The upside to having a Benefits Card is you do not have to use your money first and wait to get reimbursed. However, because these are pre-tax accounts, all charges must be verified per IRS rules. When you send in your substantiation for charges, we are looking for 5 criteria:

1. The date of service is in the current plan year (for example, you cannot use current-year FSA dollars to pay for last-year's dates of service or use this year's HRA dollars to pay for last year's   expenses

2. making sure all expenses are eligible 

3. the card is being used for the participant and their dependents

4. processed through insurance properly (if applicable)

5. amount due

There is no requirement that you use the Benefits Card, you can easily save your claims and send them in to be reimbursed after the fact.
If you choose to do this, we will still require the exact same documentation you need to send in when you use your Benefits Card.