The card rules feature lets you decide exactly where each Soldo card can be used and what types of purchases it can make. By configuring Merchant categories, you can align spending with company policies and keep control over business expenses in real time.
What are Merchant categories?
Every retailer or service provider that accepts card payments is assigned a Merchant Category Code (MCC), a code that identifies the type of business they are. Soldo uses these codes to group merchants into clear, easy-to-manage categories such as Travel, Food, and Shopping.
When a team member makes a payment, Soldo automatically detects the MCC used by the merchant and checks whether that category is allowed on the card. If it’s not, the transaction will be declined straight away.
Why control Merchant categories
Merchant categories help your business stay in control of spending without slowing anyone down. You can:
- Prevent off-policy spend - for example, block Entertainment or Shopping for employee cards used only for business travel.
- Limit misuse - ensure cards are used only for work-related purchases, reducing the risk of accidental or unauthorised spend.
- Support budgeting - focus spending where it’s needed most, like travel or services.
You can configure Merchant categories at any time from the card’s Card rules section. Changes are applied immediately and can be configured for both plastic and virtual cards.
Categories can be enabled or disabled at two levels:
- Category level - for example, block all Shopping transactions.
- Subcategory level - for finer control, allow or block specific subcategories (e.g. Shopping > Furniture).
Default Merchant category settings for newly created cards
When a new card is created, the following Merchant categories and subcategories are enabled by default for both virtual and plastic cards:
- Travel - Agencies, Car rentals, Hotels, Timeshares
- Transport - Airlines, Airports, Maritime, Parking, Public transport, Service stations, Taxis, Toll roads, Trains, Vehicle charging stations
- Services - Business, Cleaning, Contractors, Delivery, Education, Finance, Government, Health, Insurance, Legal, Museums, Organisations, Personal, Repair, Social, Stationery, Telecommunications, Veterinary, Warehouses, Wholesale distributors (excluding Gambling)
- Shopping - Accessories, Airline store, Art, Automotive, Beauty, Books, Digital goods, Direct marketing, Furniture, Ready to wear, Sports, Stores, Technology
- Food - Cocktail bar, Restaurants, Stores, Wine
- Entertainment - Enabled
- Utilities - Enabled
- Online advertising - Enabled
How to edit Merchant category rules
- From the navigation menu, select Cards.
- Select the card you want to edit.
- Open the Rules tab.
- Find the Merchant categories section.
- Use the checkboxes to enable or disable categories or subcategories.
- Select Save and your changes will be applied immediately.
You can update these settings whenever your business needs change, for example, to allow new expense types or block unnecessary spend.
Merchant category rules for Fuel cards
For plastic fuel cards, Merchant category restrictions are applied automatically when the card is created. The only available category for these cards is Transport. Within this category, you can still enable or disable specific subcategories such as:
- Parking
- Service stations
- Toll roads
- Vehicle electric charging
Other categories such as Shopping or Entertainment can’t be enabled for Fuel cards.