Pay For My Daily Moisturizer, FSA!

So, you should know by now that sunscreen is FSA-eligible, and if you’re not taking advantage of that, you should be. But my wife and I’s next natural question to each other was, what about moisturizing cream that contains sunscreen?

For example, because I’m married and now fully-domesticated, my wife has had me using Aveeno’s Postively Radiant Daily Moisturizer with sunscreen for the last few years. So I thought I’d try out using my FSA card to purchase my next bottle of the stuff. At Target, I tried to purchase this SPF 15 moisturizer, which promptly got rejected at the register:

I decided to be bold and pay it out-of-pocket, figuring I can submit a reimbursement for it. After all, sometimes a merchant’s IIAS check-out system doesn’t catch all FSA-eligible items. But, after I submitted my reimbursement + receipt to my FSA administrator, they also rejected it:

At this point I was baffled, especially since I’ve seen online drugstores claim it was FSA-eligible. Why would both Target and my FSA administrator reject it? Well, I did what any self-respecting detective would do, and Googled it. Turns out, some folks in forums have mentioned that sunscreens under SPF 30 aren’t FSA-eligible. My guess is, lots of cosmetics these days contain a minimal SPF 15, and covering cosmetic-related items is not the intent of the FSA system. So I put it to the test: I went back to Target and found the same daily moisturizer by Aveeno that has SPF 30, not 15:

When I checked out at the register with my FSA card, lo and behold, it was accepted on the spot!

Wow. So there you have it. Apparently sunscreens must have at least SPF 30 to be FSA-eligible. The great thing is, many facial moisturizers have at least SPF 30. We’ll probably try my wife’s brand next. What moisturizers have been approved by FSA for you? I’d love to hear.

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