A Merchant Category Code (MCC) is a four-digit number listed in ISO 18245 for retail financial services. An MCC is used to classify a business by the types of goods or services it provides.
MCCs are assigned either by merchant type (e.g., one for hotels, one for office supply stores, etc.) or by merchant name (e.g., 3000 for United Airlines[1]) and is assigned to a merchant by a credit card company when the business first starts accepting that card as a form of payment.[2] The same business may code differently with different credit cards, and different sections or departments of a store may code differently.[3]
An MCC reflects the primary category in which a merchant does business and may be used:
There are multiple resources credit card users can consult to predict how credit card purchases with given vendors may be categorized. Examples include: