A D J*WSJ charge on your card: a Wall Street Journal subscription that renews every four weeks

D J is Dow Jones & Company, which publishes The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s. A line that starts with D J*, or reads WSJ/BARRONS SUBSCRIPTI, is a subscription to one of them or to a bundle. In the card lines of one US state, the same subscription changed its name on the statement twice in nine months, so a line you do not recognise can be a plan you have paid for years.¹ The Journal’s offers today are billed “every 4 weeks”, which is 13 charges a year, not 12, and the low introductory price is followed by the standard one without a new sign-up.³

What the state’s card data shows

The State of Delaware publishes every purchase its employees make on state cards. The data has 826 lines under five Dow Jones names, from 27 June 2014 to 16 September 2026, paid by 46 offices in 16 departments: 812 charges totalling 60,267.46 and 14 credits totalling 1,391.62. Every line is filed under the merchant category for subscription merchants.¹ By form:

These are agency cards, so the plans are not always those a household would buy. What the lines show about the way the Journal bills can still be counted.¹

• One subscription, three names. One office in the Department of State paid 38.99 every 28 days. Its lines read WSJ/BARRONS SUBSCRIPTI until 8 November 2023, D J*WALL-ST-JOURNAL from 6 December 2023 to 17 July 2024, and D J*WSJ from 14 August 2024, without a gap in the 28-day rhythm. If you look for last year’s name on this year’s statement, you may not find it.
• From once a month to every 28 days. When the same office paid the same amount twice in a row, the gap was 29 to 31 days in almost every case until 2022 (in 2022, 57 a month apart and 6 of 28 days). In 2023 it turned: 56 gaps of 28 days and 11 of a month. From 2024 every one is 28 days, with a single exception in 2026. The subscribe page’s own answer to “When will my price change?” still says the plan will “automatically renew each month”, while the price under each offer is “every 4 weeks”.³
• A year at the introductory price, then the full one. The Office of the Governor paid 4.00 every 28 days, 13 times from 28 March 2025 to 27 February 2026, and 38.99 from 27 March 2026. An office in the Department of Finance paid 16.00 thirteen times, then 54.99 from 26 March 2026. In 2021 and 2022, two other offices paid 4.00 twelve times in a year, a month apart.
• The price goes up on its own. One office in the Department of Safety and Homeland Security paid 54.99 until January 2024, 64.99 from 19 February 2024 and 76.99 from 19 January 2026. The Department of State office above went from 38.99 to 44.99 on 12 August 2026. The subscribe page saved on 16 October 2026 lists 44.99 and 54.99 every 4 weeks as the prices after the first year.³

A card-spend company’s lookup page for the Journal, built from its own customers’ cards, lists still other forms, among them WSJ DIGITAL, D J*BARRON'S, D J*WALL ST JRNL IPAD, D J*DOWJONES NEWS and D J*WSJ/BARRONS/MKTWCH.⁸

What the rules say about stopping it and getting money back

The Dow Jones terms of use, in force since 30 June 2026, say that unless you paid by check “we will bill all charges automatically to your credit or debit card”, that “as a general matter, all fees and charges are non-refundable”, and that you must cancel before the subscription renews to avoid being billed for the next term. Refunds and credits are at the company’s discretion.⁴

The cancellation and refund policy, read on 27 October 2026, sets out what happens when you cancel:²

The phone has a history here. In April 2022, in its answer to a complaint at the Better Business Bureau, the company wrote that “all subscribers must call in to cancel prior to the renewal date and that all subscriptions are non-refundable”, and that “Cancellations cannot be accepted via email.” In another, in May 2022, it said online cancellation was available only to subscribers whose billing address was in one particular state, which the published copy blanks out.⁶ In July 2023 the National Advertising Division of BBB National Programs, a self-regulatory body, looked at the Journal’s “cancel anytime” claim. It found that in some cases the only way to cancel had been to call, and that during its review the company finished rolling out online cancellation worldwide; on that basis it found the claim supported.⁵ Today the policy offers online cancellation, but on a 6-month or yearly plan bought since 9 July 2026 only a phone call brings back the unused part.²

What cardholders say they found

The people below wrote on Reddit, on Twitter and at the Better Business Bureau. These are their own accounts, not our findings, and we have not heard Dow Jones’s side except where it answered in public. We picked them because the writer says what happened on the card; we did not count them.

• From 4 dollars to 39. A complainant at the BBB in April 2022 says they paid 4 dollars a month for a digital subscription, found a charge of 39 dollars, and learned that it had been charged every month since November 2021, around 200 dollars or more in six months. They say they had not used the site in that time and were refused a refund. The company’s answer is the one quoted above: call to cancel, no refunds.⁶ The Governor’s office lines in the state data show the same step, from 4.00 to 38.99.¹
• Cancelled by phone, charged anyway. A student in November 2016 says they called a week before a trial ended, were told the subscription was cancelled, were charged 35 dollars, and after an hour on the phone were told “they can’t do that” about a refund.⁷
• Two charges after cancelling. A writer on Twitter in May 2019 says they cancelled, were charged the next month and again the month after, were refused a refund, and opened a dispute with their bank, which told them it could take up to two weeks.⁷
• The new card number. Under a May 2019 Reddit post about the Journal’s cancellation chat, one commenter, whose account is now deleted, says that replacing the card did not stop the charges and that the Journal told them it could get the new card details from the card company. Another, who says they worked in credit card disputes for a large bank, says that once you have asked to cancel, a later charge can be disputed as an unauthorised recurring payment.⁷ Those are their explanations; we have not confirmed either.

How to find out which one it is, and stop it

1. Read the line D J*WSJ, D J*WSJ ONLINE, D J*WALL-ST-JOURNAL and WSJ/BARRONS SUBSCRIPTI are the forms we found in the data. A bundle can include Barron’s, MarketWatch and Investor’s Business Daily, so a charge for one of them can read as the Journal.³ Count the days since the last one: 28 days apart is the Journal’s rhythm now.
2. Find the account Search every inbox for “Wall Street Journal”, “WSJ”, “Barron’s” and “Dow Jones”, receipts and renewal notices included. Ask the people who use your card. If it was bought through a third party, such as an app store, the policy says to contact them directly.²
3. Decide how to cancel On a monthly or quarterly plan, cancelling online on the Manage/Cancel Subscription(s) page stops the next charge and nothing is refunded. On a 6-month or yearly plan bought on or after 9 July 2026, call 1-800-JOURNAL (568-7625), or 1-609-212-4029, if you want the prorated refund.² Write down the date, the time and the name of the person you spoke to, and keep the confirmation.
4. Look at the next statement If a line comes back after the date you cancelled, send Dow Jones the confirmation and ask for that charge back. If it is not yours at all, ask your card company to replace the card as well.
5. If that does not settle it Send your card company a written dispute with your name, address, account number and what the mistake is, so that it reaches them within 60 days after the first bill with the error was sent. The company must acknowledge it in writing within 30 days and resolve it within 90, and you may withhold the disputed amount while it does.⁹ Say in it when you cancelled and how.

Is this a scam?

The names are real: public bodies in one state paid them on 826 lines over twelve years.¹ A D J* line you cannot match to an account is a reason to ask Dow Jones and your card company, not a reason to keep paying. It does not by itself show that the charge was made by Dow Jones: a stolen card number can be used to buy any subscription.

Why this page is on a site about held money

This site records payment companies that hold back money that belongs to someone else. Dow Jones is not in the incident record. This page is here because the statement name has changed several times, because the bill comes 13 times a year, and because a refund that depends on how you cancel is money that stays with the company when people do not know. Other newspapers that renew by themselves are under NYTIMES* and GAN*NEWSPAPER SUB; another subscription a federal case is about is CHEGG ORDER. Other lines are in the table of statement names.

Sources

1. State of Delaware Open Data, State Employee Credit Card Transactions, fields "merchant", "trans_dt", "merchandise_amt", "cat_descr", "dept_name" and "div_name". Lines under the five Dow Jones names. Queried and counted on 27 October 2026: 826 lines, 46 offices, 812 charges totalling 60,267.46 and 14 credits. The gaps are counted between consecutive charges of the same amount by the same office.
2. The Wall Street Journal Help Center, “Cancellation & Refund Policy”: phone numbers, the rules for monthly, quarterly, 6-month and annual plans before and after 9 July 2026, third-party purchases. customercenter.wsj.com. Read on 27 October 2026. The Internet Archive could not save this page.
3. The Wall Street Journal, subscribe page: prices “every 4 weeks”, the price after the first year, the bundle’s titles, and the answer to “When will my price change?”. wsj.com (archive, saved 16 October 2026). Read on 27 October 2026; the figures quoted are from the archived copy.
4. Dow Jones, Terms of Use, effective 30 June 2026: section 4 (billing, non-refundable fees) and section 5.1 (automatic renewal). wsj.com, which leads to dowjones.com (archive, saved 17 October 2026). Read on 27 October 2026.
5. BBB National Programs, “National Advertising Division Finds Dow Jones ‘Cancel Anytime’ Claim for Wall Street Journal Subscription Supported”, 26 July 2023. bbbprograms.org (archive). Read on 27 October 2026.
6. Better Business Bureau, complaints page for Dow Jones & Company, Inc., in the copy the Internet Archive saved on 3 June 2022: complaints of 19 April 2022 (the 4 to 39 dollar account and the business response), 18 April 2022 and 23 May 2022 (the business responses on calling and on online cancellation), each the complainant’s own account. bbb.org (archive). Read on 27 October 2026. The live page was not reachable from our network.
7. Accounts in the writers’ own words: Reddit, November 2016 (reddit.com, archive); Twitter thread of 29 May 2019, as collected by Thread Reader (threadreaderapp.com, archive); Reddit, May 2019, the comments quoted (reddit.com, archive). Read on 27 October 2026 in the archived copies.
8. Ramp, “Wall Street Journal” charge finder page: the forms of the name it lists. ramp.com (archive). Read on 27 October 2026.
9. Federal Trade Commission, “Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges”: how to write to the card issuer, the 60-day, 30-day and 90-day periods, and withholding the disputed amount. consumer.ftc.gov. Read on 27 October 2026.