HSA Summary

[TromboneAl]

Al, I'm getting close to setting up an HSA account and noticed the annual fee at Health Savings Administrators is now $39. Have there been any other fee increases this year? Are you still happy with them?

Yes, everything has gone fine. I've had very little contact with them. Checking my account just now I noticed that they are deducting the .5% annual expense fee from the account itself. I just called to see about this, got a person immediately (no phone menu or anything!) and asked whether I could send in that fee separately. Answer was "No," (but it was delivered with a smile).

It's easy to log on and see the activity in your account.

I didn't receive any notification about the new, higher fees.

Bottom line: Still recommended.

 

[scrubradio]

I would think you need more like $150K to $200K of investments to pay your $500/month premiums. ($500/mo x 12 = $6,000 x 25 = $150K)

You will need $65K in investments just to pay for max yearly deductibles of $2600.

hmm...my math is a bit shaky. Thank you.

 

[REWahoo]

Bottom line: Still recommended.

Thanks. I'll probably go with them assuming my pending application for a HSA policy from BC/BS is approved.

 

[TromboneAl]

I don't want to sound like I'm pushing this company, but I just got a notice that their maintenance fee is going from .5% per year to .36% per year.

 

[shiny]

Can you pay into the HSA in one lump sum at the beginning of the year or does it have to be paid monthly (in order to make sure you are maintaining your health insurance)?

 

[eridanus]

Can you pay into the HSA in one lump sum at the beginning of the year

Yes but backing it out sounds like it would be painful.

 

[Martha]

Yes but backing it out sounds like it would be painful.

Sounds like a medical procedure.

 

[shiny]

Yes but backing it out sounds like it would be painful.

By "backing it out" do you mean what you would have to do if you did change your insurance mid-year?

 

[eridanus]

By "backing it out" do you mean what you would have to do if you did change your insurance mid-year?

Yep.

Actually, backing out excess contributions isn't too difficult. Page 6, "Excess Contributions,"

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p969.pdf

 

[Mr._johngalt]

Sounds like a medical procedure.

Funny, that's not the image I conjured up. I have reached dirty old man status I guess.

JG

 

[safari]

To scrubradio

I just looked at your post dated 2006/9/27 where you calculated your costs for a 10 year period. You used a figure of $259/month for the HDHI for the first 5 years and then $316/month for the next 5 years. I guess I am not following something. Are you assuming that the premium will stay the same for the first 5 years, have one increase, and then not go up again for the next 5 years? If there is some health insurance like that I want to know about it!

I have had private health insurance (non-HSA) for almost 8 years and the premium is up about 1000% over that period of time! As it turns out, I reduced coverage a lot and increased the deductable in 2003 so with this new coverage it is still up about 475% from what it was in 1999.

 

[teejayevans]

Two questions off the top of my head.

What happens if the US enacts a nationalized or state by state 'everybody is covered' plan like canada.

BTW, if you talk people who live in other countries with nationalized health plans,
you find out they still have privatized health care/insurance for those who can
afford it, apparently you get what you pay for.

 

[mykidslovedogs]

And there is one other great thing about HSAs that many people don't know about....

There is no time limit on when you have to take a withdrawl out of your HSA account for incurred medical expenses, so if you can afford to, you should allow the money in your HSA account to grow tax free, year after year, (you are not taxed on the interest the account bears), and then IF YOU WANT TO, and if you have saved all your medical receipts over the years, you can take a large, lump sum withdrawl = to the amount of your saved receipts whenever you are ready, with no taxes or penalties.

After age 65, you can take the money out of your HSA account without penalty even if you don't use it for a medical expense. If it is not used for a medical expense, then you would just have to pay taxes on it at that time.

I like HSA Bank. They do have a one-time $25.00 account setup fee and a $2.25 monthly fee for account balances under $3000.00, but once your account is over $3000.00, there are no fees, and the interest the account pays is very competitive. They also have pretty good customer service, and you can do all transactions online with no transaction fees.

Here is the info:

http://www.hsabank.com/products/hsa_rates.aspx

 

[raysk]

I finally found a custodian with mutual funds that interest me.They offer DFA,American (with no load) as well as a number of others.
No application fee and $3.00 per month for maintainance. It's shawneehsa.

Ray

MODERATOR EDIT: Anyone interested in using this custodian should read the additional posts in this thread prior to committing any funds to the care of shawnee.

 

[justin]

That shawneehsa.com looks pretty good from a quickie review. FBALX (Fidelity Balanced Fund) seems like a good one fund approach to an HSA that may not have a huge balance and that you might need to access in the intermediate term.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I'd keep my HSA in something really conservative, like short term federal bonds or such. Seems to me a good place not to take risks. When you need it, you really need it. Unless you have so much you can invest part of it more aggressively which seems unlikely.

I can just hear it now, "Sorry, Mr. Hospital Executive. I'll pay you in about 6 months or so when emerging foreign markets are up a bit more."

 

[REWahoo]

That shawneehsa.com looks pretty good from a quickie review.

Justin, I smell spam. "Ray" registers on the forum, makes one short post plugging a website...

I finally found a custodian with mutual funds that interest me.They offer DFA,American (with no load) as well as a number of others.
No application fee and $3.00 per month for maintainance. It's shawneehsa.

Ray

...then logs off after 5 minutes, maybe never to be heard from again. I'm sure the website is probably on the up & up, but....

 

[wabmester]

I'd keep my HSA in something really conservative, like short term federal bonds or such. Seems to me a good place not to take risks. When you need it, you really need it. Unless you have so much you can invest part of it more aggressively which seems unlikely.

I never pay any medical expenses out of my HSA account, and I doubt others here do either. It's a tax shelter. Invest the same way you would in your IRA.

As far as shawneehsa, that website looks like it's a one-man show run out of a trailer park.

 

[magellan_nh]

I like HSA Bank. They do have a one-time $25.00 account setup fee and a $2.25 monthly fee for account balances under $3000.00, but once your account is over $3000.00, there are no fees, and the interest the account pays is very competitive. They also have pretty good customer service, and you can do all transactions online with no transaction fees.

Here is the info:

http://www.hsabank.com/products/hsa_rates.aspx

One thing that looks out of whack to me with hsabank is the $1.50 per point of sale/debit card fee.

Maybe that's normal, but it could definitely add up if you use the account for paying for prescriptions and misc expenses that you don't get billed for.

Is there another way to pay for that type of stuff out of an HSA without incurring a transaction fee?

EDIT: I just realized that they make a distinction between PIN and signature based uses of the debit card. signature based uses are free. Can anyone explain the difference? I've never used a debit card.

Jim

 

[justin]

Justin, I smell spam. "Ray" registers on the forum, makes one short post plugging a website...

...then logs off after 5 minutes, maybe never to be heard from again. I'm sure the website is probably on the up & up, but....

After looking at their website a little closer, I'd say do your own due diligence with shawneehsa. Looks like it could be a fake website...

 

[wabmester]

After looking at their website a little closer, I'd say do your own due diligence with shawneehsa. Looks like it could be a fake website...

Here's a little DD for ya (STAY AWAY from these guys):

Registrant:
bretsworld.com
P.O. Box 191
St. Bruno, QC J3V 4P9
CA

Domain name: SHAWNEEHSA.COM

Registration Service Provider:
Register4less, support@r4l.com
514-905-6500
http://register4less.com

Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 08-Oct-2006.
Record expires on 14-Aug-2007.
Record created on 14-Aug-2006.

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.DNS4LESS.COM 65.39.170.196
NS2.DNS4LESS.COM 63.76.232.139

 

[REWahoo]

Is there another way to pay for that type of stuff out of an HSA without incurring a transaction fee?

Some HSA administrators allow you to write checks, or simply send in a request for reimbursement whenever you want to withdraw funds. A couple of us here use hsaadministrators.com, which doesn't charge a transaction fee for withdrawing funds, but there is a $20.00 set up fee, a $39.00 annual administration fee, and a quarterly 'custodial fee' of 0.0009 of your account balance. They allow investments in a limited selection of Vanguard Funds.

No free lunch, but...

 

[mykidslovedogs]

Hi All,

Since we are on the conversation of trustees for HSA accounts, here is a site provided by nahu.org (national association of health underwriters) that lists all of the trustees that they might recommend as reputable:

http://www.nahu.org/legislative/MSAs/HSAs-HSSAs/trustee list5.09.pdf


This link includes direct links to each bank's website if they have one. (Shawnee is not in the list).

 

[justin]

My local credit union (with around 1 million accounts, very reputable) has 5% APR HSA accounts and they aren't on the nahu.org list, so apparently the nahu.org isn't exhaustive.

 

[mykidslovedogs]

EDIT: I just realized that they make a distinction between PIN and signature based uses of the debit card. signature based uses are free. Can anyone explain the difference? I've never used a debit card.
Jim

I have no idea what a signature based use of a debit card is.. you might try contacting their (HSA Bank's) customer service dept. and ask. We have lots of clients who use HSA Bank debit cards, and I've never heard any complaints about transaction fees.