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As you know, credit cards have different % of cashback on purchases. For example, 1% on anything, 2% on groceries and 3% on gas.
I was wondering, how do they track the % or if it's even tracked correctly. Lets say I go to walmart, and I buy groceries (fruits, food, etc) and at the same time I buy a laptop. Do they separate the items for the cashback, do they include everything in a category?
And even then, how do we know it's correct, and if it isn't the correct cashback, we do we do?
It usually depends on how the merchant is coded. you can see it on your statement. for example I top up my mobile phone and it is a travel charge because I use a train ticket vending machine for this. if I would do it online it would show as telecommunication charge. a small trick to get my full cash back
Ditto. It's the coding of the individual merchant, not the items you buy. For example if you go to a Walmart superstore, Visa and Mastercard will consider everything you buy there to be groceries, but smaller neighborhood Walmarts aren't coded as grocery stores, so your purchase is credited differently. There's a site online (don't have the URL) handy where you can find out the merchant codes for every business.
Keep in mind that Amex and Discover may not use the same codes, though. That online site is Visa and I believe MC.
@GaTech wrote:
Walmart generally wouldn't qualify for 3% cash back on groceries because it isn't a supermarket.
Source: AMEX BCE
This is store and network dependent. Some Walmart's are coded as discount stores and some are coded as grocery/supermarket for Visa, for example.
http://visa.via.infonow.net/locator/usa/supplier/NewSearch.do
You can look up specific stores for Visa at that link.
@b_seeker wrote:
@GaTech wrote:
Walmart generally wouldn't qualify for 3% cash back on groceries because it isn't a supermarket.
Source: AMEX BCEThis is store and network dependent. Some Walmart's are coded as discount stores and some are coded as grocery/supermarket for Visa, for example.
http://visa.via.infonow.net/locator/usa/supplier/NewSearch.do
You can look up specific stores for Visa at that link.
Is there a similar site for AMEX?
@CEOriginal wrote:
@b_seeker wrote:
@GaTech wrote:
Walmart generally wouldn't qualify for 3% cash back on groceries because it isn't a supermarket.
Source: AMEX BCEThis is store and network dependent. Some Walmart's are coded as discount stores and some are coded as grocery/supermarket for Visa, for example.
http://visa.via.infonow.net/locator/usa/supplier/NewSearch.do
You can look up specific stores for Visa at that link.
Is there a similar site for AMEX?
Not that I'm aware of. Amex does seem to hate Walmart though so maybe it's safe to assume they don't have them coded as grocery stores.
Has anyone had the program where they disagree with the cashback given? like if they got 1% when they should have gotten 3%? and complained?
Also, are most rewards cards translated as 1 point = 1 dollar? In the sense that once you get 1 point, you get 1 dollar back.
@tio_jj wrote:Has anyone had the program where they disagree with the cashback given? like if they got 1% when they should have gotten 3%? and complained?
Also, are most rewards cards translated as 1 point = 1 dollar? In the sense that once you get 1 point, you get 1 dollar back.
It actually depends. Depending on how you redeem them, people place higher or lower values on the points. Generally, you can find this info on the specific reward system online. An example is Hilton HHonors points are values less than a cent per point but Starpoints are valued higher. It can get quite complicated.
Here is a example of Citi's TYPs:
In general, you can get at least a cent per point. This is probably just the rewards junkie in me going into too much detail on how to truly maximize rewards beyond just choosing the right cards.
I've never had an issue with that program giving the wrong rewards amount. Most of the time, if the merchant is coded like you think they should be, they will always award properly. I have seen a couple cases where Discover messed up but when calling it, Discover was more than happy to correct it (and in one case, resulted in a much higher cash back amount awarded than should have been).
Had to edit to fix that stupid quoting issues that pops up and part of my post didn't save for some reason.