More credit cards than ever are offering bonus points and miles in select categories. That means it’s essential to know how your spending will be counted by the issuer—or “coded”—before you make it, especially if you plan on making a large purchase.
This article will also cover how to check the points earnings from a particular transaction, which is dependent on a merchant’s category coding. That way you’ll know how your favorite store codes before you make future purchases.
Plus, for those who want to see how efficient you were at using category bonuses, here’s how to check earning summaries for four major credit card issuers.
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How To Check a Merchant Code Before Purchasing
Don’t just hope that a purchase will code to the category you expect. Most online tools allow you to check how a merchant is classified after the purchase is made, but one can help you before you make the purchase.
A Tool for All Cards: AwardWallet
No matter which card you use, AwardWallet’s Merchant Category Lookup Tool lets you see how your purchases have been coded.
For example, you may want to confirm that Whole Foods purchases are categorized as a supermarket. As shown below, Whole Foods is coded as a grocery store/supermarket on several cards.
How To Check Merchant Categories
1. American Express Credit Cards
Most American Express Membership Rewards® earning cards offer bonus categories. For example, one of the best travel credit cards, The Platinum Card® from American Express (Terms apply, see rates & fees) earns 5 Membership Rewards Points per dollar for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel on up to $500,000 per calendar year, 5 points per dollar on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel and 1 point per dollar on other eligible purchases. The card’s annual fee is $695.
To find the points earned on Membership Rewards-earning cards, log in to your American Express credit card account and view the Membership Rewards page. Alternatively, from your account dashboard, click the Rewards tab at the top of the page on your account dashboard and then select Points Summary.
By default, this page will show your Membership Rewards points activity from all Membership Rewards accounts, filtered by calendar month. To narrow the activity to a particular card, select a card from the dropdown box.
The right-hand column displays the number of points earned for every transaction. If your purchase qualifies for bonus points, it will be marked as such (like the black 4X above on an Amex dining purchase), and the number of points will be calculated with the correct multiplier.
You can also select the text link to Show All Filters to sort by Activity (for example, Earned, Redeemed and Pending) or by card member if you have authorized users on your cards.
On the right side of the Points Summary page are the totals of how many points you’ve earned, redeemed and have pending across all Membership Rewards cards.
A separate widget below the points summary shows your spending and points earnings by category across all of your Amex credit cards, making it easy to determine whether you’ve maximized your card selection.
You can see rewards for airline and hotel co-branded credit cards the same way you view your Amex Membership Rewards accounts.
2. Chase Credit Cards
Several Chase cards offer bonus points or miles for spending in popular categories, which explains why many of them consistently land on our list of the best travel credit cards. For example, Chase Sapphire Reserve® cardholders can earn 5 points per dollar on flights and 10 points per dollar on hotels and car rentals when purchasing travel through Chase Travel℠ immediately after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually. Earn 3 points per dollar on other travel and dining and 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases. Or open an Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card and earn 3 points per dollar on the first $150,000 spent on travel and select business categories each account anniversary year and 1 point per dollar on all other purchases.
To find out how many points a particular purchase earned on a Chase card, navigate to the Ultimate Rewards® Activity page. After logging in, select the card for which you want to see transaction details. Your earn rate (and the associated points per transaction) is clearly displayed under the “Transaction details” on the Rewards Activity page.
You can see a summary of credit card points earnings by bonus category in two ways. When you first log in to your Chase Ultimate Rewards homepage, a bar graph on the homepage breaks down your year-to-date points earned for that card.
If you want a further breakdown of earnings, head to the Ultimate Rewards Activity page. At the top of this page, you’ll see the number of points you have, how many will be deposited on your next statement and your year-to-date earnings. Below is a more detailed bar graph of year-to-date earnings by category.
For co-branded airline cards and hotel credit cards, you can find out how many points or miles you earned from a single purchase on your account activity page. From the Chase dashboard, select the card from the left side of the page and then click the arrow on the right side of the transaction you want to check.
This will expand the transaction’s details, where you’ll see the number of points or miles earned from the transaction.
The only way to find a summary of the purchases you’ve made on a co-branded card is to look at your statement. On Chase’s Statements and Documents page, select your card and click the notepad next to the statement you want to open.
In the top right corner of your statement, you’ll see a summary of the rewards you’ve earned by category, based on a cardholder year instead of a calendar year.
3. Citi Credit Cards
Citi’s credit cards have a variety of bonus categories. The Citi Strata Premier℠ Card earns 10 points per dollar spent on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked on CitiTravel.com, 3 points per dollar on restaurants, supermarkets, gas & EV stations, air travel and other hotel purchases and 1 point per dollar on all other purchases. Meanwhile, the Citi Rewards+® Card earns 2 ThankYou Points per dollar at supermarkets and gas stations for the first $6,000 in spending per year and 1 ThankYou Point per dollar on other eligible purchases, plus 5 ThankYou® Points per dollar on hotel, car rentals and attractions booked on CitiTravel.com through December 31, 2025. All earnings are rounded up to the nearest 10 ThankYou Points.
That’s a lot to keep up with, so to check the earnings on your card, log in to your Citi account and go to your account dashboard. Select the card that you want to check and click the Points Summary option toward the bottom of the page. On this page, you’ll find your current balance.
However, the earn rate is not displayed. You can use the filters under “View / Redeem” points details to view your earn rate across multiple statements.
On the ThankYou Points summary, you can sort transactions by statement date and earnings rate.
4. Capital One Credit Cards
Capital One is known for its simple rewards structure. For years, advertisements featuring double miles and no blackout dates were ubiquitous. Then, Capital One added another option to this simple redemption structure: the ability to transfer Capital One Miles to airlines. The addition of transfer partners, like Turkish Airline Miles&Smiles, which few other issuers include, put it in contention with the top travel credit cards in the market.
While some Capital One cards still offer a flat rewards-earning rate of between 1 and 2 miles per dollar spent, the Savor Rewards Credit Card*, for example, offers bonus categories for dining and entertainment.
To determine how many points you earned on a purchase, sign in to your Capital One account. On the dashboard, click the View Rewards link in the Rewards section.
On the next screen, click the Earn Activity tab to see your recent points-earning activity. Capital One gives line items for your recent activity, including the type of activity and the number of points earned for the purchase.
Check your card statement to see credit card points earning details beyond your most recent purchases. There’s no earning detail of earnings by purchase; Capital One will only display your recent activity. Instead, there’s a box showing the previous balance and miles earned on this statement.
Find the Best Travel Credit Cards for 2024
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Bottom Line
Figuring out how many points a transaction will earn can be complicated. But once you know the tricks, you can confirm how transactions with merchants will code. Armed with the right information, you’ll be sure to maximize your earnings and achieve your travel goals more quickly.
To view rates and fees for The Platinum Card® from American Express please visit this page.
Forbes Advisor Contributor JT Genter contributed to this article.
