Understanding MCCs and what counts as a “bonus category”. Also why I like BoA a lot (follow up)

One underrated element of CCs people don't always consider is that while multiple card issuers (and rarely cards) will have the same category i.e. bonus points for "travel", what is included in that category may vary.

The way this normally works is that merchants have "merchant codes" aka MCCs. MCCs are broken up into larger categories – for instance 5600-5699 MCCs are tied to "clothing stores" – and specific MCCs – 5661 is shoe stores, 5681 is fur shops, and 5698 is "wigs and toupee shops" :).

Stores often qualify under many MCCs at the same time – many clothing stores can be used to purchase both shoes and baby clothes – but the store will usually tie the transaction to one typical MCC for not specific things (something like a Target Pharmacy though will probably have it's own MCC)

Every card issuer will take a list of MCCs and decide to qualify certain MCCs under a given category. For instance, take Chase's "Travel" bonus on the CSP or CSR. There are a number of MCC categories one could consider related to travel

• MCC 3000-4000: Airlines, hotels and car rentals. This will get a travel bonus.
• MCC 7991, tourist attractions, will not get a travel bonus

Something I am noticing doing some analysis on my transactions is that BoA does not seem to use MCCs like everyone else. They seem to use a more holistic approach involving a bunch of stuff I don't fully understand.

I am noticing that for instance, BoAs "online shopping" category appears to instead of using an MCC, rather to use the "METHOD" field in the transaction. This has meant some things that would not typically be online shopping have been getting me the online bonus such as:

• Donation to a religious organization online: MCC for "giving" or "charity", rewarded as Online Shopping
• Phone bill MCC for telecom
• Uber
• Costco, Walmart and Ikea as long as things were ordered online
• Paying my gardener over the phone 🙂
• My gym membership

Home improvement/furnishings seems to include baby gear for some reason.

Travel is the other interesting one. It seems to include tourist attractions, museums, and stuff like that on top of all the normjal travel stuff.