Do Pharmacies Earn a Drugstore Bonus for Credit Card Rewards?
This guide explains what earns the drugstore bonus, the exceptions, and how to maximize pharmacy spending.
What earns the drugstore bonus
On a card with a drugstore bonus, standalone drugstore chains like CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid code as drugstores, so your whole purchase there, prescriptions and front-of-store items, earns the elevated rate. These are the reliable qualifiers for the category.
The exceptions
The misses come from where the pharmacy lives. A pharmacy counter inside a grocery store, Walmart, or Target codes to the host, grocery or superstore, not as a drugstore, so a drugstore card will not earn its bonus there. Mail-order and specialty pharmacies, and prescriptions billed through insurance portals, can also code outside the drugstore category.
How to maximize pharmacy spending
To earn the drugstore bonus, fill prescriptions and buy sundries at a standalone drugstore with your drugstore card. If your pharmacy is inside a grocery store, use your grocery card instead, since it will code as grocery. When the coding is unclear, a flat-rate card guarantees a solid rate, the same logic behind why purchases miss bonuses.
Frequently asked questions
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