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Highest Echelon

A personal finance blog. Paying for my University, life and eventually achieving financial freedom.

Here's How To Get Money Out of Your Flexible Spending Account

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Last year I had a few hundred left in my Flexible Spending Account. Even though it would have entered the first quarter 2006 grace period, I still wanted my money back. Here's what I did to get my cash back.

I went to my standard dentist cleaning in November and bought as many boxes of Crest Whitestrips Supreme (21-day program) as I could. They were 40 bucks each. I asked the nurse to make the receipt list these items as "miscellaneous," and she agreed. Next I submitted the receipt with all the proper forms to my Flexible Spending Account provider and I got my refund.

After that I sold all the boxes of Crest Whitestrips Supreme on eBay for $39.99, plus shipping. At that time they were only available from the doctors office. Even now I don't think they can be bought in stores and if shipping and handling is taken into consideration eBay still sells them for around $40.
posted by johnwilkx, 8:04 AM

3 Comments:

What you do mean your money would roll-over at the start of the new year? I thought an FSA account doesn't do that. Your plan must be unusual because I've never seen that before.

Thanks for the tip, but I'm not sure everyone could ask for miscellaneous billing like that.
commented by Blogger mapgirl, Tue Oct 17, 09:03:00 AM 2006  
Sorry. My mistake. My FSA doesnt roll-over. I meant to say that the FSA has a grace period. I believe it would have been the first quarter of the following year. So I would have had until March 31, 2006 to use all the money from 2005.
commented by Blogger johnwilkx, Tue Oct 17, 09:18:00 AM 2006  
any tips on how to use the leftover money in the FSA account if I don't have any receipts for 2006?
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, Fri Jan 05, 07:50:00 AM 2007  

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