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What counts as dining? Restaurants, delivery and the gray areas

2 min read

Dining is one of the most common bonus categories, and one of the easiest to misread.

What usually counts

Sit-down restaurants, fast-food chains, cafés, coffee shops and bars are generally classified as eating and drinking places and earn a dining bonus on most cards that offer one.

The gray areas

• Food delivery apps. Some cards count them as dining, some don't, and some only count orders placed through a specific service. Check your card's terms.
• Restaurants inside other businesses. A restaurant in a hotel, stadium, museum or department store may be billed under the host's category, such as lodging or entertainment.
• Prepared food at grocery stores. Buying a hot meal at a supermarket's food counter usually codes as groceries, not dining.
• Food halls and kiosks. Vendors that use a shared payment system may all appear under the operator's category.
• Catering and meal kits. These are often classified differently from restaurants.

How to be sure

For a place you visit often, look at how your last purchase there was categorized on your statement. That's the most reliable predictor. For more on how categories work, see How merchant category codes decide your rewards.