What Is ASK Global Solutions on My Bank Statement?
ASK Global Solutions is a Manchester payment technology company that supplies self-service kiosks and card payment terminals to arcades, bars, ice rinks and retail venues. If its name is on your statement, you almost certainly used a machine it operates — the venue's own name never reached your bank.
The reason it looks like a stranger: you paid a kiosk, not a shop. When a venue uses a third-party payment terminal, the terminal operator can be the name that gets passed to your bank. You remember the arcade. Your statement remembers the company that built the machine in it.
At a glance
- Company
- ASK Global Solutions Ltd
- Companies House
- 10639436
- Incorporated
- 25 February 2017
- Registered office
- Heald Green, Manchester M22 5LB
- Status
- Active
- Sector
- Payment kiosks for gaming, leisure and retail
Who they actually are
ASK Global Solutions Ltd, company number 10639436, incorporated on 25 February 2017 and registered at Units 7b & 7c Ashbrook Approach, Ashbrook Business Park, Longstone Road, Heald Green, Manchester M22 5LB. The company is active and registered under SIC code 62012, business and domestic software development.
They supply payment and change-handling machines — kiosks, auto cashiers and card terminals — to venues that need automated payment. Their product range includes gaming kiosks and retail self-service units, and they handle both cash and cashless transactions.
They are a genuine, established UK company. This is not a shell name.
Why it is on your statement
Think back to where you were, not what you bought. The charge is nearly always one of these:
- An amusement arcade or gaming venue — money loaded onto a card or play account at a kiosk rather than paid at a counter.
- A bar or entertainment venue with a self-service payment machine.
- An ice rink, trampoline park or leisure centre where you paid at a terminal rather than a till.
- A retail self-service kiosk — the auto-cashier type where you pay a machine instead of a person.
The amount is usually a round figure, because kiosk payments are often top-ups rather than itemised purchases. A £10 or £20 charge with no obvious shop attached is the classic pattern.
Is it a scam?
There is no established scam operating under this name. ASK Global Solutions is a real payment technology supplier with a Companies House record going back to 2017, and the name appears on statements because of how card processing attributes the merchant — not because anyone is hiding.
That said, "the company is real" is not the same as "you made this payment". Two different questions:
Can you place the venue? If you were at an arcade, leisure centre or bar around that date, the charge is explained and there is nothing to do.
Can you not place it at all? If nobody in your household was anywhere like that, treat it as you would any unrecognised card payment. A real company's name on the statement does not mean your card was used by you.
What the descriptor can look like
It rarely appears as the clean company name. Expect variations, often with a location or terminal reference attached, and sometimes truncated by your bank's character limit. Statement descriptors are cut differently by different banks, so the same payment can look shorter in your app than on a paper statement or in an export.
If part of the string is a place name, that is your strongest clue — it usually names the venue's town rather than Manchester.
If you cannot account for it
Work in this order.
Check the date against your movements. Kiosk payments are made in person, so the charge places you somewhere specific on a specific day. That narrows it faster than anything else.
Ask whoever else uses the card. Arcade and leisure kiosk charges are very often a family member's, particularly where a card has been shared or a child used a saved card.
If it is still unexplained, treat it as unauthorised. Your bank must refund an unauthorised payment by the end of the next working day, and your liability before you report is capped at £35. Do not delay on the basis that the amount is small — a small test payment is a common precursor to a larger one.
If it is a recurring charge
A one-off kiosk payment should not repeat. If you are seeing the same amount monthly, that is not a normal kiosk transaction and is worth stopping rather than investigating slowly — you can withdraw consent for a recurring card payment through your bank without the company's agreement.
- All four agencies: in one report: Experian, Equifax, TransUnion & Crediva
- Spot the errors: and old debts that quietly get applications declined
- It's a soft search: so checking never leaves a mark on your file
- See what lenders see: the same information banks pull when they assess you
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🛡️ Build your recovery plan
Tick what applies to you. The order below is deliberate: most of these organisations will ask for your Action Fraud reference number, so doing it in this sequence saves you making the same call twice.
Nothing ticked yet: the steps below are the ones that apply to everyone. Tick a box above to add the rest.
- 1
Report it to Action Fraud and get your crime reference number
Action Fraud: the national reporting centre for fraud
- Onlinereportfraud.police.uk
- Phone0300 123 2040
Do this second, and do it before you contact anyone else. Almost every organisation in this list (lenders, credit reference agencies, debt collectors) will ask for the crime reference number Action Fraud gives you, and without it you end up making the same call twice. It also creates the official record you'll rely on if you have to dispute anything later. Expect an update within 28 working days, though that's about the investigation, not about clearing your name; that part is on you and starts now.
Have ready: What happened and roughly when · Any account or reference numbers involved
- 2
Get all three credit reports and read every line
Experian, Equifax and TransUnion
- Experian0800 013 8888
- Equifax0800 014 2955
- TransUnion0330 024 7574
All three, not one. Lenders report to different agencies, so a fraudulent account can sit on one file and be invisible on the others: checking a single report is the most common way people miss the second and third account. You're looking for accounts you didn't open, searches you didn't authorise, and addresses linked to your name that you've never lived at. That last one matters more than it sounds: a linked address you don't recognise is often how the fraud was set up in the first place.
Have ready: Your addresses for the last six years
- 3
Add a CIFAS protective registration
CIFAS: the UK fraud prevention service
- Onlinecifas.org.uk
- Phone0330 460 9601
This puts a warning flag against your name in the National Fraud Database, so member organisations run extra identity checks before granting credit in your name. It costs £30 and lasts two years. It does not affect your credit score, and it doesn't touch accounts you already hold, but it will make your own applications slower, which is the trade-off. If someone has your details, that's usually a trade worth making. Note that not every application is checked against the database, so treat it as a strong deterrent rather than a lock.
- 4
Check you're on the electoral register at the right address
Your local council
A quick one that's worth doing while you're here. The electoral roll is one of the main ways lenders confirm you live where you say you do, and being missing from it both weakens your own applications and makes it easier for someone to claim your identity elsewhere.
- 5
Escalate if you get nowhere
Financial Ombudsman Service, or the ICO
- Financial Ombudsman0800 023 4567
- ICOico.org.uk
If a bank refuses to refund you, or a lender won't remove an entry it has accepted is fraudulent, complain to the firm first and give it eight weeks. After that, or as soon as you get a final response, take it to the Financial Ombudsman. It's free and its decisions bind the firm. Where the argument is specifically about inaccurate data staying on your credit file, the Information Commissioner's Office can also look at it. Both routes cost you nothing.
- 6
Close the door behind you
You
Change passwords on your email account first, not your banking: email is the master key, because it's where password resets land. Turn on two-factor authentication wherever it's offered. If documents were lost or stolen, report the passport or driving licence to the issuing body so it can be flagged. And set a reminder to re-check your credit reports in three months: fraudulent applications sometimes surface long after the original breach.
Contact details and process reflect Action Fraud, CIFAS, the credit reference agencies and National Debtline guidance for England and Wales. Scotland reports fraud through Police Scotland on 101 rather than Action Fraud; the rest of the process is the same. General information, not legal advice: free, independent help is available from National Debtline, Citizens Advice and StepChange.
