Uber Visa cash back categories DP thread

[imaximous]

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Would you guys know if paying my auto insurance online would get me 2%? That online purchases category is a little tricky with the exceptions. This should bill as "FINANCIAL SERVICES / INSURANCE - 6300" so I'm trying to figure out if I should put my premiums on the card. It's a few thousand bucks I could get double points on. 

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It seems unlikely. As Arkane mentioned, if you can use an online payment service, you'll be able to swing that 2%, but insurance companies don't really count as an online merchant. 

Very OT, but if you have a lot of these miscellaneous expenses, it may be worth it to just get a 2% general purchase card like Citi DC or Paypal CB. That way you know that no matter what happens the minimum CB you'd get on anything is at least 2%. 

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Agreed.

Although I will point out that if you have any "qualifying music/video streaming service" such as Pandora/Spotify/Hulu/Netflix OR you have Amazin Prime and think you can run through $5000 a year on the Uber card, then it's effectively +1% to all cash back categories since you get a $50 statement credit. This effectively makes the Uber visa a 2% card on the first $5000 spent, really increasing its appeal and value (and why it's become my DD since I have Amazon Prime).

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Yes, I have a couple of subscription services, and I'm trying to get to 5k as quickly as possible. I already got like 3k charged on it before the first month, haha. My OCD needs to know that I'm getting the highest return on purchases with the cards I have.

[arkane]

Updated OP with new info:

- Comcast no longer 2%

- Fastrak (e-toll in SF Bay Area) does get 2%. Kinda makes me wonder if this is Barclays way of giving back more for broadly defined "travel"

[Anonymous]

Wait so TMobile does not get 2%?

[arkane]

Nope.

However I expect more changes to come as Barclays continues to flip flop and finally decide on what counts and what doesn't for the 2% category. 

[DaveInAZ]

The reward categories for the Barclays Uber Visa are:

4% -  on net purchases made at restaurants and UberEATS, as defined by merchant category codes, which includes restaurants, fast food restaurants, and bars.

3% - Airfare & hotels, including Airbnb

2% - "Online purchases", but defined as some online retailers including Amazon, Walmart.com, Best Buy. And streaming services and iTunes & Google Play.

1% - Everything else

I've had the card since March. The 4% on restaurants seems pretty straight forward, I've never not received 4% at restaurants or fast food; I haven't tried bars yet. I rarely travel so I haven't tried out the 3% yet. But the 2% "online" seems pretty hit or miss. I renewed my car registration online and only got 1%, I wasn't really expecting 2%, it was part of my spend for the SUB. Newegg works for 2% as does Amazon - it also works for 2% with Amazon Payments for merchants who take Amazon payments for payment processing - I recently bought a speaker at Monoprice and used Amazon Payments and got 2%.. I wouldn't use Uber on Walmart.com as I get 3% with my Walmart store card, but in store the Walmart card only gives 1% so I tried Uber and it did get 2% for an in store purchase.

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Purchases through PayPal are also supposed to receive 2% but I've found that hit or miss. When I make an online purchases of a product and use PayPal to charge my Uber card I get 2%, but when I recently sold some items on eBay and used PayPal to purchase the postage labels I was surprised to see they only got 1%.  The PayPal purchases show up on the Uber statement as PayPal * XXX, where "xxx" is the name of the merchant or eBay seller. The postage transactions show up as PayPal * USPS and those are the ones that only got 1%. Not a biggie, but just surprised Barclays apparently has a filter to disallow 2% on some PayPal purchases

So the purpose of this thread is for MyFico'ers to post their experiences with rewards on the Uber card to let other know about purchases that might not get the full rewards they expected, such as some travel purchase that didn't get 3%, or some mom and pop diner that didn't get 4%?

[MrDisco99]

For "online purchases" you're probably better off just using a 2% everything card like Citi DC rather than roll the dice on whether you'll code for the right category with the Uber card.

Restaurants, and hotels/airfare are pretty easy to tell what is and what isn't.

[UpperNwGuy]

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@MrDisco99 wrote:

For "online purchases" you're probably better off just using a 2% everything card like Citi DC rather than roll the dice on whether you'll code for the right category with the Uber card.

Restaurants, and hotels/airfare are pretty easy to tell what is and what isn't.

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+1  My philosophy is to use category cards only when the category is worth 3% or more.  I use my PenFed Power Cash Rewards (2% on everything) on any spending that doesn't get 3% or better.

If would be nice to hear from more Uber users about their experience with hotels and airfare.  I'd also like to hear about how smoothly the redemptions are.

[wasCB14]

As with several cards, the distinction between restaurants, grocery stores, and specialty merchants can be fuzzy.

[CreditCuriosity]

Used my card at hotel valet the last 3 days for a conference and got 3% back.. Was kinda shocked

[imaximous]

For those who go to Starbucks and use the mobile app, if you reload your card on the app, you get 2%. If you reload the card in-store at the register, you get 4%.
Moral: reload your card in-store when picking up your drinks