Merchant Category Codes (MCC)

Merchant Category Codes (MCC) are three-digit numerical codes used by credit card processors to categorize businesses into specific industry categories. They are used to facilitate transaction routing, fraud detection, and reporting.

Categories:

MCCs are divided into 13 categories, including:

• Retail: Grocery stores, department stores, clothing stores, etc.
• Services: Restaurants, hotels, transportation, financial services, etc.
• Manufacturing: Motor vehicles, electronics, etc.
• Wholesale: Wholesale trade, manufacturing, etc.
• Energy: Utilities, fuel, etc.
• Other: Government agencies, utilities, etc.

Examples:

• Grocery store: MCC 512
• Restaurant: MCC 533
• Gas station: MCC 511
• Bank: MCC 636
• Insurance company: MCC 638

Purpose:

• Transaction routing: MCCs are used to route transactions to the correct merchant processors based on industry category.
• Fraud detection: MCCs can be used to identify suspicious transactions, such as transactions in categories that are not typical for a particular cardholder.
• Reporting: MCCs are used to generate reports on industry spending habits.

MCC Lookup:

MCCs can be found on the official Visa and Mastercard websites. You can also find them in the documentation for your credit card processor.

Additional Information:

• MCCs are not the same as North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes.
• MCCs may change over time as businesses evolve or new industries emerge.
• Some MCCs may encompass multiple businesses or industries.
• MCCs are not publicly available.