Merchant Category Code (MCC) Lookup

What a Merchant Category Code Is For

Every business that accepts card payments is classified under a four-digit Merchant Category Code (MCC) — a standard used across all card networks to describe what kind of goods or services the merchant sells. Fuel stations, restaurants, supermarkets, airlines, and hospitals each sit under their own MCC, and this single number quietly drives a surprising amount of what happens when you swipe your card, from reward calculations to surcharge rules.

Who Assigns It (and Why It's Sometimes Wrong)

The MCC is assigned to a merchant by their payment processor or acquiring bank at the time they're onboarded to accept card payments, based on the primary nature of their business. It isn't something the merchant or the cardholder ever chooses. Occasionally a business gets misclassified — a hotel with an in-house restaurant might be coded purely as "Hotels" rather than triggering the dining category — which is why a purchase you'd expect to earn bonus rewards sometimes doesn't.

How MCCs Drive Your Card's Bonus Rewards

Many credit cards advertise "5X rewards on dining" or "10% cashback on groceries" — and behind the scenes, that logic is almost always implemented by checking the transaction's MCC against a list the issuer maintains. This is precisely why the same rupee amount spent at what feels like a "restaurant" sometimes doesn't earn bonus points: if that outlet is coded under a different MCC (say, a bakery counter coded as a grocery store), the card's rewards engine won't recognize it as a qualifying "dining" transaction.

Fuel Surcharge Waivers and MCC 5541/5542

One of the most common practical uses of MCC awareness in India is around fuel surcharge waivers. Most cards waive the 1% fuel surcharge specifically on transactions coded under MCC 5541 (service stations) or 5542 (automated fuel dispensers), within a specified spend range. If a fuel purchase is somehow coded differently — for instance, a convenience store attached to the pump ringing up the sale under a different MCC — the waiver may not apply, which is a common source of confusion on statements.

How to Use the Lookup Table Effectively

Search this table by category (like "fuel," "dining," or "travel") to understand which MCCs feed into a given reward category on your card, or search by a specific code you've spotted on a statement to decode what it represents. Cross-referencing your card's terms and conditions (which typically list the exact MCCs eligible for bonus categories) against this table is the most reliable way to predict, in advance, whether a specific purchase will earn accelerated rewards.