Flynrider
Phoenix,#2Consumer Comment
Tue, October 25, 2011
" I asked every question I could possibly think of to find out what was necessary and was never told this information. "
A much simpler way to go about this is to read the program rules. I don't have the same card as you, but I do have a Visa and Mastercard that offer increased rewards in certain promotional categories. I've read the rules for both and they had one thing in common. The bonus rewards were allocated only for transactions that carried a specific category code (i.e controlled by the merchant). Here's an example from the rules for a card that is currently offering double points on gas purchases :
"The transaction must be assigned the merchant category code of 5542 or 5541. Purchases made at a gas retailer that does not process transactions under these codes will not qualify to receive double points."
Plain and simple. It's up to you to find out whether the merchant is using the right category. There's no way they have the personnel to review every transaction and make a decision.
You can ask 10 different bank employees (from any bank) the same question and get 10 different answers. What really counts is what the rules state and those are pretty simple to look up.