Citi Bank has updated the rewards program on their credit cards and has excluded some categories, mainly belonging to Utilities, Insurance, Education, from it’s rewards program. Effective 12th Oct 2019, purchase transactions performed on these merchant categories will be excluded from the rewards program and rewards earning will be discontinued. The full list of merchant category is listed below:
| Merchant Category Codes (MCC) | Merchant Category |
|---|---|
| 4111, 4121, 4131, 4784 | Transportation & Tolls |
| 4900 | Utilities |
| 5960, 6300 | Insurance |
| 8211, 8241, 8244, 8249, 8299 | Educational Institutions |
| 8220, 9211, 9222, 9311, 9399, 9402, 9405 | Government Institutions |
Those who are not aware, Merchant Category Codes (MCC) are allotted by VISA and MasterCard to the merchant where the purchase is made. The entire list of MCC can be found in this document.
Following Citi Bank credit cards are impacted due to this change:
- Citi Rewards Card
- IndianOil Citi Titanium & Platinum Card
- Citi PremierMiles Card
- Citi Corporate Card
- First Citizen Citi Titanium Golden Glow Credit Card
- Citi Prestige Credit Card
- CitiBusiness Card
Citi Cashback credit card is unaffected from this change as doesn’t provides reward points on spends, rather it provides cashback.
This is indeed a bad news as spends on these categories constitute a major portion of spends for majority of people. Excluding these categories from rewards program wipes out a major portion of reward earning capacity. However, this was eminent as other cards, e.g. Amex, have already excluded these categories from their rewards program.
Let me know your thoughts on this reward program update from Citi in comments below.
