Where to find a store's rewards category?

[851]

Where can you lookup a store's categoy as it applies to rewards percentages?  And is a category always at the store level?  Or can it differ based on the items at checkout?  Last, does the store decide it's category, or is the rewards program decision?

Thanks

[coreysw12]

---

@851 wrote:

Where can you lookup a store's categoy as it applies to rewards percentages?  And is a category always at the store level?  Or can it differ based on the items at checkout?  Last, does the store decide it's category, or is the rewards program decision?

Thanks

---

It depends on what the merchant registered their category as - with Visa, MC, Amex, etc.

In the case of Visa, you can look up any merchant on the Visa website, and see what category they are registered as. For instance, my local Walmart is registered as "Grocery", but some other locations may be listed as "Warehouse store". It's very useful.

I'm not sure if MC or Amex have something similar or not.

[longtimelurker]

---

@coreysw12 wrote:

---

@851 wrote:

Where can you lookup a store's categoy as it applies to rewards percentages?  And is a category always at the store level?  Or can it differ based on the items at checkout?  Last, does the store decide it's category, or is the rewards program decision?

Thanks

---

It depends on what the merchant registered their category as - with Visa, MC, Amex, etc.

In the case of Visa, you can look up any merchant on the Visa website, and see what category they are registered as. For instance, my local Walmart is registered as "Grocery", but some other locations may be listed as "Warehouse store". It's very useful.

I'm not sure if MC or Amex have something similar or not.

---

Visa locator is https://www.visa.com/supplierlocator-app/app/#/home/supplier-locator

My understanding is that the same MCCs apply for Mastercard (but not Amex) although I don't know if that has to be the case

[K-in-Boston]

The MCCs should be the same for V and MC.  The merchant category is going to depend on the person at the processor side that set up the merchant account.  With newer small businesses, the chances are now much higher that the Discover and Amex categories will also be the same/similar as Discover has distanced themselves from direct merchant agreements altogether, and Amex has really been pushing OptBlue for small biz and getting away from direct agreements to improve their acceptance rate.