When is a department store not a department store (Santander 123 credit card)

LarryLancaster

I still have a Santander 123 credit card and to be fair I get enough cashback on it to more than cover the costs already so can't complain (1% supermarket, 2% department stores, 3% fuel).

Checking recent statements I see I must have been spending around £20 a month in department stores as I get 40p cashback from the department stores 2% category.

Except that I hardly ever go to a department store, and when I do have a splurge at John Lewis it doesn't get reflected in bigger cashback payments.

I checked on the Santander credit card website for department stores in my town, and to my surprise the Coop was listed as a department store (that cashback makes sense as I probably spend around £20 a month in the local Coop convenience shop). But department store it certainly ain't. The local John Lewis isn't listed, though Debenhams is (which went bust years ago) plus one other grocer's store that I never heard of and looks like a small corner shop.

Anyone care to advise how you are actually supposed to get cashback on 123 cards from spending in department stores, other than doing the groceries at the local Coop?

molerat

The problem is down to how the retailer identify themselves by the MCC they use which is how Santander link the cash back and is out of their hands.  Their MCC  is probably a hangover from earlier incarnations of the particular retailer. Your statement / transaction list may give the MCC or category used by the retailer.  I had a similar cashback problem many years ago when Aldi were not a supermarket according to their MCC. https://www.citibank.com/tts/solutions/commercial-cards/assets/docs/govt/Merchant-Category-Codes.pdf

All you can do is check for the type of store in a certain town using the Santander tool.  I have been playing and in my town under supermarkets is a bar !

mebu60

As @molerat says, it's down to the identifier code the retailer uses.

If I find I don't get Santander cashback when using a retailer (looking at you Boots) I switch to a different card where I get points instead.

daveyjp

As a historic card Santander will probably have no interest in changing how it operates, especially if the number of outlets where cashback is paid is reducing.

Coop used to have very large department stores, most cities and some large towns had one - IIRC the one in Bradford (Sunwin House built in the 1930s) was the first UK Coop store to have the open floors and escalators design still used today.

 If JL never signed up to the programme they won't be included now.

born_again

LarryLancaster said:

I still have a Santander 123 credit card and to be fair I get enough cashback on it to more than cover the costs already so can't complain (1% supermarket, 2% department stores, 3% fuel).

Checking recent statements I see I must have been spending around £20 a month in department stores as I get 40p cashback from the department stores 2% category.

Except that I hardly ever go to a department store, and when I do have a splurge at John Lewis it doesn't get reflected in bigger cashback payments.

I checked on the Santander credit card website for department stores in my town, and to my surprise the Coop was listed as a department store (that cashback makes sense as I probably spend around £20 a month in the local Coop convenience shop). But department store it certainly ain't. The local John Lewis isn't listed, though Debenhams is (which went bust years ago) plus one other grocer's store that I never heard of and looks like a small corner shop.

Anyone care to advise how you are actually supposed to get cashback on 123 cards from spending in department stores, other than doing the groceries at the local Coop?

All down to the retailers merchant bank & what Catsic (MCC) code that they give them. Which has nothing to do with Santander. 

TBH, where are you wanting to use card?

LarryLancaster

Thanks I assumed it would be something like that - it's just annoying to have to not get cashback for shopping at department stores when the card is advertised as offering that. I'd also have to intentionally do most of my grocery shopping at a small corner shop (that probably charges more than what I get back in cashback) to benefit from the 2% offer.

WillPS

daveyjp said:

 If JL never signed up to the programme they won't be included now.

Merchants were never "signed up" to this card, it was/is entirely based on MCC.

If I opened a shop and convinced a merchant bank to give me a terminal with a department store MCC then any 123 CC customers would get their cashback.

@LarryLancaster which branch of JL is it you're using? Is it a branch with a Waitrose foodhall?

Also which Co-op - it seems a little farfetched but I'm wondering if it was a branch which used to be part of a Co-op Department Store. Most of them closed decades ago now but I suppose it's possible the food store continues to use the department store MCC from its days as a Food Hall.