a blue credit card with a city silhouette

Category Bonus Points Not Posting Correctly for Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card [Fixed March 2021]

Share this post

Updated 1:40pm PT on 3/8/21: According to Brian, Barclays has fixed the issue with bonus categories not posting correctly.  Here is what Brian said:

My most recent Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card statement closed and I received both (a) 5x on new utilities charges for electric and gas charges (each of which received only 1x on the previous statement) and (b) an “adjustment” of points equal to the additional 4x on the electric and gas charges from the last statement about which I inquired via secure message via the card’s website.  So, hopefully, the issue is fixed now!

a screenshot of a login


Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  A few months ago, I wrote about the Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card Application & Reconsideration Process along with the Strange Things About my New Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card.  A few days ago, my friend Brian reached out to me about this credit card to ask if I had noticed an issue with category bonus points not posting or posting slowly to my Wyndham Rewards account:

Hi Grant,

Have you noticed a delay (or non-posting) of points greater than 1x in the bonus categories with your card?

My first statement recently closed. On it, I had charges for 3 different utilities (water, gas, and electric). Two of the three even had the merchant category as utilities (water was from my municipality; so, merchant code was “government services”). However, none of my charges received the supposed 5x on utilities. I’m curious whether you’ve had similar experiences with your card for 8x on gas or 5x on marketing, advertising services, and utilities?

As a reminder, this credit card earns 8x at Wyndham Hotels and at gas stations; 5x on marketing, advertising services, and utilities; and 1x on everything else.

After digging into my credit card statements and searching on FlyerTalk, here is what I found out…

a woman giving a credit card to another woman

To be honest, when I applied for this credit card, I only focused on the 45,000 Wyndham Rewards Points sign up bonus and didn’t even notice the bonus categories.  Since this credit card has a low minimum spending requirement ($1,000 in 3 months), I didn’t pay too much attention to which categories my purchases coded as.  I decided to look at my recent credit card statements to see if anything looked wrong.

On my first credit card statement, I spent a total of $889.53 and earned 890 points.  On my second statement, I spent $115.47 at Comcast (cable utility) and only earned 115 points.  Uh oh…

a screenshot of a computer screen

I decided to look more closely at the credit card terms and conditions for the bonus categories:

Earning Points
You earn Points for purchases less credits, returns and adjustments (“Net Purchases”) made by you and/or any authorized user(s) of the Card Account as follows:

  • You earn 8 Points for every $1 spent on eligible Net Purchases made with the Card Account at participating By Wyndham hotels or Hotels By Wyndham (“By Wyndham hotels”) (e.g., those purchases that appear on your folio for the stay). For more information, please call Wyndham Rewards Member Services at 866-WYN-RWDS (866-996-7937).
  • You earn 8 Points for every $1 spent on eligible Net Purchases made with the Card Account on gas. Qualifying gas purchases are defined as automated fuel dispensers and service stations, as identified by the merchant category codes.
  • You earn 5 Points for every $1 spent on eligible Net Purchases made with the Card Account on marketing and advertising services and utilities. Qualifying marketing and advertising service purchases include but are not limited to purchases from Google Ad Words, Facebook, and other digital advertising platforms; merchants that prepare and place advertising in various media (newspapers, radio, television); coupon and/or sample distribution; and other marketing and advertising purchases as identified by the merchant category codes. Qualifying utility purchases are defined as telecommunications services, cable, satellite, electric, gas, heating oil and water, as identified by the merchant category code.
  • You earn 1 Point for every $1 spent on all other Net Purchases (excluding timeshare down payment purchases to Wyndham Vacation Resorts, Inc., Wyndham Resort Development Corporation, Shell Vacations, LLC, and related developer affiliates and partners). For more information on Wyndham Destinations, including an overview of resorts, please visit WyndhamDestinations.com.
  • Purchases must be submitted by merchants using the merchant category codes for purchases in the above specified categories to qualify for the additional Points. Barclays and Wyndham Rewards, Inc. are not responsible for incorrectly coded purchases. Additional Points may not be earned if the merchant submits the purchase using a mobile or wireless card reader or if you use a mobile or digital wallet to pay for the purchase. Additionally, purchases made through third parties, including online marketplaces and resellers, or using a third-party payment account will not earn additional Points.
  • Balance transfers, cash advances (including cash equivalent transactions such as, but not limited to, the use of your Card Account to obtain money orders, traveler’s checks, foreign currency and lottery tickets), fees, interest charges and unauthorized/fraudulent purchases are not considered Net Purchases and do not earn Points.

Based on our data points, it does look like we are not earning bonus points on qualifying utility purchases.  With my 1 Comcast utility purchase, I should have earned 577 Wyndham Rewards Points ($115.47 x 5 = 577), but instead, I only earned 115 points.  The 462 point difference (worth only a few dollars) was not worth contacting Barclays, especially since I was not going to put recurring purchases on this credit card.  I told Brian that since this credit card is relatively new, I’m guessing Barclays has some IT issues regarding the bonus categories.

Brian spent a few hundred dollars in gas and utility purchases and did not earn bonus points on any of those purchases.  He calculated that he was out ~2,800 points (worth $20-$30), so he sent in a Service Request message through the credit card portal.  A few days later, Brian received this response (or non-response) from Barclays:

Status: Completed

Memo: We have submitted your account for review in regards to not receiving 5x rewards for qualifying purchases. We appreciate your business and look forward to continuing to service your financial needs. Should you have any questions, we’re available at CARDSERVICES@WYNDHAMBUSINESSCARD.COM or at (866) 757-3648 from 7:00 AM – 10:00 PM ET, MONDAY – SATURDAY.

I’m guessing Brian will see a “courtesy credit” of ~2,800 points on his next credit card statement, but that sounds annoying if he needs to contact Barclays every month until the IT Issue is resolved.  He also found a relevant FlyerTalk thread (scroll down to message 13) where other FlyerTalkers have noticed that purchases made in bonus categories were not posting correctly.  Based on the data points in the thread, as of February 18, 2021, it appears that 8x at gas stations is now working correctly, but 5x at utilities is still not working.

I’m hoping this issue gets resolved soon for Brian and the other FlyerTalkers.  I may or may not receive an adjustment on a future credit card statement, but I won’t hold my breath.  If you have this credit card and made purchases in the 8x and 5x bonus categories, have you received all the points you earned?  If not, have you reached out to Barclays?  If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!

P.S. I will update this post as updates and new info comes in.


Share this post

11 thoughts on “Category Bonus Points Not Posting Correctly for Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card [Fixed March 2021]

  1. Craig at Middle Age Miles

    Hi Grant – Just wanted to provide my DP for you and your readers: I had the same problem on my new Wyndham Biz Earner card with bonus categories failing to post correctly. On my Feb statement (my first on this card), I had a charge from our natural gas utility that only earned 1x. The merchant code clearly showed that it was for Utilities (exact code: UTILITIES-ELEC/GAS/HEAT OIL/SANITARY/WTR). I first sent a message through the Barclays online secure message service. They replied that there was nothing they could do and the matter was closed. I then called in to customer service (866-757-3648). The agent told me (rather sheepishly; frankly, she seemed embarrassed) that this is a known issue. She said she can’t do anything directly but would file a complaint on my behalf regarding this issue. I received a complaint number. I haven’t done anything yet to follow up on the complaint. So far, no bonus points have posted.

    My next statement will close within the next few days. I’ll have charges on this statement for another natural gas bill, a city water/trash/sewer bill, and a purchase of gasoline. I don’t have high hopes that the bonus points will post correctly on this statement, either (although maybe the gasoline will indeed earn 8x based on the DPs you report in your article). I’ll try to remember to update you here on what happened. I may also follow up on my complaint if the bonus points don’t post correctly on the new statement.

    Thanks for reporting this, and hopefully Barclays will get its act together soon! ~Craig

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Craig, thank you for sharing your data points. It sounds like you are in the same boat that we are all in. Please post an update when your next statement closes with information regarding if the bonus points posted correctly. Thank you :)

      Reply
      1. Craig at Middle Age Miles

        Follow up to my previous comment: On my February statement, I had 2 utilities payments that earned only 1x (water on 2/1 and natural gas on 2/9). I had a later charge for another utility payment that correctly earned 5x (electricity on 2/18). I’m not sure if something changed with their system between 2/9 and 2/18 or if my electricity bill just somehow coded differently than my water & natural gas. The merchant code seems to be the same on all of them.

        In addition, I had a gas station fill-up on 2/1 that properly coded as 8x. That seems consistent with other DPs I’ve seen that gas purchases were correctly earning 8x.

        I’ve continued to follow up with Barclays with no luck to date. Secure message is particularly useless, with each inquiry generating this reply:

        “Unfortunately, we are unable to complete your request for your Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card account. Please call us at the number shown below. We look forward to hearing from you. We are available at http://www.wyndhambusinesscard.com or at 866-757-3648 from 7:00 AM – 10:00 PM ET, Monday through Saturday. Thank you, Business Card Services”

        To date, I only have about 1,600 missing Wyndham Rewards points for the mis-coding (at 0.7 cpp, that’s about $11), so not a huge deal and hard to justify time pursuing it for just myself. But they need to get this right for everyone, so hopefully following up on it helps.

        Have a great weekend! ~Craig

        Reply
        1. Grant Post author

          Hi Craig, thank you for the follow up data points. Interesting to hear that your most recent utility purchase coded correctly. Try to make those same purchases again in March and see if all three code correctly. If they do, then it looks like Barclays has fixed the problem on their side. Hopefully you hear back from Barclays soon with some kind of bonus points to make up for the missing points. Have a great weekend too :)

          Reply
  2. Kelly

    Do you have a full rss feed available? I like to visit your site, but don’t that often since it does not load in my feedly reader. Could you please point me in the right direction? Thanks!

    Reply
  3. Jim

    Thank you so much for sharing. Can you still match Wyndham Diamond to Cesar’s Diamond and other hotel statuses. I just got approved for the Barclay Business card. Thank you in advance!!

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      I believe so, you just need to wait until you have Wyndham Rewards Diamond elite status first, then you can match to Caesars Rewards Diamond.

      Reply
  4. Pingback: Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card: Category Bonus Points Now Posting Correctly [Fixed March 2021]

Leave a Reply to GrantCancel reply