a consumer for an online sale unless it discloses the material terms and gets express informed consent, including the consumer's full account number, before charging. An initial merchant may not pass a customer's account number or other billing information to such a seller.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Process
A ROSCA violation is treated as a violation of an FTC rule on unfair or deceptive acts or practices, and the FTC enforces ROSCA with its FTC Act powers and penalties. Report violations to the FTC.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
If that fails, escalate
Go up one step at a time. Keep the reference numbers and dates from each contact.
Customer service
Written complaint
Card or bank dispute
Fair Credit Billing Act billing-error and purchase-dispute rights (Regulation Z)
Electronic Fund Transfer Act error resolution and unauthorized-transfer liability (Regulation E)
Card dispute for charges after a cancellation.
Federal regulator
State agency
Your state’s attorney general. Find it in the list of state agencies (also as JSON:
states/<code>.json, for example states/ny.json).
Watch out
- The Admin Center (Purchases) and purchase history need sign-in; only some US and German subscriptions can be cancelled without signing in.
- LinkedIn offers no customer support phone number; support is by help center forms only.
- LinkedIn cannot give billing support or refunds for Apple App Store purchases.
Let your AI agent handle this
Escalate Anything is a free, open-source MCP server for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, Codex and other AI apps. Your agent gets this playbook, keeps a case log with reference numbers and follow-up dates, and drafts each message for you to approve.
1. Set it up (needs uv):
uvx escalate-anything setup2. Ask your agent:
LinkedIn charged me [amount] on [date] and I did not authorize it. Use Escalate Anything to get it reversed.Source code, other install options and the Claude Code plugin