I’m writing this because some Stackers have yet to use Bitrefill, so I thought my authentic user experience would give them a better idea on whether they want to use their sats to buy gift cards from it.
- Scroll through the selection of gift cards to determine the one you want
When I first used Bitrefill, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it carried gift cards from the major supermarkets and food takeout apps in Singapore. Using my sats to settle part of my everyday expenses appealed to me because it made me feel that I am one step closer to living the Bitcoin Standard.
I usually buy a $10 NTUC FairPrice voucher. It is arguably the most influential supermarket in my country. Using its voucher qualifies me to get a better interest rate since I have an online bank account with this organisation. I love it when the money I spend helps to generate some cashback, even if it’s paltry.
- Choose your LN wallet
Bitrefill accepts payments via the Lightning Network. I typically store my sats on the Muun wallet - even if it is not self-custodial - because I find that it allows me to make payment to Bitrefill effortlessly.
- Keep watch on the price
Here’s the frustrating thing about using Bitrefill. The cost of your transaction doesn’t cover the network fee, so oftentimes I find that my attempt to patronise it is thwarted like this:
Yes, that network fee is steep. I have been trying to buy a gift card for the whole of December, but to no avail.
The funniest thing is, the network fee only seems to apply whenever I want to buy $10 worth of a gift card. If I choose a $8 voucher from GrabFood (our version of UberEats), I would just need to pay a few sats to facilitate my purchase.
I don’t know why an extra two bucks would subject me to the evil clutches of an astronomical network fee.
Verdict
I prefer supermarket vouchers (the lowest priced voucher I can buy $10) to GrabFood vouchers, so I will keep trying my luck until I can buy it with negligible network fees. The reason is that I am determined to unlock my referral code for Bitrefill - it only happens when you buy $50 worth of vouchers. I’m just one purchase away from unlocking my referral code, so there’s no reason for me to give up!
Otherwise, I must say that it’s quite troublesome to use Bitrefill because of the associated network fees. But I guess it is what it is, lol.