Do Bars Earn a Dining Bonus?
Why bars count as dining
A standalone bar or pub uses a drinking-places merchant category code, closely related to the eating-places code that covers restaurants, and issuers fold both into their dining category. So a night out earns your dining rate, tip included, since the tip posts under the same merchant. See the underlying rule in do restaurants always code as dining and the top earners in best dining cards.
The exceptions to watch
A bar inside a hotel, casino, stadium, or airport can code under that larger venue rather than as a drinking place, so a dining card may only earn the base rate there. A brewery or winery with a tasting room usually codes as dining, but if it sells mostly bottles to go it may register as a retail or liquor store instead, which we cover in liquor store coding.
Getting the most on going out
If restaurants and bars are a real category for you, a card with a strong dining bonus pays off across meals and drinks alike. Value the points at a flat 1 cent and compare against a simple flat-rate option from our best cash back cards guide, since a heavy flat rate can beat a dining bonus if you rarely go out.
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