Author Topic: Fidelity now offering retail Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)  (Read 12375 times)

terran

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Re: Fidelity now offering retail Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
« Reply #50 on: March 19, 2019, 09:35:26 PM »
Not 2B1S but I found out that the long delay for my hsa bank to fidelity transfer was hsa bank inefficiency. I had to make a couple calls after they refused to work with fidelity directly.

When I did this I just withdrew the money and filled out a transfer form for HSA Bank and did a deposit.

That worked pretty well and was reasonably fast. Though it felt super sketchy.

There's nothing wrong or sketchy about what you did, but you do need to make sure you only do it once in an 12 month period (notably, not a calendar year, but a rolling 12 month period) or it will be a distribution instead of a qualified 60 day rollover.

Trifle

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Re: Fidelity now offering retail Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
« Reply #51 on: March 20, 2019, 10:00:12 AM »
This week I opened a new Fidelity HSA and funded it for 2019.  It was super easy.  I've never used Fidelity before, but I was impressed with their website and account set up process.

Now I'm trying to roll over my old HSA into the new Fidelity account.  From the Fidelity end this was very straightforward, but I hadn't reckoned with Old HSA Bank shenanigans.  I've already spent an hour on the phone with Old HSA Bank, and I'm sure this is just a preview of more to come.  [sigh]

ender

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Re: Fidelity now offering retail Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
« Reply #52 on: March 20, 2019, 10:25:09 AM »
This week I opened a new Fidelity HSA and funded it for 2019.  It was super easy.  I've never used Fidelity before, but I was impressed with their website and account set up process.

Now I'm trying to roll over my old HSA into the new Fidelity account.  From the Fidelity end this was very straightforward, but I hadn't reckoned with Old HSA Bank shenanigans.  I've already spent an hour on the phone with Old HSA Bank, and I'm sure this is just a preview of more to come.  [sigh]

Rollovers being complicated is intentional I think.


Trifle

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Re: Fidelity now offering retail Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
« Reply #53 on: March 20, 2019, 10:35:13 AM »
This week I opened a new Fidelity HSA and funded it for 2019.  It was super easy.  I've never used Fidelity before, but I was impressed with their website and account set up process.

Now I'm trying to roll over my old HSA into the new Fidelity account.  From the Fidelity end this was very straightforward, but I hadn't reckoned with Old HSA Bank shenanigans.  I've already spent an hour on the phone with Old HSA Bank, and I'm sure this is just a preview of more to come.  [sigh]

Rollovers being complicated is intentional I think.

I agree

naj89

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Re: Fidelity now offering retail Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
« Reply #54 on: March 20, 2019, 10:42:07 AM »
This week I opened a new Fidelity HSA and funded it for 2019.  It was super easy.  I've never used Fidelity before, but I was impressed with their website and account set up process.

Now I'm trying to roll over my old HSA into the new Fidelity account.  From the Fidelity end this was very straightforward, but I hadn't reckoned with Old HSA Bank shenanigans.  I've already spent an hour on the phone with Old HSA Bank, and I'm sure this is just a preview of more to come.  [sigh]
Can you do a reimbursement through your Old HSA Bank online? Reimburse yourself, deposit to checking and then send a check to Fidelity. As others have said, you can do this 1x/12 mo for it to be an indirect rollover. At tax time, just remember to claim it as such rather than a distribution for medical expenses. You may also avoid transfer fees from Old HSA Bank this way.

« Last Edit: March 20, 2019, 10:44:48 AM by naj89 »

Trifle

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Re: Fidelity now offering retail Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
« Reply #55 on: March 20, 2019, 10:48:44 AM »
This week I opened a new Fidelity HSA and funded it for 2019.  It was super easy.  I've never used Fidelity before, but I was impressed with their website and account set up process.

Now I'm trying to roll over my old HSA into the new Fidelity account.  From the Fidelity end this was very straightforward, but I hadn't reckoned with Old HSA Bank shenanigans.  I've already spent an hour on the phone with Old HSA Bank, and I'm sure this is just a preview of more to come.  [sigh]
Can you do a reimbursement through your Old HSA Bank online? Reimburse yourself, deposit to checking and then send a check to Fidelity. As others have said, you can do this 1x/12 mo for it to be an indirect rollover. At tax time, just remember to claim it as such rather than a distribution for medical expenses. You may also avoid transfer fees from Old HSA Bank this way.

Hmmmm!!!  neat idea -- thank you!  I will investigate this.

the_grillman

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Re: Fidelity now offering retail Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
« Reply #56 on: March 20, 2019, 06:37:08 PM »
I'll share my learning of transferring from a BoA HSA Account to Fidelity.  Overall took 3 months.
 
First, BoA don't allow transfer of assets in-kind (but hide this in T&C under 'closing an account') and sold all of my investments when they got the transfer request without contacting me.
Initially BoA dragged feet to transfer cash (took about a month after they got request from Fidelity).  After they finally sent the cash, BoA canceled the transfer before Fidelity could process it and took their sweet time to redeposit the money into my HSA.  Didn't contact me about this (I had to chase them down).  Claimed that there was an issue with non-matching account numbers.  During all of this, BoA refuses to pass along any info to Fidelity and thus I had to play middle man relaying messages from one to the other.

Got Fidelity to re-submit transfer and 2nd time finally went through after about 1.5 weeks.  BoA charged a $25 transfer fee (hidden again in T&C).

Trifle

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Re: Fidelity now offering retail Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
« Reply #57 on: March 21, 2019, 07:06:20 AM »
I looked into an indirect rollover, and it looks like a great option.  Unfortunately I already initiated the whole thing as a direct transfer, so I am just going to see that through.  I don't want to risk messing thing up at this point by switching strategies/methods.  I should have read this whole thread more carefully before I started this!

Mailing the Fidelity paperwork today.  We'll see how long it takes Fidelity to extract my $ from the clutches of SuckyOldHSABank. 

Roots&Wings

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Re: Fidelity now offering retail Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
« Reply #58 on: April 10, 2019, 07:02:35 AM »
If I ever do this again, I will try and get the HSA trustee to cut me a check directly and use that "once per year indirect transfer" mechanism others have posted about.

Yikes what a process. Good thing is, hopefully this is the last time for a transfer. Fidelity doesn't seem like a company that would negatively change any of the key fees or account terms. It would take a lot for me to consider a future switch.