💡 What counts as a recurring payment for cashback? Let’s break it down!

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Hey Neo Community,

We’ve seen some great questions about what qualifies as a recurring payment for cashback, so let’s clarify.

A recurring payment is an automated or scheduled payment that gets billed to your credit card on a regular basis—such as monthly, quarterly, or annually.

:information_source: Neo uses information from Mastercard to determine if a transaction is a recurring payment. Only purchases that are categorized as a “recurring payment” qualify for cashback.

Sometimes, merchants categorize what we may consider to be a recurring payment as something different than recurring. If a payment isn’t categorized as “recurring” by the merchant (even if the payment automatically repeats), then it won’t qualify for cashback.

Here’s a summary of which recurring purchases qualify for cashback:

:white_check_mark: What can qualify?
:small_blue_diamond: Streaming services – Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, etc.
:small_blue_diamond: Subscriptions – Magazines, meal kits, cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive), etc.
:small_blue_diamond: Utilities (if billed automatically) – Internet, phone bills, and some utility providers.
:small_blue_diamond: Memberships – Gym, digital software (Adobe, Microsoft 365), and other services.

:cross_mark: What won’t qualify?
:small_orange_diamond: Payments that aren’t categorized as “recurring” by the merchant (even if the payment does repeat).
:small_orange_diamond: One-time purchases, possibly even from subscription-based companies.
:small_orange_diamond: Manually paid bills (if you log in and pay each month, it’s not considered “recurring”).
:small_orange_diamond: Rent, mortgage payments, or loan payments (these are usually processed differently by banks).
:small_orange_diamond: Gift cards or prepaid card loads.

Since we rely on merchants to categorize transactions as “recurring,” some recurring payments may not qualify for cashback, and merchant classifications may change over time. As of February 2025, here are some examples of merchants that are typically categorized as recurring. Please note this list isn’t exhaustive and may change if merchants adjust how their recurring transactions are categorized.

Merchant Merchant Merchant
Apple Streaming Communauto CAA Insurance
Rogers Mobility Arbonne Canadian Automobile Association (CAA)
Instacart Coursera Trupanion Insurance
Fido Trustage Disney Plus
Apple Certas Direct Insurance Compass Card Autoload
Security National Insurance PlayStation Network Factor Meals
Freedom Mobile Transunion Starlink Internet
Amazon Petline Insurance Co-operators Insurance
Afterpay Clearly Pembridge Insurance
Shaw 407 ETR LA Fitness
Telus Mobility Classpass ATCOenergy
Netflix YouTube Premium Fetch Insurance
PayMyTuition The Personal Group Insurance Felix Health
Aviva Canada Amazon Prime DoorDash
Bell Mobility Cineplex Cineclub Intuit Quickbooks
Koodo Mobile Patreon SiriusXM
Allstate Insurance DAZN Rogers Sportsnet
Mcafee Software Adobe Software BCAA Insurance
HelloFresh Spotify Steam Games
PRESTO Card Intact Insurance Enercare Home Services
OpenAI Peloton Direct Energy
Square One Insurance Xbox Equifax Canada
Affirm Lucky Mobile Poshmark
Economical Insurance Apollo Insurance Alberta Blue Cross
Sonnet Insurance YMCA Goodfood
Virgin Mobile Better Help Reliance Home Comfort
Booking.com Zoom Chef’s Plate
Klarna Inspired Go Echelon Insurance
Uber Eats Modo Oxio
EvoCarShare Go Daddy Software Crave TV
Flywire Payments Alberta Motor Association Hertz Rent-a-car
Chewy Fresh Prep

We unfortunately can’t provide a complete list of what will qualify for recurring payments because merchants control how they categorize their transactions. But we’ll continue to look for ways to help you earn more cashback!

:speech_balloon: Join the discussion: Let us know where you’ve gotten recurring cashback and we’ll keep adding to the list!!

Thanks for being part of our community! :rocket:
—Craig

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Hey and thanks for posting this @Craig-Neo! I’m a Bell Canada customer amongst others and it’s nice to see Bell on there, however, I have my cell phone payment that comes from my credit card every month. I’ve noticed it’s not a recurring payment like (Netflix, Spotify) can you elaborate on this please and thank you.

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Hey @EllaBella

Are you saying you have a card with recurring and your monthly Bell transaction is not counting to recurring?

If I’m capturing that right which card are you on?
Are you manually paying the Bell invoice or is it setup for pre authorized payments with Bell? (eg Autopay)
Do you have other purchases hitting recurring and possibly the Bell transaction was after you hit the cap on recurring? Remember there is a cap of $500 a month.

We’d be happy to look into it in more details to validate.

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I could see TD insurance listed there, but my insurance premium are not considered as recurring why ? I got a insurance payment of more than $500.
I got 1% cashback on it, I reached out to customer support and they said they cant help since it’s not recurring.

Also, I believe the spending limit is $500 but I should get 4% on $500 and 1% on the rest of the amount, but I don’t know what’s the issue.

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Hey @Shivam_Gupta! Thanks for the question! Just have a couple questions to help clarify some things:

-Which card are you on?

-Are you manually paying the TD invoice or is it setup for pre authorized payments with TD? (eg Autopay)

-Do you have other purchases hitting recurring and possibly the TD transaction was after you hit the cap on recurring? Remember there is a cap of $500 a month.

Feel free to send me a DM if you prefer.

We’d be happy to look into this further!

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Hello,

  1. Neo World Elite Mastercard.
  2. Pre authorized payment for TD Auto Insurance. (Autopay)
  3. It’s just 1 payment of TD insurance , i.e $562.61, I should get 4% on $500 and on $62 1% should be the calculation, but It showed only $5.6 cashback.
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Hey @Shivam_Gupta! Thanks for the quick answer. Sending you a DM to follow up!

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Hey Alex,

I am having the same problem. My TD Insurance premium dose not recognized as a recurring payment. I have master card world and has boost level 1. Your help in this appreciated.

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Hi @Harshalp, welcome to the community and thank you for reaching out! I do want to take a look further into this for you! reaching out to you via DM shortly.

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Hello,

I am having the same issue with my TD Auto Insurance premium of $294 not recognized as a recurring payment. I have the Neo World Elite Mastercard with the Premium Perks, so I expected a 4.5% cashback on that transaction but only got 1.5% instead. I have definitely not exceed my $500 cap on recurring payments for this month. Could you please assist?

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Hi @elpea! Welcome to the community!

I’ve replied to your other post and I will be sending you a DM shortly!

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@Craig-Neo I don’t see my auto insurance provide, Economical insurance on the list. Any idea if they qualify? This is by far, my biggest monthly expense.

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Hi @cyberwhiz5000. Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the community.

I’d love to help and look into this for you.

I’ll be sending you a message in DM to get some more info!

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Hi There.
Same problem here. TD insurance is not qualified as recurring payment (4%), and it earning only 1%.
I am on Neo World Elite Mastercard, and the TD payment is around $220. They other recurring payments are summing to around $90, so not hitting the $500 limit.
Can you explain this to me?

Also, for others information the following merchants –are not on the above list– are not counting as recurring payments for me:

  • Duuo insurance (tenant)
  • Moby Telecom (home internet)
  • Enamx Electricity

I would appreciate if you can follow up why these clearly recurring transactions are not earning 4%

Thanks.

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This is a regrettably common issue. Sometimes it has to do with the code information the merchant sends, which our system uses to determine what is and isn’t “recurring”. We don’t categorize merchants ourselves. Has TD Insurance shown up as a recurring payment for you in the past?

Other times, it’s because you’ve hit the category cap, although I see you’ve already checked that.

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I have only used my Neo credit card for one month, so that’s my first TD transaction on this card. I don’t know what the previous transitions on the previous card was categorized as.

Is there a way to know what MCC code is exactly used for each transaction and is there a list of MCC codes that are qualified as recurring payments? a resource like that would be very useful.

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From my experience with CIBC Visa and Tangerine Mastercards, the “recurring” flag is separate from the MCC of the merchant. Also, sometimes after setting up a pre-authorized payment, the first transaction doesn’t register as recurring, but subsequent monthly payments will (ie with SaskTel). I suggest waiting to see if the next month come up any better.

I suspect the list of merchants that register as “Recurring Bill Payments“ crowdsourced in another forum would also apply here, as they are both Mastercards.

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Hi Team,
I am able to see that in the list you guys have mentioned, the Co-operators Insurance, but does somebody know how that will work? Co-operators do accept credit cards, but that is not for pre-authorized payments; it’s like making manual payments every time.

And what if the payments are made through Chexy, and that too, monthly payments. Would that be counted as recurring or not? And please do let me know about the payment for the co-operators’ insurance.

Thank You :slight_smile:

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Unfortunately, Chexy is irrelevant because Neo only issues Mastercards and they don’t accept Mastercard. Otherwise, that would be an amazing way to accumulate cashback.

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Does anyone have any updates on the Co-operators insurance payment method and on ensuring it counts as a recurring payment?

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