A card that pays four percent on groceries can pay one percent at the checkout.
Your card pays on how the network classified the store, not on what you put in the basket, and your bank does not decide which is which.
Is this you?
You used your grocery card at a store that sells food, and the statement paid the base rate. The terms pay on how the network classified the store, not on what was in the basket.
You have the card that pays extra on groceries. You use it for groceries. Then the statement arrives and the money is not there.
Nothing malfunctioned. The card paid exactly what it was built to pay. It was just never looking at your basket.
What most people believe
Back to topThat a grocery card pays on groceries.
Buy food, pay with the card, earn the higher rate. It is what the marketing says and it is what the words mean in English.
What is actually true
Back to topRead the terms rather than the advertising and the wording changes.
CIBC’s Dividend Visa Infinite pays four percent at merchants classified by the credit card network as grocery stores and supermarkets. Not at grocery stores. At merchants the network has classified that way.
Every store carries a four-digit code. CIBC’s merchant codes page for its Adapta Mastercard lists grocery stores as 5411. Your card reads the code, pays the rate attached to it, and never looks at the receipt.
Your bank does not decide this
Back to topThis is the part worth sitting with. CIBC states it plainly on its merchant codes page for the Adapta Mastercard: CIBC does not determine how a merchant is classified in the credit card network, so it cannot change how your purchases are categorized.
Your bank sold you the card. Your bank set the four percent. Your bank cannot change whether the store you are standing in qualifies for it.
CIBC also notes that eligible merchants and merchant categories may change without notice. So a store that earned the rate last year may not this year, and nothing will announce it.
What actually counts as a grocery store
Back to topCIBC’s merchant codes page for its Adapta Mastercard defines code 5411 as merchants selling a complete line of food merchandise for home consumption: groceries, meat, produce, dairy, and canned, frozen, prepackaged and dry foods.
A complete line. The code describes what the store sells as a whole, not any one item in your basket.
CIBC publishes what the codes mean. Neither document cited here lists which store carries which code. So the place to look is your own card’s terms, not its advertising. The advertising says groceries. The terms say classified by the network, and those are different promises.
Read them more than once. CIBC says eligible merchants and categories may change without notice.
What you now know
Your card pays on the network’s classification of the store, not on what you bought. On CIBC’s Adapta Mastercard page, code 5411 means a merchant selling a complete line of food for home consumption. Your bank does not decide the classification and cannot change it, and the eligible categories can change without notice.
Your card’s terms say what it pays. The advertising does not.
Common questions
Back to topWhy did my grocery purchase not earn the higher rate
CIBC’s Dividend Visa Infinite terms pay four percent at merchants classified by the credit card network as grocery stores and supermarkets. The rate follows how the network classified the store, not what was in the basket. CIBC also says it does not decide that classification and cannot change it.
Can I find out a store’s category code before I shop
Not from these documents. CIBC’s Adapta Mastercard page explains what each code covers, including 5411. Neither document lists which store carries which code.
Sources
Back to topEvery claim on this page was checked against these documents on 24 September 2026.
Your 4% Grocery Card Pays 1% at Costco (Canada 2026). Published 24 June 2026. Loads on click. Nothing is requested from YouTube until you ask.
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