Raise.com: does it work with VantageWest? BofA Customized Cash Rewards?

[TyrannicalDuncery]

The VantageWest credit card has a 5% category for "wholesale clubs," and the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards card has a 2% category for that.

Per awardwallet, Raise.com often counts as a "wholesale club."

So I was wondering whether anybody has any guesses or experience about whether Raise.com would either

• qualify for the VantageWest 5% category;
• qualify for the Bank of America 2% category;
• or maybe qualify for the Bank of America "online shopping" 3% category.

[ptatohed]

Not sure why a second hand gift card site would qualify for any category.  But if it does, great!  Give it a shot and let us know.  For me, I am just happy raise.com doesn't freeze my AOD card like the cardcash.com site does.  So, not sure about raise triggering a higher % category but, of course, I still get the 2% CB with citi DC or the 3% CB with AOD on top of the gift card discount.  I can't remember if one or both raise.com and/or cardcash.com accepts paypal.  If they do, then you can use Feedom or Disco for paypal 5% a few quarters of the year.      

[Hoben02]

You can goto the awardwallet app and do a lookup on 'raise'. Only issue looks like nobody has tried it yet

[Credit12Fico]

Raise will only work w/ BOA if you have online shopping selected. It bills under a general miscellaneous merchandise tag. 

[TyrannicalDuncery]

Thanks @Credit12Fico!

If that actually works, it would be better than counting as wholesale clubs (on the BofA)! But I'm skeptical that it would count as online shopping either. Any thoughts?

[Who_wuda_thought]

@TyrannicalDuncery 

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@TyrannicalDuncery wrote:

Thanks @Credit12Fico!

If that actually works, it would be better than counting as wholesale clubs (on the BofA)! But I'm skeptical that it would count as online shopping either. Any thoughts?

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I can confirm that I did in fact receive 3% rewards for multiple raise dot com purchases with the online purchases quarterly selection on the BoA CCR a few months ago.  It is a very broadly applied category by BoA for online purchases.

[TyrannicalDuncery]

Thanks @Who_wuda_thought ! Just wanted to update y'all on this: unfortunately, it looks like this may not work anymore. https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/14r8etx/bofa_customized_cash_rewards_no_longer_gives_3.... It sounds like the MCC changed. (Or at least the way BofA summarized the MCC changed? Not sure.)

Another source: https://frugalprofessor.com/boa-raise-cash-back-big-savings/

(Although I guess there's a chance that this is confusion created by people using the app vs the website vs whatever other gimmicky payment methods raise has come up with.)

[Who_wuda_thought]

Thanks for the heads-up on that.  Rather unfortunate news 

Last year (2023), most of my Raise and Giftcards dot com purchases I utilized digital wallet (Apple Pay) with a couple cc's to maximize cash back offers on GC purchases.  So it's been awhile since I'd made a Raise purchase with BofA CCR.

[TyrannicalDuncery]

That's a good strategy @Who_wuda_thought , thanks! What % do you end up getting back? Is it 5% from digital wallet, or more complicated than that?

How were you able to pay with Apple Pay on raise.com? I only see the option to pay with card directly.

Also, which raise.com are you using? The way I think about it, there are 2 versions: the website with one set of discount, and the app with no discounts but with raise cash.