MCC Codes: What They Are and Why Yours Matters

Merchant category codes are defined in the international standard ISO 18245, and Visa and Mastercard publish their own lists with the names and rules for each code. Visa's rules put the responsibility on the acquirer: it must assign the correct MCC to each merchant based on what the merchant actually sells.

• 5411: grocery stores and supermarkets.
• 5812: eating places and restaurants.
• 5732: electronics stores.
• 5999: miscellaneous and specialty retail.
• 4722: travel agencies and tour operators.
• 7011: hotels, motels and resorts.

Some codes put a merchant into the card schemes' high-risk programs. Many of these categories must be registered with Visa, Mastercard or both, after extra checks, before processing starts.

• 7995: betting, casino gaming and lotteries.
• 5967: adult content and services, as Visa now names it; older lists call it inbound teleservices.
• 5968: subscription merchants with negative-option billing.
• 6211: security brokers and dealers, including forex and CFD trading platforms.
• 6051: non-financial institutions selling foreign currency and cryptocurrency.

• Cost: many US interchange programs depend on merchant category, so your code can change what you pay.
• Approval: issuers use the code in their risk models, and some let cardholders block whole categories. In the UK, bank gambling blocks work mainly by stopping payments coded MCC 7995.
• Registration: many high-risk categories must be registered with Visa, Mastercard or both before processing.
• Rules: dispute rules, monitoring and specific scheme requirements differ by category.

Your acquirer chooses the MCC from what you actually sell. You can ask for a more accurate code with evidence, but using a misleading code to avoid issuer blocks or get cheaper interchange is miscoding. It breaches card scheme rules, usually ends with termination, and can lead to a listing on Visa's or Mastercard's terminated merchant lists.

A wrong code can raise your costs, lower your approval rates or put you under rules meant for another category. Ask your acquirer which MCC you are on, and if your products have changed since onboarding, request a review with current examples of what you sell.

If you sell across very different categories, you may need a separate merchant account for each product line so each is processed under the right code. Raise this before you apply, because splitting later means onboarding again.

Your MCC decides which payment providers can accept you. In our online application you describe what you sell, and we match you with a provider whose programme covers your category.

• Add your products, markets and volumes once.
• We match you with a provider that accepts your category.
• Your account is prepared with the provider so you can go live.

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