Methodology

1. How We Collect MCC Data

Merchant Category Code (MCC) data comes from multiple sources, each with different confidence levels:

• Community submissions — Users report MCCs they observe on their bank statements or transaction records. These are labelled as "Reported MCC" until verified.
• Bank statement parsing — Our bank statement parser tool extracts MCCs directly from transaction data that users upload. These provide direct evidence of how a specific bank coded a transaction.
• Payment processor data — Where available, we reference MCC assignments from payment networks (Visa, Mastercard) and processors (Stripe, Adyen).
• Merchant confirmation — Some merchants publish their MCC or confirm it upon enquiry. These have the highest confidence.

2. Why MCCs Vary

The same merchant can show different MCCs depending on:

• Payment channel — In-store, online, mobile app, contactless, and recurring payments may code differently
• Acquiring bank — The merchant's payment processor determines the MCC, and different processors may assign different codes
• Geography — A merchant's MCC in Singapore may differ from its MCC in another country
• Card network — Visa, Mastercard, and Amex may code the same transaction differently
• Merchant setup — How the merchant configured their payment terminal affects the coding

When we have evidence of multiple MCCs for a merchant, we display each with its payment-channel context rather than collapsing to a single definitive value.

3. How We Compute Card Eligibility

Our card eligibility engine encodes each bank's reward rules directly from official Terms & Conditions. For each card, we store:

• Whitelist — MCCs that earn bonus rewards (e.g., UOB PPV earns 4 MPD on online-shopping MCCs)
• Blacklist — MCCs explicitly excluded from bonus (e.g., Citi Rewards excludes travel agency MCC 4722)
• Monthly cap — Maximum spend eligible for bonus (e.g., WWMC: S$1,000/month)
• Earn rate — Base and bonus miles per dollar (MPD), including post-cap rate
• Payment channel conditions — Online-only, contactless-only, etc.
• Source URL — Link to the official bank T&C PDF or review

When you look up a merchant, we check its MCC against every card's rules and compute whether the card earns bonus rewards. The "Best Card" recommendation is the card with the highest earn rate that is eligible for that MCC, subject to the card's cap and conditions.

4. Confidence Levels

Each MCC observation carries a confidence level:

• High — Verified from official merchant confirmation, payment processor data, or multiple consistent bank statement submissions
• Medium — Single bank statement submission or consistent community reports
• Low — Unverified single report; displayed as "Reported MCC" with a caveat

5. Verification Workflow

1. Community submission or bank statement parse generates a new MCC observation
2. Observation enters our database with a timestamp and source type
3. Editor reviews the observation against existing records and external sources
4. If verified, confidence level is upgraded; if conflicting, both records are retained with context
5. The merchant page displays the current best-evidence MCC with its verification date

Found an incorrect MCC? Report it on our corrections page.

6. Data Sources & References

We cite these primary sources for our card eligibility rules:

• Official bank Terms & Conditions PDFs (linked from each card rule)
• The Milelion — Singapore credit card reviews and formula breakdowns
• Mainly Miles — Detailed card reviews with earn rate analysis