topic Re: Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards in Credit Cards

Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards

daveg38 — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 19:26:48 GMT

Called to pester BofA about when my card was being shipped and slipped into a conversation about the 2% grocery cash back. I had asked if Walmart was on their list, and the guy said "Yes, but be careful which side of Walmart you check out. If you are dragging groceries towards the retail checkouts, it will only be 1% back. However, if you bring non-retail, along with groceries, to checkouts near the Food Center, it will all go as 2% cash back."

Found that to be interesting...can put hair gel and laptops into a food category for 2% CB if you play your cards right...heads up...

Re: Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards

LS2982 — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 19:33:25 GMT

lol, and a BofA rep. said this. Good info!

Re: Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 19:54:10 GMT

I hate to be negative but I think the BOA rep could be misinformed. I have never seen any difference in the Wal-Mart receipts no matter which register I check out at. Often times at night, they only have open one or two registers and you have no choice where to check out.

None of my Wal-Mart purchases have ever been coded as groceries for rewards on my Discover statement. (Wal-Mart is coded Merchandise and Grocery stores are coded Supermarkets) I know that Discover is skimpy with the rewards at Wal-Mart so I can't imagine that BOA would be able to squeeze more out of Wal-Mart. If BOA codes their statements like Discover, maybe someone can figure out if there are different codes depending on which register you use to check out. IMO

Re: Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards

daveg38 — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 20:07:47 GMT

Normally, I would have agreed with you, rena, yet he made it seem like it made sense, talking about how the store was divided down the middle with half being food and half being retail...so, I guess I may get a second opinion from a rep to verify or negate the statement.

Re: Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards

trumpet-205 — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 20:20:33 GMT

Walmart's merchant code is discount store. I once tried to check out at the pharmacy side of Walmart (to get 5% bonus on health), it is still coded as discount store.

I doubt it will work on grocery.

Re: Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 20:34:13 GMT

+1 I have used many cards over the years at Walmart (including BofA Cash Rewards) and not once has it ever been coded anything other than "discount store" regardless of what I buy or which lane I use to check out.

This might be a new thing they are starting? But it seems very confusing and non-uniform. More likely the CSR was misinformed, which in my experience with BofA is the norm

Re: Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards

navigatethis12 — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 22:00:45 GMT

I gave my little brother this card until I get the additional card for the Blue Cash Everyday. For some reason he shops at a Super Wal-Mart near him and the purchases shop up as "grocery store" and it does post as 2% back to the account. He also, again for some reason, goes to a Super Target near him that has groceries that also shows up at "grocery store". So I think it has to be a Super Wal-Mart for the grocery cashback to work.

This website lets you search for stores in your area to see how they are classified to Visa : http://visa.via.infonow.net/locator/usa/supplier/NewSearch.do

It is probably a safe bet that if Visa considers it a certain type of store than the other networks do as well.

Re: Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 02:11:53 GMT

@navigatethis12 wrote:
I gave my little brother this card until I get the additional card for the Blue Cash Everyday. For some reason he shops at a Super Wal-Mart near him and the purchases shop up as "grocery store" and it does post as 2% back to the account. He also, again for some reason, goes to a Super Target near him that has groceries that also shows up at "grocery store". So I think it has to be a Super Wal-Mart for the grocery cashback to work.

This website lets you search for stores in your area to see how they are classified to Visa : http://visa.via.infonow.net/locator/usa/supplier/NewSearch.do
It is probably a safe bet that if Visa considers it a certain type of store than the other networks do as well.

You may be right. All of the WalMarts and Targets in my local area are the Super varieties. And, I get 2% back when I use my Cap1 MC. It doesn't matter what I buy or from what registers. I bought a coffee maker at Target, some towels at WalMart, etc... and the purchases still netted me 2% cash back. I don't believe that the register has a thing to do with it, but rather it's how the store as a whole is coded with the merchant account.

Re: Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards

crunching_numbers — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 02:20:03 GMT

I would be interested to know how AMEX coded these same "super" Walmarts and Targets- 6% cashback from Target? hmm....

Re: Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards

Coldness — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 02:37:44 GMT

As someone who spent College years slaving away as a Walmart cashier...

That CSR had no idea what he was talking about. There's no differenece between the registers nor how they submit the info to the servers. If one breaks we literally grab another from any part of the store and plug it in.

I don't have a BoA card, but I'd imagine it's capped at 1% (or less) like every other card on the planet because Walmart pays less transaction fees then your average retailer (because they can get away with it).

Edit: Now, the distiontion between how each store is coded differently is a possibility, though. But the register most certainly has nothing whatsoever to do with it.

Re: Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards

h4ldol — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 02:37:38 GMT

Shopping at a regular Target recently apparently qualified for the 2% groceries cashback on my BoA Cash Rewards card. I was surprised to see that considering that those types of stores usually don't count as supermarkets/groceries.

Re: Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 03:06:27 GMT

@Coldness wrote:
As someone who spent College years slaving away as a Walmart cashier...

That CSR had no idea what he was talking about. There's no differenece between the registers nor how they submit the info to the servers. If one breaks we literally grab another from any part of the store and plug it in.

I don't have a BoA card, but I'd imagine it's capped at 1% (or less) like every other card on the planet because Walmart pays less transaction fees then your average retailer (because they can get away with it).

Edit: Now, the distiontion between how each store is coded differently is a possibility, though. But the register most certainly has nothing whatsoever to do with it.

I believe this to be the case.

Re: Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards

daveg38 — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:45:00 GMT

Well, I kinda get mixed feelings. Several people are saying it works on SuperWallies, so I may go with that...CSR I talked to this morning told me that Walmart was coded retail...so, what I will do (just to get my $50 bonus) is spend $100 on Friday's Wally trip and buy food just to see how this Walmart works...will post results here.

Re: Interesting Info About BofA 123 Cash Rewards

learnin113 — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:08:02 GMT

OH boy, I'm so confused by this thread, I guess you wont know if its 1% or 2 unless you try it for yourself