Chase 5% for April (groceries/cigarettes)

[ShiningDown]

If you buy a carton of cigarettes at a grocery store would that show up as food or something else. Do you get the 5% discount on anything at the store or just food.

When I buy cigarettes at a gas station it shows up as gas but Im not sure if  I get the 5% bonus even though it says gas and its really cigarettes. 

[FrugalRican]

I'm pretty sure it goes by what establishment you are making a purchase at, not what purchases you are making.

[Anonymous]

Yea true but cigarettes? How many establishments identify themselves as smoke shops
I've seen them but. That's just a waste of a category and they know it. I would be busy using
another card but that's exactly what I plan to do when categories like this come up.

[lanc]

From Chase:

 Merchants who accept Visa/ MasterCard credit cards are assigned a merchant code based on the kinds of products and services they sell. Chase groups similar merchant codes into categories for purposes of making rewards offers to you. Chase makes every effort to include all relevant merchant codes in its listed categories. However, even though a merchant or the items that it sells may appear to fit within a listed category, the merchant may not have a merchant code that falls within that category. Therefore, purchases with that merchant will not qualify for the stated rewards offer on category purchases

So basically if your WalMart codes the store as groceries (rare) all of the purchases are considered grocery.  If your gas stations code is gas everything is gas.

[SwiftTone]

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@lanc wrote:

From Chase:

 Merchants who accept Visa/ MasterCard credit cards are assigned a merchant code based on the kinds of products and services they sell. Chase groups similar merchant codes into categories for purposes of making rewards offers to you. Chase makes every effort to include all relevant merchant codes in its listed categories. However, even though a merchant or the items that it sells may appear to fit within a listed category, the merchant may not have a merchant code that falls within that category. Therefore, purchases with that merchant will not qualify for the stated rewards offer on category purchases

So basically if your WalMart codes the store as groceries (rare) all of the purchases are considered grocery.  If your gas stations code is gas everything is gas.

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BINGO!

The Tedeski(like a 7-11) down the street is MCCed as a gas station, but it doesnt even sell gas. MCC codes are kind of confusing because it could be coded wrong

[pizzadude]

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@ShiningDown wrote:

If you buy a carton of cigarettes at a grocery store would that show up as food or something else. Do you get the 5% discount on anything at the store or just food.

When I buy cigarettes at a gas station it shows up as gas but Im not sure if  I get the 5% bonus even though it says gas and its really cigarettes. 

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I've never seen a case where a single transaction is split based on the types of items purchased ~ it will be categorized based on how the merchant is coded with the creditor.    So I believe that you would get the 5% back on anything ( brussel sprouts, cough syrup, apples, ciggys....) if the merchant has been coded as a grocery store.

[FrugalRican]

I'm pretty sure Chase has a list of stores that apply to the "groceries" section. I looked up a few days ago to see if Shoprite was included and it was. So I'd assume ANY purchase within a Shoprite would be included, even if it was cigs/alcohol.

But if you buy from Mr. Brown's Convinience Store, that's all up in the air as to whatever that merchant might be classified as.

[john398]

Not to hijack the thread but All the grocery stores I know of have gift cards for other merchants and restaurants, will those show up as grocery too?

[Walt_K]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Yea true but cigarettes? How many establishments identify themselves as smoke shops
I've seen them but. That's just a waste of a category and they know it. I would be busy using
another card but that's exactly what I plan to do when categories like this come up.

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Pretty sure the category isn't cigarettes.  I think the category is groceries and the OP is asking whether he can buy his cigs at a grocery store and get the bonus.

[pizzadude]

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@john398 wrote:

Not to hijack the thread but All the grocery stores I know of have gift cards for other merchants and restaurants, will those show up as grocery too?

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Yes.   Anything you purchase at Grocery Stores would qualify.   As an example if you had the AMEX BCP card ( 6% back at grocery stores ) you could buy gift cards at a grocery store and you would earn 6%.