A charge starting with CTLP* on your statement

CTLP* means you paid by card at a machine fitted with a card reader from Cantaloupe, a US company that makes the readers on vending machines and other self-service machines. The name after CTLP* is the company that owns and fills the machine. Older statements show the same readers as USA*, from the years when Cantaloupe was called USA Technologies.¹⁴

Who is behind it

USA Technologies changed its name to Cantaloupe, Inc. and its stock ticker from USAT to CTLP on 19 April 2021.⁴ On 11 May 2026 another self-service technology company, 365 Retail Markets, said it had completed buying Cantaloupe, and that "the combined business will operate under 365 Retail Markets".⁵ Cantaloupe’s website is still up and gives its address as Cantaloupe, LLC, 101 Lindenwood Drive, Malvern, Pennsylvania.¹

Its readers are not only on snack machines. Cantaloupe lists micro markets, office coffee, arcades, car washes and air pumps, massage chairs and laundry among the places it sells to.¹ Public card records show CTLP* lines that are not snacks, such as CTLP BLUE RHINO PROPA for $57.78 and $101.34, and CTLP*SPINOUT GUEST LAU, filed under laundry services (see the table below).⁹¹¹

What it looks like on a real statement

The State of Delaware publishes every purchase its employees make on state cards, with the merchant name as the bank received it. When we counted on 11 October 2026 it had 25 lines starting CTLP*, under 10 names, from 7 December 2024 to 13 August 2026. The smallest was $0.15 and the largest $4.20. It also had 102 lines starting USA*, under 16 names, from 2017.⁹ The last USA* line filed as food is dated 1 November 2021 and the first CTLP* line 7 December 2024. Between those dates the only lines with either prefix are a few USA* orders that are not food, so Delaware’s records do not show when the change was made.

18 of the 25 CTLP* lines stop at exactly 22 characters, which leaves 17 for the owner’s name, so the end of it is often lost. 24 of the 25 carry the merchant category "Fast Food Restaurants" in Delaware’s records; a budgeting app may label them the same way.⁹

Some banks drop the asterisk and add the town and state, as in the Iowa line above. The person who posted it wrote that "the charges were from a vending machine at a rest area my husband and I stopped at a couple of days ago".¹²

Why the amount is not what you paid

A pending amount bigger than the price. Cantaloupe says that "typically" a card payment at a vending machine starts with a hold for a set amount, and the real price is sent later. Its guide for machine owners gives the example of a $2.25 Snickers bar: "a predetermined hold amount (like $5) is placed on that customer’s account", and it changes to $2.25 "when the transaction is eventually posted" a few days later.² Cantaloupe tells card holders it "can take your bank up to 24–72 hours to clear" the hold.¹

That answer has not changed in more than ten years. USA Technologies’ consumer page in 2014 already said banks use an "estimated" amount as a hold "until the ACTUAL sale amount is posted" and that clearing it can take "24 - 72 hrs".³ Newer readers can hold only the exact price. Cantaloupe calls this exact authorization; it works on its G10, G11 and Engage readers, and only when the machine sells one item per payment.²

Several small charges on the same day. A machine set to sell one item per payment charges each item separately. Cantaloupe warns owners that customers buying more than one item "will need to perform multiple transactions".² Delaware’s records have four $3.50 lines from CTLP*CRA ENTERPRISES I charged to the Indian River School District on 4 June 2026.⁹ Several lines of a few dollars on the same day are not, by themselves, a sign of card testing.

A card price higher than the cash price. Cantaloupe lets machine owners charge more for cards than for cash. It calls this Cash Discount or Two-Tier Pricing. In November 2025 it told owners that the card networks "are now enforcing" a rule that the card price and the cash price be shown side by side at checkout: on Cantaloupe’s G10 and G11 readers you tap a second time to accept the card price, and on its Engage readers you pick "Card Price" or "Cash Price" on the screen. Cantaloupe gave owners of some readers until 31 December 2025 and said the same rule would apply across the country in 2026.⁶

Compass Group USA, which runs vending machines under the name Canteen, agreed to pay $6,940,000 to settle a class action that said some of its Canteen machines charged card users more than the price shown without saying so. The settlement covered card purchases in the US from 2014 to 9 July 2025 at Canteen machines that had no cash discount sticker and did not show both prices.⁷⁸ A federal court in North Carolina gave it final approval on 9 January 2026; Compass denied wrongdoing.⁸ The deadline to claim was 14 November 2025, so it can no longer be joined.⁷ The case was against Canteen, not Cantaloupe. It matters here because Canteen machines appear on statements under both prefixes: USA*CANTEEN VENDING and CTLP*CANTEEN VENDING S.⁹

How to get money back

1. Place it Think of snack and drink machines at work, school, a hospital, a rest area or a hotel; a laundry room; a car wash or air pump; an arcade or a massage chair. Search the words after CTLP* with your town: they are the company that runs the machine, cut to 17 characters.
2. If it is still pending, wait three days A hold that is larger than what you paid should drop to the real price, or vanish, within 72 hours.¹
3. If the machine took the money and gave you nothing, call Cantaloupe Its page for card holders gives one number for refunds and for receipts: 1-888-561-4748, option 1.¹ Have the date, the amount, the statement line and where the machine was. Many machines also carry a sticker with the owner’s phone number.
4. Canteen’s own refund link no longer works Canteen’s FAQ still tells people whose statement says "USA Canteen Vending" to fill in a refund form on usatech.com, or to call the same 888-561-4748 number, option 1.¹³ When we opened that form on 11 October 2026, usatech.com returned an error page instead, and so did the web archive’s attempt to copy its front page on 22 September 2026. Use the phone number. For a machine that took cash, Canteen sends you to its local branch.¹³
5. If you never used a machine like that, go to your bank Bring the statement line exactly as printed, the date and the amount, and what you already tried. Ask what the bank’s deadline is for disputing a charge. It depends on the bank, the card network and the reason, and missing it can end your options.

Is this fraud?

Usually not. The lines in public records are drinks, snacks, laundry and car washes of a few dollars, at the places Cantaloupe says its readers are used.¹⁹ A CTLP* prefix does not make a charge genuine, though. If someone else in your household has not used your card and you cannot place the charge after the steps above, treat it as unauthorized: call your bank, ask for a new card, and dispute it.

Why this page is on a site about held money

The companies behind CTLP* lines are paid by Cantaloupe, and a payment company can hold that money back. The incident record has no Cantaloupe holds yet. If your line starts SQ *, that one is Square, which many small sellers and food trucks use; TST* is a restaurant that takes cards through Toast; FSP* is a parking lot, association or rental paid through Fullsteam. Other lines are in the table of statement names.

Sources

1. Cantaloupe, "Customer FAQs" ("I do not recognize the business name on my statement. What is Cantaloupe?", "When will the “pending” or “hold” amount disappear?", "How do I get a refund for an item or service that I did not receive?"), and the site’s menu of business types and its footer address. cantaloupe.com/help/consumer-faqs. Read on 11 October 2026. Archived copy of 10 October 2026.
2. Cantaloupe, "Understanding Exact Authorization: A Guide for Operators", published 16 August 2024, updated 25 August 2026. cantaloupe.com. Read on 11 October 2026. Archived copy of 10 October 2026.
3. USA Technologies, "Consumer FAQs", as captured by the web archive on 20 October 2014. Archived copy of 20 October 2014. Read on 11 October 2026.
4. Business Wire release on Nasdaq.com, "USA Technologies Officially Launches as Cantaloupe, Inc.", 19 April 2021. nasdaq.com. Read on 11 October 2026. Archived copy of 10 October 2026.
5. 365 Retail Markets, "365 Retail Markets Completes Acquisition of Cantaloupe to Expand Technology Capabilities and Customer Value", 11 May 2026. 365retailmarkets.com. Read on 11 October 2026. Archived copy of 10 October 2026.
6. Cantaloupe, "Compliance Updates for Cash Discount / Two-Tier Pricing", published 26 November 2025, updated 5 December 2025. cantaloupe.com. Read on 11 October 2026. Archived copy of 10 October 2026.
7. Settlement website, Jilek v. Compass Group USA, Inc. d/b/a Canteen, US District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, case no. 3:23-cv-00818: class definition, $6,940,000 settlement, claim deadline 14 November 2025. vendingmachinesettlement.com. Read on 11 October 2026. Archived copy of 13 May 2026.
8. Final Judgment and Order of Dismissal with Prejudice, Jilek v. Compass Group USA, Inc., no. 3:23-cv-00818, document 357, filed 9 January 2026, via CourtListener’s RECAP archive. PDF. Read on 11 October 2026. Archived copy of 10 October 2026.
9. State of Delaware Open Data, State Employee Credit Card Transactions, fields "merchant", "trans_dt", "merchandise_amt", "dept_name" and "cat_descr". Lines starting CTLP or USA*. Queried and counted on 11 October 2026.
10. University of South Carolina, team card statements published by the Controller’s Office: February 2020, March 2025, April 2026. Read on 11 October 2026. Archived copy of February 2020, of March 2025, of April 2026.
11. South Carolina Comptroller General, State Government Credit Card Usage Report: October 2025, November 2025. Read on 11 October 2026. The reports print card holders’ names; we do not repeat them. Archived copy of October 2025, of November 2025.
12. Reddit, r/personalfinance, "Thought I was getting scammed again… turns out it was a vending machine", posted 17 June 2025, the poster’s own account. reddit.com. Read in the web archive’s copy on 11 October 2026. Archived copy of 27 January 2026.
13. Canteen, "FAQs", "How do I request a refund from a purchase I made at a vending machine?". canteen.com. Read on 11 October 2026. Archived copy of 10 October 2026.