Do App Store and In-App Purchases Earn Rewards?
This guide explains how app-store purchases earn and how to avoid missing a bonus.
How app-store purchases code
When you buy an app, make an in-app purchase, or subscribe to a service through the Apple App Store or Google Play, the charge usually codes as digital goods or under the platform, Apple or Google, rather than as the specific service. So your card sees an app-store or digital purchase and pays its base rate, not a category bonus, even if the thing you bought would qualify elsewhere.
The subscription trap
This matters most for subscriptions. A streaming service you subscribe to through an app store may code as an app-store purchase instead of streaming, so a streaming card would not earn its bonus. The same content billed directly through the service often does earn the streaming bonus, so the billing path, not the service, decides.
How to earn the most
Where you can, subscribe to and pay services directly rather than through an app store, so the charge codes to the right category and earns any bonus. For apps, games, and in-app purchases themselves, there is no common bonus category, so a flat-rate card earns a solid base rate. It is the same coding lesson behind why purchases miss bonuses.
Frequently asked questions
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