What Works Eligible Categories For The Citi Sears Card

The Citi Sears Shop frequently has spending offers where you earn a category bonus for online purchases. Reader Lyte has asked if we would do a community resource where people can ask post what did/didn’t work for them.

Online shopping

As always please contribute your own datapoints in the comments below.

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Nathan
Nathan (@guest_2110317)
August 1, 2025 11:01

Progress email for online spending offer revealed the following counts…

  • Hopper
  • Kohl’s (bought online)

…and National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) does NOT count

SW
SW (@guest_2109530)
July 31, 2025 13:25

Received a new offer today:

SPEND $800 or more each month from 8/1/25 through 10/31/25 on total eligible in-store and online retail, including Sears, purchases with your Shop Your Way Mastercard® (only purchases made after activation qualify).*
EARN 10% back in statement credits each month during this offer (up to a maximum monthly total of $100 in statement credits).*

Fine print:
Retail purchases are transactions made at men & women’s clothing stores, sports and riding apparel stores, shoe stores, accessory and apparel stores, music stores, computer software stores, sporting goods stores, book stores, office/school supply and stationery stores, game/toy and hobby shops, camera and photographic supply stores, card/gift/novelty and souvenir shops, leather goods and luggage stores, artist supply stores/craft shops, art dealers and galleries, cosmetic stores, florists, pet shops, pet food and supplies, swimming pools sales and supplies, duty free stores, discount stores, department stores, variety stores and miscellaneous general merchandise stores. Purchases not eligible for this offer include purchases made at home improvement stores, wholesale clubs, grocery stores or special events. 

PLEASE, when you post what counted towards your spend offer, make a note if the spend offer you have is “retail,” “home improvement,” “groceries,” etc. instead of just saying “this worked!” because each spend offer is different.

Celia 🔗
Celia 🔗 (@guest_2109537)
July 31, 2025 13:32
  SW

Got the same offer. Might be interesting when/if an online spend comes mid month.

hamburger
hamburger (@guest_2109543)
July 31, 2025 13:36
  SW

Is this a new category? I got it today on my SYW Mastercard as well, but I feel like I haven’t seen it discussed much before. Pretty sweet if they’re adding new targeted offers after pulling the card for new applications, especially since it seems like it’ll stack very nicely with the usual Online spending offer that goes out on the 15th of the month.

SW
SW (@guest_2110292)
August 1, 2025 10:45

I’ve only had the card about 4 years, but it seems new to me. I’m also hoping/waiting for an online spend offer to hit and overlap with this.

Justin
Justin (@guest_2104101)
July 22, 2025 09:39

How do people best confirm whether a purchase counts towards the offer?

I could have sworn a month ago I able to see “online” or something as one of the payment’s categories on the citiretailservices site. But either Im making that up or it’s no longer the case

Is hoping you get an email about progress the only option? I rarely seem to get those

Nathan
Nathan (@guest_2103451)
July 21, 2025 09:36

This month’s online spending offer tracker has revealed that the following count as online purchases:

  • Prometric (USMLE)
  • YNAB
Steve
Steve (@guest_2101917)
July 17, 2025 23:46

another $75/$750 Online offer

heyhey
heyhey (@guest_2093553)
July 7, 2025 10:00

I just bought a gift card from best buy.com, and the merchant description on the credit card shows as electronic store. For those that have these type of purchases count for home improvement, did the charges show up as “electronic store” or “home improvement store”?

Yj32
Yj32 (@guest_2093563)
July 7, 2025 10:13

Showed up as ‘Merchandise-Electronic Stores’

Counted toward Home Improvement Offer.

Double dip if you have Online Offer.

T5864
T5864 (@guest_2095673)
July 9, 2025 17:56

Is there a way I can see my progress towards each offer’s spending requirement? How do I know if it counted or do I just keep track myself and hope the transaction counts?

Celia 🔗
Celia 🔗 (@guest_2095728)
July 9, 2025 19:01

Not really. For online offers, they send a reminder email that has the progress though that’s not always right. Keep track and hope they count. For Gas/Grocery/Restaurants, you can usually tell if they count by getting the 3-5% points.

Nandonachi
Nandonachi (@guest_2093466)
July 7, 2025 03:02

I had online offer of 10pc off , which has disappeared. Now i cant recall if its expired or a glitch. Is there a way to know if im still eligible for the offer?

Nathan
Nathan (@guest_2091087)
July 2, 2025 16:19

New month, new online spending offer. Based on the progress email, here are some more things that counted:

  • Nekter (online/app order)
  • Chipotle (app order)
  • Sweetgreen (app order)
  • Chewy
  • Ben and Esther’s Deli (online order)

What did NOT count:

  • online payment to a local counseling center

Also, had two transactions that have counted in the past (Panda Express online and Amazon) not be included in the progress amount presumably because they posted the day before (7/1) I got the progress email (7/2). So seems like there is at least a one-day delay in before it gets counter in the tracker

gnu
gnu (@guest_2088859)
June 29, 2025 14:59

Anyone know if there’s a place to buy Visa GC that will post as Entertainment or Travel? thx

blake
blake (@guest_2080791)
June 18, 2025 22:27

GoFundMe works (online)