Chasing the Fionist Dream

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored by BuyMe. It is legitimately confusing to use (on purpose, I’m pretty sure) but just about all of us get it, it is valuable, and it can free up real money for other uses. Chaval not to use it.

I recently treated a friend to a much needed gals’ breakfast at a local cafe. The conversation went something like this.

Her: “That’s so nice you want to treat me, but I can pay for myself.”

Me: “Don’t worry about it. We have enough BuyMe to spare. Finn and I have a policy that we never pay for breakfast out. We only go when we have free vouchers.” (We always pay the tip in real money, of course.)

Her: “Where do you get all of this BuyMe?”

Me: “As gifts from our employers, by answering surveys, and from our Cal FixBack credit card that gives us 1% cashback in BuyMe.”

At breakfast, I showed her how to find all of the BuyMes she’s ever gotten and that are still valid. It turns out that she had over 2000 shekels of BuyMe credit that she didn’t know about. That’s huge! She was so blown away that she insisted I write a blog post about it. So here it is.

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If BuyMe wanted to be easy to use, it would only have one card that covers everything instead of the million and one categories of gift cards it have. But clearly that’s not the case.

The best way to keep track of your BuyMes is on the BuyMe app or website which you link to your email address and phone number. You can have multiple email addresses and phone numbers linked to the same account. This will automatically find all of the BuyMe sent to those places and put them all under “המתנות שלי” on your account. If you have one that doesn’t appear on the list, you can click “שיוך מתנות” and add it by typing in the code and expiration date. BuyMes will be grouped in this section by type.

When you are gifted a BuyMe, the gifter will either choose the type of card for you or let you choose yourself. The broadest BuyMe card we know of is the BuyMe All, so if you have a choice, pick that one unless you know for sure that you want one of the other very specific options available. While BuyMe is valid for five years, my friend and I learned that day that the window to choose a card closes after six months. After seeing that a bunch of hers were blocked, we called customer service and they reopened them for another six months.

To see what each type of BuyMe covers, click “בתי עסק מתכבדים”. A screen will open up that will let you search by category, region and/or name of store. Make sure you are looking at the list for the type of BuyMe you have as they cover different things. (I know, needlessly complicated.)

When you have decided what you want, go to the store, pick out the item and show the cashier the codes either printed out or on your phone. They’ll know what to do. Vouchers can also be partially used and leave a balance, so you shouldn’t feel the need to spend everything at once.

To date, we have used BuyMe to buy a dishwasher, a Kenwood mixer, several breakfasts out and assorted Superpharm and clothing purchases. We considered a BuyMe vacation, but ended up taking this one instead. Maybe next year 😉

There are really so many options to choose from on there. Have fun 🙂

Have you ever discovered lost gift cards? What did you use them for?