PLU Rewards are granted as cashback on eligible transactions. Not all transactions are eligible in order to prevent abuse. This article covers what transactions are eligible for receiving PLU Rewards.

 

How PLU Rewards are created

All Plutus accounts are eligible to receive PLU rewards as a cashback percentage on eligible transactions. The specific % earned and how much you can earn in PLU Rewards change based on the account plans and reward levels, but the mechanics of how it works is the same for all accounts.

 

Calculating the PLU Reward amount

This is the formula for the calculation:

Amount x % Cashback / PLU value

• Amount: Transaction value, how much you paid in the transaction.
• % Cashback: Your account's cashback rate at the time of the transaction.
• PLU value: The value of the PLU token at the time of the transaction.

In a practical example, let's assume John made a purchase for the value of 25.00 GBP, has a cashback rate of 4% and the PLU price on the date of the transaction is 1 PLU = 8.50 GBP. John will earn 25.00 x 4% / 8.50 = 0.1176 PLU for this transaction.

 

Reward flow

The timing on rewards is as follows:

1. You start a payment and the amount is locked on your card balance.
   • The transaction shows as "Pending" in your transaction history.
2. The merchant collects the payment sometime later.
   • This is known as "transaction settlement" and the transaction is finalized here.
   • It may take from some minutes up to a week, depending on the merchant.
3. The reward is generated once the transaction is settled.
   • You will see it in your Rewards tab as "Pending". This means the reward is generated but not approved yet. 
     
   • This also applies to Perk rewards.
   • The reward is generated only for eligible transactions. Check below for more details on this.
4. The reward updates from "Pending" to "Available" status after 45 days from the date the reward was created.
   • Available rewards can be withdrawn to your external wallet or swapped for a top-up.
   • Rewards for transactions over 500 EUR/GBP need manual approval by the Support team in order to become available for use. This is done proactively but if you think the team missed yours, you can contact our Support team and we will take a look for you.

PLU Reward limits

The total amount of rewards that can be earned is set based on your subscription plan:

• Starter: 250 EUR/GBP
• Everyday: 2,000 EUR/GBP
• Premium: 22,500 EUR/GBP

This is the amount of spending for which cashback can be earned. For example, if you have 5% cashback and are in the Everyday subscription plan, the calculation is as follows:

2,000 EUR/GBP (card spending) x 5% (cashback) =  100 EUR/GBP (in PLU Rewards)

You can check your earning progress against the limit in a tracker on the website (not available in the app at the moment):

This limit is reset every 1st of the month, so it follows a calendar cycle and not your subscription cycle. 

 

Transactions not eligible for rewards

Some types of transactions are susceptible to being abused to farm PLU Rewards for profit and, in order to protect the rewards pool, we need to apply preventive measures to address abuse cases. Particularly, we want to prevent the ability to circulate money in a loop and farm rewards without actual spending.

To determine what transactions receive PLU Rewards, we have an algorithm in place to check them before generating the reward, and an antifraud team manually reviewing. Whilst the specifics can't be shared, this is the general outline:

1. Automated checks: An algorithm checks the card transaction and determines if a reward should be created.
   • This is based on the type of transaction, if the user has hit the rewards limit, the category of the transaction (checked against a list of banned MCCs), and the description of it (checked against a list of banned keywords).
   • You can find the list of banned MCCs below, but the list of banned keywords is not public for security reasons.
2. Verification within the 45 days of approval: Rewards stay in "Pending" status until the 45th day mark.
   
   • A person from the Compliance or Fraud team may reject the reward within this period if it's considered fraudulent or requires further verification.
   • You can contact Support to appeal these rejections or may be contacted proactively by Support to ask you for proof of purchase.
   • Proof of purchase is the ticket or receipt of the original transaction.
3. Verifications after the rewards were approved originally: We may update our detection systems to be more accurate over time.
   • We can remove rewards that shouldn't have been approved automatically in the first place thanks to new detection systems.
   • We may suspend accounts that have been abusing gaps in the detection systems once they are identified.

 

Transactions that do not earn PLU Rewards

This is the list of transactions that we do not reward:

• Money transfers that are not done as payments for services or goods.
  • Deposits into accounts as card payments, like Revolut.
  • Money transfers to other individuals, like Paypal to Individuals.
  • Services that hide payment information, like Billhop.
    • Note that you can claim the rewards from this particular point by providing the original receipt to the Support team through a Support ticket.
  • Any third-party service that allows deposits and/or withdrawals.

• Financial services where the money movement is the service.
  • Mortgage and loan services, like a house mortgage repayment.
  • Currency exchange services, like buying other currencies.

• Investments of any type where the money can be recouped.
  • Investing in stock, bonds, or any other form of trade, like government bonds.
  • Purchase of high-value collectible items, like collector coins or cards.
  • Precious metals or jewelry, like buying gold or silver.
  • Stored value products like gift cards, prepaid cards, and reloadable cards.

• Crypto products or services.
  • Deposits or transfers into crypto exchange accounts.
  • Buying cryptocurrencies, NFTs, or services from crypto companies.

• Gambling and lotteries.
  • Any service that allows betting or gambling.
  • Lotteries, including the national lottery.

• Payments that are not done for personal and non-commercial use.
  • Payments are done to your own company or on behalf of it.
  • Payments are done on behalf of other people instead of in your name.
    • Note that shared household purchases like groceries are fine.
  • Payments are done as a side hustle or personal business, like reselling on Amazon.

Many of those transactions can be easily identified just by the MCC (Merchant Category Code), which serves the purpose of identifying the nature of the merchant's business. Check this Visa guide for further information. Here is a list of the MCCs that will indicate non-eligible transactions:

• 4829 - Money transfers
• 6010 - Manual cash
• 6011 - Automated cash
• 6012 - Financial Institutions
• 6211 - Brokers, stocks, bonds
• 6540 - Cards/Wallets top-ups
• 7012 - Timeshares
• 7995 - Gambling

 

Certain MCCs cover types of transactions that are usually fine, but also have some use cases where the transaction is not eligible, so they can't be used by themselves to determine the transaction eligibility and the Description will be factored in:

• 5972 - Stamp and Coin Stores. While these are collectibles, we consider buying collectibles with high prices as investments as they can be quickly bought and sold without significant price changes.
  
• 5094/5944 - Precious Stones and Metals, Watches, and Jewelry. Buying watches and jewelry for personal use is fine, but investing in precious metals like gold or silver is not.
• 5734 - Computer software. Computer software is fine, but this MCC is also used for some investment and crypto services.
• 5999 - Miscellaneous outlets. A catch-all that includes things like gift cards.
• 6051 - Non-Financial Institutions. Most transactions here are not rewarded, but some very specific use cases like utility bill payments are rewarded.

• 8999 - Other professional services. A catch-all for professional services. Most are rewarded but some entities use this for investments, which are not rewarded.

• 9399 - Other government services. A catch-all for government services. Most are rewarded but some specific ones related to account deposits and investments are not rewarded.

The remaining MCCs will be rewarded in most cases, with some minor and very rare exceptions based on some merchants categorizing their services incorrectly.

 

Important note: We reserve the right to update these lists without prior notice as we refine our algorithms and identify new use cases or holes to patch. Also, some merchants do not categorize their services correctly and may not be rewarded even if the MCC is not in the lists above. Consider the MCC lists as general guidance, and consult with our Support team if you want to know whether a specific transaction is eligible for rewards.

 

Issues with PLU Rewards

Rejected rewards

If the Fraud team rejected your rewards, check the following:

1. Are the rewards eligible based on the type of product/service purchased?
   • Check against the lists in the previous section for a better understanding of this.
2. Have you received any notification from Plutus Support about it?
   • We may write you a message asking you for proof of purchase or details about these transactions, it would come from support@plutus.it
3. If after this you still think it should have been rewarded, you may contact our Support team for review.

 

Missing rewards

If you are missing rewards for a transaction, check the following:

1. Has the transaction been settled with the merchant? 
   • This may take up to a week, and weekends typically don't count. Transactions made on Saturday are likely to be settled on Monday end of the day.
2. Is the transaction eligible for rewards?
   • Check our guide above to understand transaction eligibility.
3. Has enough time passed?
   • Rewards are generated once per day, early in the morning. Wait until the next day after the transaction is settled to see the reward line.

If after this you still think that you are missing a reward, reach out to our Support team and we will manually reward it for you. We will also investigate and fix any potential root cause of why it wasn't rewarded automatically.

 

Incorrect reward amount

You may have received the reward for the transaction but you may doubt the amount of the reward is correct. The way the reward is calculated as the following:

 

Amount x % Cashback / PLU value

• Amount: Transaction value, how much you paid in the transaction.
• % Cashback: Your account's cashback rate at the time of the transaction.
• PLU value: The value of the PLU token at the time of the transaction.

If you think something is off, let our Support team know and we will check.

 

FAQ

Can I earn PLU Rewards for paying my rent or mortgage?

Mortgages are payments to financial institutions and are not rewarded. Rent will be rewarded when paid as a point-of-sale transaction. This typically is not an option when paying directly to a landlord (payment into a bank account) unless the landlord has a point-of-sale system set up for payments, something that is only common for landlords with many properties or when a real state agency is mediating and your payment is processed as a point-of-sale transaction (POS). This is typically done through a POS terminal (the machine where you hover or input your card physically for a payment), but can also be done online.

 

Can I earn PLU Rewards for paying taxes or utilities?

Yes, as long as it is for personal income tax and the payment is made as a card payment into a point-of-sale (POS) system. For example, UK's HMRC taxes can be paid like this and you can receive cashback for those payments. Please note that this is for personal payments only. Paying taxes for your spouse, parents, friends, business, employers tax (PAYE), etc. is not eligible for rewards.

 

I used to receive cashback for certain transactions but not anymore. What happened?

We regularly update our rewards algorithm to increase its accuracy and make sure we always reward what we intend to, and don't reward what is not eligible. If the transactions you got rewarded for in the past are classified as not eligible, then you won't receive rewards anymore for them. If they are eligible and you think it is a mistake, contact our Support team and we will be happy to look into it and fix it.

 

Can I earn rewards for gifts or shared purchases? I want to take my wife to dinner!

The Plutus Card is for personal, noncommercial use only, but this does not mean that you can't buy something for someone else. The fraud that we want to prevent here is using the Plutus Card as a shared card among a group of people, where the expenses are run through the card but the cardholder is paid back through other means like cash. When you buy a gift, you don't get paid back (or it is not a gift), and when you share expenses such as groceries for a household, you also don't get paid back. Small purchases that involve friends and family such as meals or grocery shopping are permitted.