What counts where on the Shop Your Way card.

The Shop Your Way Mastercard pays extra in a rotating set of bonus categories, and the tricky part is that the category depends on how each store codes with the payment network, not on what the store obviously sells. The same store can land in different buckets depending on how you pay or whether you're online. So this is my running list of what actually counts where, based on my own data points. I'll keep adding as I test more.

One bit of shorthand first: a "double-dip" is a single purchase that earns two categories at once, usually a bonus category plus Online. Those stack, and that's where the quiet value hides.

Retail

These have posted as retail for me: Amazon.com, Target.com, Walmart.com, Office Depot, Dollar Tree, Michaels (the craft store), and Staples in store.

A few look like retail but don't count: Costco.com, CVS, and Shopyourway.com. Staples is the annoying case, because Staples.com posts as Office Supply instead of retail, even though the in-store register reads as retail. Target and Walmart also drop out of retail whenever they post as groceries. Outside of those cases I don't have a clean data point yet.

Home improvement

Lowe's and Home Depot are the obvious ones. The surprises are Best Buy and Newegg.com, which code as home improvement rather than electronics, and Apple online lands here too. Best Buy works either way, online or in store. I still don't understand the logic, but I'll take it.

Grocery, gas, and restaurants

Shop Your Way lumps grocery, gas, and restaurants into one category. Kroger counts when you pay with KrogerPay in store. Target and Walmart count here when they post as groceries instead of retail, which is the flip side of the note above. DoorDash.com counts too, and a lot of grocery online-order and pickup posts as grocery as well.

Double-dips

This is the fun part, because the categories stack:

• The unrestricted promo stacks with anything else.
• Most online travel and portals double-dip as Travel and Online.
• Utilities paid online frequently double-dip as Utility and Online.
• Amazon.com double-dips as Retail and Online.
• KrogerPay in store double-dips as Grocery/Gas/Restaurant and Online. WalmartPay does the same, though it won't let you buy gift cards anymore.
• Some grocery online-order and pickup double-dips as Grocery/Gas/Restaurant and Online.
• BestBuy.com and Newegg.com both double-dip as Home Improvement and Online.
• DoorDash.com double-dips as Grocery/Gas/Restaurant and Online.

One warning, and it's a real one. Category coding is set by the merchant and the network, and it can change without anyone telling you. What counts this month might not next month. So test a small charge first, watch how the points actually post, and only then decide whether to go bigger.

The short version