Buy Me a Coffee

Pros: nothing good about this scamming money collector for their own use. Nothing and never try this if you are a creator.

Cons: Avoid BuyMeACoffee A Total Scam.

I usually don't write reviews, but this experience was so bad that I felt the need to warn others. I recently signed up for BuyMeACoffee (aka CallEx) hoping to use it to receive support from my community and fund my projects. At first, it seemed like a great platform for creators to interact with their supporters... until I actually tried to withdraw funds.

Here’s the nightmare:

After receiving funds, the platform locks you into a 7-day withdrawal process. That’s fine, I thought, I can wait.

After the waiting period, I received an email that my account was suspended with NO explanation, no specific policy violation mentioned, and no way to contact support.

I’ve sent countless emails, but no response. Zero support. Just a generic message saying "your account has been suspended" with no details as to why.

The worst part? They don’t give you a reason for the suspension, and when you try to figure out what went wrong, it’s impossible to get a clear answer. It's like they've perfected the art of ghosting their users once they have your money.


The fact that they still take payments and don’t provide transparency is not only unethical but feels like a total scam. I’ve seen a lot of creators fall into this trap. Stay far, far away from this site. It’s a complete rip-off. If you want a platform that actually supports creators and doesn’t try to scam you, go with Gumroad—it’s way more reliable, straightforward, and transparent.

Overall: If you’re thinking about using BuyMeACoffee (or whatever they’re calling themselves now), do yourself a favor: DON’T. You’ve been warned.

Pros: N/A.

Cons: Terrible experience with Buy Me a Coffee. If you’re thinking of bringing your donors to this platform, consider this a warning. Their customer service is practically non-existent; email responses can take weeks, and they’ll likely suspend your account for no reason. I had my Chase account connected with all the required verification details, yet there was nobody to actually talk to.

Overall: As a result, my donors are now disputing the payments they made, and I’m left at a loss while trying to move everything over to another platform. Stay away.

Pros: I joined Buy Me a Coffee to share wellness content—park workouts, meditation audios, and guidance to support my community. Out of nowhere, my account was permanently banned with no clear explanation.

When I reached out, I received a copy-paste response saying the decision was permanent due to “adult content,” which I’ve never posted. I asked for clarification, and the co-founder gave me a two-sentence email offering no detail, no review, no investigation—just a link to their terms.

Cons: It felt careless and dismissive, as if they couldn’t be bothered to even look into my account. If this is how creators are treated when issues arise, I can’t recommend this platform to anyone serious about their work.

Overall: If you value transparency, support, and trust—look elsewhere.

Pros: There was no positives to using this. I thought it was easy just to send the amount of a coffee to someone whose free product I use all the time, but a month afterwards, I got fraudulent transactions on the credit card I used. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Cons: I thought it was easy just to send the amount of a coffee to someone whose free product I use all the time, but a month afterwards, I got fraudulent transactions on the credit card I used. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Overall: Awful, I have had to cancel my credit card and it has been a stressful experience. I am glad my credit card provider noticed the odd transactions worth £300.

Pros: Easy to set up. They're more than happy to accept money under the auspices of helping your business.

Cons: After holding my money, taking their fees, and earning interest for a year, when I tried to withdraw the money they deactivated my account. I reached out to no avail.

Overall: This company is not a member of the better business bureau BBB. I found out why. Their customer service leaves everything to be desired. Not trustworthy. I can't believe they're still in business.

Pros: N/A.

Cons: With great regret, I faced suspicious dealings. I will tell you every step that took place
First, the team verified my page since the first $10 arrived
The investigation took 3 days, then I received an email on Thursday, June 6, telling me that the team had approved my page and I could withdraw the money.
Then I went to withdraw money from the dashboard in order for the compensation to be paid next Wednesday, June 12th
Shockingly, the support team stopped payments from my page on Tuesday, June 11, one day before the money, estimated at $2,328.21, was due to be paid to my bank account.
I went to the dashboard to find out the problem
I found out that he wanted me to file an appeal and send them links to the posts that promoted my page on Buy Me a Coffee.
I sent a link to my Twitter post, which got hundreds of thousands of views
I also sent them a link to the page’s post on Instagram
I also sent them screenshots proving that I sent a link to the Buy Me a Coffee page to 250 friends via their email.

Two days later, I found a response from the support team telling me
I'm the Community Lead at Buy Me a Coffee. I hope that you are well! We'd love to get some ideas on how you can share your Buy Me a Coffee page and get supporters. This information will help us process your account verification.

Please understand that if we do not receive a satisfactory explanation, we may not be able to approve your account using the current verification provided. In such a case, we will be required to return all support you have received to your supporters within 30 days. We realize that this situation can be very frustrating and we appreciate your understanding.

I replied to them saying:
  I sent the post and link to friends and groups, and I also sent the link to friends who also have a large following, and they helped me spread it. 
  Would you like me to send you screenshots to share this link via email?

Then I received a response from them saying:
Hello who's there,
We would be grateful if you could provide more details, screenshots, etc. to prove your claims. This will be very useful for our records.

I sent them screenshots proving that my Buy Me a Coffee page was sent to a friend via WhatsApp.
Also screenshots proving that my Buy Me a Coffee page was sent to 250 friends via email

I sent this to them on Thursday, June 13th and since then I have not received any response
I sent them everything they asked for
I sent them everything that proves the authenticity of the promotion of my page on Buy Me a Coffee in an official and legal manner
But to no avail

Overall: Although I met all their requirements, they did not solve the problem
I thought the problem would be resolved before Wednesday, June 19th

I published my page on Twitter, Instagram, email, and WhatsApp, and there are also friends who have famous pages who posted a link to my page on Buy Me a Coffee and I sent all of this to them.
I don't know what they want

Pros: At first, it seemed pretty easy to set up, and aesthetically it looks good. They have a decent FAQ, it's just not all that accurate, turns out.

Cons: It's kinda difficult for payers to understand how to give which amounts. Also, we cannot get the money we earned.

Overall: Even though I've been with them for just about a year, I've suddenly got a hold on my account for no apparent reason and there seems to be no way to get the money that I earned from my supporters. They are making me feel like I'm illegitimate and not good enough to use their service even though I've got a good product that I've been offering for a long time. So I guess that means they're just going to keep my money? I've read other reviews and obviously many other people are not able to get their money either. But this seems very new, like the past couple of months only. I would not recommend. It's a waste of time.

Pros: None.
They happily take money from you and that’s all I have to say about it.

Cons: Don’t know if I’ll get my money.

Overall: I have $60 in my buymeacoffee account. It’s not much but someone paid me for an art commission through there and I really need to have that money to complete the commission otherwise the commission was free! I had to have my account verified which took several days and now I’m trying to get the money sent to my bank. It’s currently pending and I can’t tell if it’s saying it’ll be deposited this Wednesday or next Wednesday. Apparently they only send you money on Wednesday’s! I’m not confident they will send it to me though. They seem fishy. Especially with all the other bad reviews here. I hope I get my money and when I do, I’m disabling my buymeacoffee account. It really shouldn’t be that hard or have to wait this long to be paid. Paypal gives you funds instantly.

Pros: Not bad features as: people can buy your products without registration, possibility to take donations, also supports Payoneer for payouts.

Cons: They can ban your account forever without any explanations and investigation, also can hold all your earnings, disaster support, full negligence and disrespect to creators rights. At some point support just will stop answering your emails...
My creators page still banned, already 3 month passed.

Overall: Overall experience was not bad, in the beginning, until I meet misunderstanding with content rules and got banned forever at once, with out any warnings. All my attempts to explain my situation and correct my content to meet their requirements were neglected by their support team in highly disrespectful form.

Use it for your own risk.

Pros: Do not bring your fan base to this website, they will ban you and not repass the money that was donated to you.
If you don't want to have a big headache, don't fall for it. It's a big scam scheme.

Cons: Scam Alert!
Big scam scheme, do not bring your fan base to this website.

Overall: Terrible, big scam scheme, do not bring your fan base to this website! Terrible support, they will ban you and keep the donations.

Pros: None so far unless they rectify their mistakes. Perhaps the only good point is learning to avoid such companies that appear to extort money from legitimate supporters while not allowing creators to receive these funds.

Cons: Please read below in the overall section for a detailed account of the horrible experience I am currently having with Buy Me a Coffee.

Overall: This company should be avoided at all costs for both creators and supporters. As a long distance hiker, I created a page two weeks ago to allow my supports to give donations and encouragement as I walk 1470km in 80 days. Firstly, Buy Me a Coffee allowed me to create an account and my followers to send donations before suddenly blocking my account with a vague excuse of “violating terms and services”. Very convenient for them now $250 USD is in their account which I cannot access. There is no one to speak with or contact to resolve this issue directly and it seriously feels like a scam for myself and my supporters who are very distressed their donations didn’t go to myself and are being held by this renegade company. How is a wholesome activity like hiking that promotes health, connection to nature and fitness a violation of anything? It’s completely unfounded and offensive behaviour by an unprofessional company that doesn’t even have one single named customer representative to deal with grievances. Please don’t use their services to avoid this highly disappointing and cynical experience.

Pros: Interactive and creative tools, but they ban people with no warning, and for no reason. BEWARE. Your month's work is in jeopardy with them.

Cons: Should have listened to all those who advised me... Least I can do is write my experience here, so hopefully other people won't make the mistakes I did. This website is not cooperative at all, so disappointing.

Overall: I really hoped everyone would be wrong and it would work out well. It didn't. My money is lost, I got absolutely dragged. Kind of funny now that I think about it... Kind advice: don't use them and spar yourself the troubles I had.:)

Pros: Nothing, they are scammers. They are stealing your funds and are truly inconsistent when they are promoting, so they are liars.

Cons: "Hi there! Thanks for your patience. I just heard back from our team and unfortunately, the decision to ban your account is permanent due to high-risk concerns about multiple failed transaction reports from our payment processor. I hope you understand, and super sorry about all of this.

Unfortunately, our team was unable to payout your balance as this will be against the Terms of Use. Our payment processor will be initiating a refund of your outstanding balance and payments back to your supporters after 30 days from account deactivation. Alternatively, you can refund the payments back to your supporters and afterward, this should take 5-10 business days to reach their respective balances."

This is the final verdict as trusted people wanted to fund me, please remove this company from reality, I had shared everything and complied with everything, and gave all the details they requested. They collected the rest of my supporter's money and decided to steal them. This company should be sued for its expertise in stealing people's funds. All they conclude is super sorry that they are stealing my faithful supporter's fund. Please someone bring them to the court and remove them from existence. They do not allow you to explain the suspicious failed payments, etc... They are the ones who did not allow the payment to go through.

Overall: Please someone sue them and remove them from existence. Please remove them someone, they should not be doing what they are doing, running professional scam business.

Pros: No pros, they are scammers that stole my money. They will let your supporters send money to you and then they won't let you withdraw them.

Cons: Scammers that will let your supporters send you money but won't let you withdraw your money.

Overall: Worst of the worst. Strongly recommend to avoid Buy Me a Coffee at all cost! They will let your supporters send money and they will cut their fees but won't let you withdraw your own money!

Pros: Nothing. Buy Me A Coffee censors and cancels Americans without recourse. This occurred this week, in May of 2023.

Cons: Actively censors and cancels Americans without recourse in 2023.

Overall: The Buy Me A Coffee entity actively censors and CANCELS Americans making an honest living. This is happening now, in May 2023.