topic Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC? in Credit Cards

Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Revelate — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 02:33:07 GMT

Tried Google and found some individual cards but wondering if there's any consolidated list available of card rewards matching MCC's (Granted this would change over time).

Have ran into two sorta dumb issues with rewards within the last few months and trying to optimize it better without trial and error:

Amazon Kindle purchases - Record Shops =MCC 5735

Online food delivery service: MISC FOOD STORES-SPECIALITY,CONVENIENCE,MARKETS,VENDING MACHINES = MCC 5499

The first one was solved neatly thanks to a Nixon suggestion of simply purchasing Amazon GC which garners full Sallie rewards, and using that as the payment for Kindle purchases.

The second, Sallie doesn't recognize as a grocery store; however, reading the terms and conditions apparently both the BOFA Cash Rewards and the Duck card do recognize it as Grocery... which brings up the question of if there's any quick way I can look up online transactions which sometimes come in with squirrley / unexpected MCC codes, and see what card is suited for it? Google didn't pull up results from the usual forums that I could find easily though I'm going to continue digging, figured would ask here if someone knew somewhere offhand.

Many thanks!

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

longtime_lurker — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 02:40:14 GMT

Definitely following this post to see if anything comes up. Have definitely tried this google search to no avail

I can't even find for MC what Visa has which is a list of vendors and what MCC they use - which would be a great help! Visa and MC are roughly the same, but I have found differences

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Themanwhocan — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 02:43:57 GMT

http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2012/11/09/best-category-bonuses/

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Revelate — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 03:05:35 GMT

@Themanwhocan wrote:
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2012/11/09/best-category-bonuses/

Hrm close, that has the common ones but doesn't for example have 5499 in it or a tremendous number of other transaction codes. Thank you though for that!

Guess will just toss it out there if we can't find something more detailed: would there be any community interest in compiling a data set which could be turned into a searchable format pretty easily in terms of what MCC triggers rewards bonuses where? Might be able to build an Amex translation table too i.e. I'm trying my apparently 5499-coded transaction on my BCP to see if it's counted under Amex's version of groceries where Sallie just defaults it.

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

longtime_lurker — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 03:09:10 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
@Themanwhocan wrote:
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2012/11/09/best-category-bonuses/
Hrm close, that has the common ones but doesn't for example have 5499 in it or a tremendous number of other transaction codes. Thank you though for that!

Guess will just toss it out there if we can't find something more detailed: would there be any community interest in compiling a data set which could be turned into a searchable format pretty easily in terms of what MCC triggers rewards bonuses where? Might be able to build an Amex translation table too i.e. I'm trying my apparently 5499-coded transaction on my BCP to see if it's counted under Amex's version of groceries where Sallie just defaults it.

I would be willing to assist as much as possible. Curious though, how are you pulling the MCC? My Voice shows me the MCC used, but a lot of my cards do not.

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Ghoshida — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 03:22:17 GMT

@longtime_lurker wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@Themanwhocan wrote:
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2012/11/09/best-category-bonuses/
Hrm close, that has the common ones but doesn't for example have 5499 in it or a tremendous number of other transaction codes. Thank you though for that!

Guess will just toss it out there if we can't find something more detailed: would there be any community interest in compiling a data set which could be turned into a searchable format pretty easily in terms of what MCC triggers rewards bonuses where? Might be able to build an Amex translation table too i.e. I'm trying my apparently 5499-coded transaction on my BCP to see if it's counted under Amex's version of groceries where Sallie just defaults it.

I would be willing to assist as much as possible. Curious though, how are you pulling the MCC? My Voice shows me the MCC used, but a lot of my cards do not.

If you know your vendor's details, at least name and zipcode, you could find it here: https://www.visa.com/supplierlocator/search/index.jsp

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Revelate — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 03:27:16 GMT

@longtime_lurker wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@Themanwhocan wrote:
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2012/11/09/best-category-bonuses/
Hrm close, that has the common ones but doesn't for example have 5499 in it or a tremendous number of other transaction codes. Thank you though for that!

Guess will just toss it out there if we can't find something more detailed: would there be any community interest in compiling a data set which could be turned into a searchable format pretty easily in terms of what MCC triggers rewards bonuses where? Might be able to build an Amex translation table too i.e. I'm trying my apparently 5499-coded transaction on my BCP to see if it's counted under Amex's version of groceries where Sallie just defaults it.

I would be willing to assist as much as possible. Curious though, how are you pulling the MCC? My Voice shows me the MCC used, but a lot of my cards do not.

There are some things which we are going to get stuck on short of testing known transactions on other cards.

I spot checked a couple of mine, Barclays reports the description which 1:1 matches Visa MCC codes on any number of PDF's I can find on the Visa transaction code listings, Chase does not, and Amex uses their own wonky mapping.

With Chase it'll be easy, I can drop a charge on my Barclay's or any other card which reports MCC, get the code (can do that for anything really) dump it on Chase if it matches a reward category and see directly in the Chase interface if it triggers a bonus category or not.

Amex looks harder at a glance: have MCC code from Barclay's in this example, but it'll translate into an Amex Category and think have to look at the rewards generated at statement time and try to napkin math things, which will somewhat suck. Not too hard for me potentially as I don't really use my Amex's much so I can do the Grocery analysis pretty easily... the CSA I tried falls under - Category: Business Services - Other Services. No bueno for BCP certainly, haven't seen the MCC on it yet.

Some like BOFA publish their rewards MCC's in their terms, Duck Card and a couple of other CU's I found while searching for 5499 specifically. Not all lenders do this though.

I think it won't be hard to get a baseline of common cards and common redemptions given the breath of cards and user spending here; however, some of the more esoteric ones are just going to take time and the Amex bit is going to take work.

That's my first blush theory anyway, others hopefully might have better ideas if this route is attempted. Presentation and the aggregation isn't hard and the costs are trivial, getting some of the data will take time though.

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Revelate — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 03:33:46 GMT

@Ghoshida wrote:
@longtime_lurker wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@Themanwhocan wrote:
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2012/11/09/best-category-bonuses/
Hrm close, that has the common ones but doesn't for example have 5499 in it or a tremendous number of other transaction codes. Thank you though for that!

Guess will just toss it out there if we can't find something more detailed: would there be any community interest in compiling a data set which could be turned into a searchable format pretty easily in terms of what MCC triggers rewards bonuses where? Might be able to build an Amex translation table too i.e. I'm trying my apparently 5499-coded transaction on my BCP to see if it's counted under Amex's version of groceries where Sallie just defaults it.

I would be willing to assist as much as possible. Curious though, how are you pulling the MCC? My Voice shows me the MCC used, but a lot of my cards do not.
If you know your vendor's details, at least name and zipcode, you could find it here: https://www.visa.com/supplierlocator/search/index.jsp

Ah handy, thanks for that! Might work community sourced heh. Online transactions might be hard to dig out there but definitely a good data source.

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

longtime_lurker — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 03:29:53 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
@longtime_lurker wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@Themanwhocan wrote:
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2012/11/09/best-category-bonuses/
Hrm close, that has the common ones but doesn't for example have 5499 in it or a tremendous number of other transaction codes. Thank you though for that!

Guess will just toss it out there if we can't find something more detailed: would there be any community interest in compiling a data set which could be turned into a searchable format pretty easily in terms of what MCC triggers rewards bonuses where? Might be able to build an Amex translation table too i.e. I'm trying my apparently 5499-coded transaction on my BCP to see if it's counted under Amex's version of groceries where Sallie just defaults it.

I would be willing to assist as much as possible. Curious though, how are you pulling the MCC? My Voice shows me the MCC used, but a lot of my cards do not.
There are some things which we are going to get stuck on short of testing known transactions on other cards.

I spot checked a couple of mine, Barclays reports the description which 1:1 matches Visa MCC codes on any number of PDF's I can find on the Visa transaction code listings, Chase does not, and Amex uses their own wonky mapping.

With Chase it'll be easy, I can drop a charge on my Barclay's or any other card which reports MCC, get the code (can do that for anything really) dump it on Chase if it matches a reward category and see directly in the Chase interface if it triggers a bonus category or not.

Amex looks harder at a glance: have MCC code from Barclay's in this example, but it'll translate into an Amex Category and think have to look at the rewards generated at statement time and try to napkin math things, which will somewhat suck. Not too hard for me potentially as I don't really use my Amex's much so I can do the Grocery analysis pretty easily... the CSA I tried falls under - Category: Business Services - Other Services. No bueno for BCP certainly, haven't seen the MCC on it yet.

Some like BOFA publish their rewards MCC's in their terms, Duck Card and a couple of other CU's I found while searching for 5499 specifically. Not all lenders do this though.

I think it won't be hard to get a baseline of common cards and common redemptions given the breath of cards and user spending here; however, some of the more esoteric ones are just going to take time and the Amex bit is going to take work.

That's my first blush theory anyway, others hopefully might have better ideas if this route is attempted. Presentation and the aggregation isn't hard and the costs are trivial, getting some of the data will take time though.

Yeah, I think time will be the biggest factor, however I think this is definitely doable! Did not realize Barclay's was 1:1 with the Visa MCCs from the link provided above. However you want to start, let me know.

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Revelate — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 03:42:16 GMT

@longtime_lurker wrote:
Yeah, I think time will be the biggest factor, however I think this is definitely doable! Did not realize Barclay's was 1:1 with the Visa MCCs from the link provided above. However you want to start, let me know.

Need a dumb development project to try, this one's simple to start, can pretty it up later. What can people rationally expect for free on a one off haha.

Likely will start with a list of common cards, that won't be hard to find. Then dump the Visa MCC list and import it. Once that's done we can start the real data acquisition of matching things up and tossing up a simple interface for people to either add cards or transaction codes supported with a dirt simple search interface on it either by text description or MCC code explicitly.

Not sure if there's an easy (read as something I could do myself in a short time period) way I could get at the data from the visa supplier link that was suggested, have to try that on a wierd one like Target or Walmart which codes differently based on location for giggles. Can probably just link to the site and let people grab their MCC from there for the end-user facing lookup bit.

Will wait for a bit to see if someone has a better and already available solution heh.

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Themanwhocan — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 03:48:56 GMT

US Bank is putting the MCC codes in their credit card transaction downloads.

In the credit card Account Activity section, click on Download Transactions

Select the time frame

Change the Download To: field to Microsoft Excel (CSV)

Click Download Transactions.

Its easier if you have Excel. Otherwise you could check with a text editor.

There is a LONG integer followed by a Semicolon, then the MCC code followed by 4 Semicolon+space pairs.

This is how part of the data file looks in notepad. 5732 is MCC for Electronics Stores.

"WWW.NEWEGG.COM 800-390-1119 CA","24692165160000791083512; 05732; ; ; ; ","

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Revelate — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 03:52:39 GMT

That's handy TMWC, easy to import CSV into anything including straight into a database for online searches later

Probably wind up doing a table for specific retailers though some have to be caveated if they have different MCC's for different locations I guess and some I wouldn't have expected (Starbucks = restaurant for example) might be handy to have a searchable list on. That's a lot more data intensive (read cost) to do it fully but major / common purchase places wouldn't be a problem.

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 04:20:40 GMT

To play the devil's advocate, why bother! The list will have some inaccuracies( (for example, in the grocery quarter, didn't Freedom specifically exclude Walmart and Target regardless of MCC) and change over time, and no-one may have good data for your particular target for example. Sometimes just easier to make a small transaction on the card of interest and see if it works.

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Revelate — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 06:00:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
To play the devil's advocate, why bother! The list will have some inaccuracies( (for example, in the grocery quarter, didn't Freedom specifically exclude Walmart and Target regardless of MCC) and change over time, and no-one may have good data for your particular target for example. Sometimes just easier to make a small transaction on the card of interest and see if it works.

You have something of a point; however, a lot of places aren't small charge friendly. Sure we could rationally see what's what, but realistically if someone were to be looking either for a card in their portfolio, or desiring a card that their spend falls on (vis a vis, I'm looking at $60/week on that 5499 for an indeterminate amount of time, that adds up) and with the vagaries of online shops and merchant codes, as this progresses there's no guaruntee it's going to get easier. You're right this sort of thing changes over time (lenders tidy up MCC's for rewards or shops have multiple MCC's or switch MCC's, rotating rewards, etc) but there's enough folks that might be interested maybe it gets some traction.

When we're talking community sourced information, the information is only as good as the community provides. It's why the credit pulls database for all it's promise, never really lived up to it's potential - just not enough people updating it. Even I haven't been and I'm a avowed user of it personally. Admittedly I suck as a result.

My involvement falls under hobby and possible community benefit - if it doesn't work out, just shut it down or leave it idling on a spare domain forever in hopes the dataset reaches critical mass. My thinking anyway.

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 12:44:18 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
To play the devil's advocate, why bother! The list will have some inaccuracies( (for example, in the grocery quarter, didn't Freedom specifically exclude Walmart and Target regardless of MCC) and change over time, and no-one may have good data for your particular target for example. Sometimes just easier to make a small transaction on the card of interest and see if it works.

You have something of a point; however, a lot of places aren't small charge friendly. Sure we could rationally see what's what, but realistically if someone were to be looking either for a card in their portfolio, or desiring a card that their spend falls on (vis a vis, I'm looking at $60/week on that 5499 for an indeterminate amount of time, that adds up) and with the vagaries of online shops and merchant codes, as this progresses there's no guaruntee it's going to get easier. You're right this sort of thing changes over time (lenders tidy up MCC's for rewards or shops have multiple MCC's or switch MCC's, rotating rewards, etc) but there's enough folks that might be interested maybe it gets some traction.

When we're talking community sourced information, the information is only as good as the community provides. It's why the credit pulls database for all it's promise, never really lived up to it's potential - just not enough people updating it. Even I haven't been and I'm a avowed user of it personally. Admittedly I suck as a result.

My involvement falls under hobby and possible community benefit - if it doesn't work out, just shut it down or leave it idling on a spare domain forever in hopes the dataset reaches critical mass. My thinking anyway.

Oh, as a fellow suckee, I would use this system if/when it exists. I'm just concerned it will generate lots of traffic of the type "YOU said that Amex EDP would earn 2x at ValueStore in Littletown IL. I just spent $10K there and only got 1x" The same can happen with credit pull db, but people who know to use it are (somewhat) aware that YMMV in that issuers can pull anything. I guess they could get used to the same thing here.

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Revelate — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 13:19:59 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
To play the devil's advocate, why bother! The list will have some inaccuracies( (for example, in the grocery quarter, didn't Freedom specifically exclude Walmart and Target regardless of MCC) and change over time, and no-one may have good data for your particular target for example. Sometimes just easier to make a small transaction on the card of interest and see if it works.

You have something of a point; however, a lot of places aren't small charge friendly. Sure we could rationally see what's what, but realistically if someone were to be looking either for a card in their portfolio, or desiring a card that their spend falls on (vis a vis, I'm looking at $60/week on that 5499 for an indeterminate amount of time, that adds up) and with the vagaries of online shops and merchant codes, as this progresses there's no guaruntee it's going to get easier. You're right this sort of thing changes over time (lenders tidy up MCC's for rewards or shops have multiple MCC's or switch MCC's, rotating rewards, etc) but there's enough folks that might be interested maybe it gets some traction.

When we're talking community sourced information, the information is only as good as the community provides. It's why the credit pulls database for all it's promise, never really lived up to it's potential - just not enough people updating it. Even I haven't been and I'm a avowed user of it personally. Admittedly I suck as a result.

My involvement falls under hobby and possible community benefit - if it doesn't work out, just shut it down or leave it idling on a spare domain forever in hopes the dataset reaches critical mass. My thinking anyway.
Oh, as a fellow suckee, I would use this system if/when it exists. I'm just concerned it will generate lots of traffic of the type "YOU said that Amex EDP would earn 2x at ValueStore in Littletown IL. I just spent $10K there and only got 1x" The same can happen with credit pull db, but people who know to use it are (somewhat) aware that YMMV in that issuers can pull anything. I guess they could get used to the same thing here.

Think the standard disclaimers would apply. "Lenders can and do update this" and heck +1 on the need for some timestamp type information. Thanks for that!

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Themanwhocan — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 17:00:26 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
@Themanwhocan wrote:
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2012/11/09/best-category-bonuses/
Hrm close, that has the common ones but doesn't for example have 5499 in it or a tremendous number of other transaction codes. Thank you though for that!

Guess will just toss it out there if we can't find something more detailed: would there be any community interest in compiling a data set which could be turned into a searchable format pretty easily in terms of what MCC triggers rewards bonuses where? Might be able to build an Amex translation table too i.e. I'm trying my apparently 5499-coded transaction on my BCP to see if it's counted under Amex's version of groceries where Sallie just defaults it.

I could sure use a 5% card for MCC 6513 ...

Edit: Other than GM BuyPower card

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Themanwhocan — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 17:18:57 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
@longtime_lurker wrote:
Yeah, I think time will be the biggest factor, however I think this is definitely doable! Did not realize Barclay's was 1:1 with the Visa MCCs from the link provided above. However you want to start, let me know.
Need a dumb development project to try, this one's simple to start, can pretty it up later. What can people rationally expect for free on a one off haha.

Likely will start with a list of common cards, that won't be hard to find. Then dump the Visa MCC list and import it. Once that's done we can start the real data acquisition of matching things up and tossing up a simple interface for people to either add cards or transaction codes supported with a dirt simple search interface on it either by text description or MCC code explicitly.

Not sure if there's an easy (read as something I could do myself in a short time period) way I could get at the data from the visa supplier link that was suggested, have to try that on a wierd one like Target or Walmart which codes differently based on location for giggles. Can probably just link to the site and let people grab their MCC from there for the end-user facing lookup bit.

Will wait for a bit to see if someone has a better and already available solution heh.

Here is a list of common cards

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Revelate — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 18:38:31 GMT

@TMWC: Yeah I was planning to pillage your rewards card lists that you've posted over time as a starting point .

Since the whole goal of this is to figure out what MCC's are in the rewards bonus category for what card, can flatly ignore all the default 1% and no rewards cards which cuts down on a tremendous amount of the data input.

Come to think of it can likely toss store cards out too since either they're not general purpose, or they're flat percentage for mechants other than the named retailers I believe?

If it got traction to the point of figuring out what best card would be for a given retail location, well that's another ballgame. Isn't there a phone app that already does that at least somewhat automagically?

Re: Any site with a list of rewards cards by MCC?

Revelate — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 21:29:55 GMT

Interesting, an old Amex conversion map not sure this completely holds for US cards today or helps determine what would get bonus or not in Amex land.

i.e. 5411 (Groceries) and 5499 (Miscellaneous Food) both map to Retail Stores.

https://secure.cmax.americanexpress.com/Internet/International/AtWork/japa/files/MCC_Directory_April07.pdf