1. Solid
  2. Cards
  3. Card Controls

Allowing/Blocking by Merchant Category Codes (MCC)

Updated

You can set spending controls to allow or block transactions at specific merchant categories by settings their Merchant Category Codes (MCC). These are applied at the Card Level.

To allow merchant categories:

  1. While Creating a Card or Updating a Card, set an array of allowed MCC codes that should be allowed. The complete list is here.
  2. At the time of the transaction, if the MCC code of the Merchant matches with the allowed MCC code, then the transaction is approved. If not, then it is declined.

Allowed Categories Example: 

  • Let's say a Meal Card needs to be issued that can only be used at Restaurants and Fast Food locations.
  • The Meal Card is created with the two allowed MCCs set:
"allowedCategories": [
        "5812",
        "5814"
    ],
  • If the card is used at a McDonald's or a Dunkin Donuts, the transaction gets approved as 5814 is an allowed MCC category for the card (assuming there are sufficient funds in the account and no other spend controls are set).
  • If the card is used to buy groceries at Target, the transaction gets declined as 5411 is not an allowed MCC category for the card transaction. 

 

To block merchant categories:

  1. While Creating a Card or Updating a Card, set an array of blocked MCC codes that should not be blocked. The complete list is here.
  2. At the time of the transaction, if the MCC code of the Merchant matches with the blocked MCC code, then the transaction is declined. If not, then it is approved.

Blocked Categories Example: 

  • Let's say a Gas Card needs to be issued that cannot be used at Restaurants and Fast Food locations.
  • The Gas Card is created with the two blocked MCCs set:
"blockedCategories": [
        "5812",
        "5814"
    ],
  • If the card is used at a McDonald's or a Dunkin Donuts, the transaction gets declined as 5814 is a blocked MCC category for the card.
  • If the card is used to fill gas at Shell, the transaction gets approved as 5541 is not a blocked MCC category for the card transaction.

Note: For a card, you can only set allowedCategories or blockedCategories. You can't set both at the same time.

Articles in this section

Was this article helpful?
1 out of 1 found this helpful