Merchant category codes

MCC 5812: Eating Places and Restaurants

MCC 5812 is the merchant category code for sit-down restaurants and eating places. It tells every card network what kind of business you are, and that decides which interchange programs your sales can qualify for.

Written by Robert Day, Founder and Managing Partner of weAudit.com, previously an executive at Fifth Third Processing Solutions, later Vantiv and Worldpay, now part of Global Payments, the world’s largest card processor. Published October 2026.

MCC 5812 at a glance

5812

Visa: Eating Places and Restaurants
Mastercard: Eating Places and Restaurants

Used by full-service and sit-down restaurants. Quick-service restaurants belong under 5814, and bars under 5813.

Seeing it on your own card statement?

It means the business you paid is classified as a restaurant. Card rewards for dining usually depend on this code, so if a meal did not earn dining points, the restaurant may be coded as something else.

What MCC 5812 covers

MCC 5812 covers businesses whose main activity is preparing and serving meals to be eaten on the premises: full-service restaurants, diners, cafeterias and similar eating places. It is one of the most common codes in the country.

Restaurants sit in a small family of food and drink codes, and the boundaries matter, because the networks treat each one differently.

Code	Name	How it differs
5812	Eating Places and Restaurants	Full-service and sit-down dining
5813	Drinking Places	Bars, taverns, nightclubs and lounges
5814	Fast Food Restaurants	Quick-service, counter-order food
5811	Caterers	Food prepared for events off the premises

Why the code changes what a business pays

Interchange is set by card category and by merchant type. Visa and Mastercard run industry programs for restaurants, and the code is how a sale qualifies for them. A restaurant coded under a general retail or catch-all code can pay a higher rate on every card, and nothing on the statement will say so.

Restaurants also have their own rules for tips, because the sale is authorized before the tip is added. Those rules are tied to restaurant codes. An account set up wrongly can see tip-adjusted sales fall into more expensive interchange categories.

The code is set when the account is opened, usually by the salesperson filling in the application. Nobody checks it again unless you ask. A wrong code costs money on every sale, for as long as the account is open, and never appears as a fee.

Signs MCC 5812 may be the wrong code

Your statement shows a different code, or a retail description, for a restaurant
You run a sit-down restaurant but are coded 5814 fast food, or the reverse
Tip-adjusted sales show up in downgrade or non-qualified categories
Your account was set up by a reseller who also sold your POS system, and nobody has checked it since

See the full merchant category code list and how to look up your own code, or read why setup matters more than the rate you were quoted.

Common questions

What is MCC 5812?

It is the merchant category code for eating places and restaurants, used by full-service and sit-down restaurants, diners and cafeterias.

What is the difference between MCC 5812 and 5814?

5812 is for eating places and restaurants in general, typically full service. 5814 is for fast food and quick-service restaurants. The networks treat the two differently, so a restaurant should be coded for how it actually serves customers.

Does MCC 5812 count as dining for credit card rewards?

Usually, yes. Card issuers decide which codes earn dining rewards, and restaurant codes such as 5812 and 5814 are the ones most programs use. Check your own card terms to be sure.

Can a restaurant change its MCC?

Yes. Ask your processor to review the code and provide a description of what the business does. If the code is wrong, the processor can request a change; the new code applies from then on.

Does the MCC affect my processing fees?

Yes. The code decides which industry interchange programs your sales can qualify for. The wrong code can mean a higher rate on every sale, with nothing on the statement to show it.

Send us a statement. We will check your code, and everything else.

Our first audit is free and takes about five minutes of your time. We check whether your account is coded and set up correctly, along with every fee on the statement, and if there is nothing to find, you will know that too.

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About this page: merchant category codes are defined by the ISO 18245 standard and published by the card networks, which occasionally add, retire or rename codes and do not always use identical names. Code names here follow Visa and Mastercard published lists, checked October 2026. Whether a code is right for a particular business depends on what it actually sells; your processor and the card networks make the final assignment.