I have too many HSA accounts! So I'm trying to get organized and consolidate them into one. Unlike many of you, I don't use my HSA solely as an investment vehicle, although I do funnel some of the cash into the account's available funds; the rest I keep in the savings portion and once in awhile, reimburse myself for medical expenses throughout the year. (I pay myself directly, often several months/years after I paid the medical provider with my CC for the points/miles.)
Right now I have HSAs at Health Equity and BancorpHSA. Here's how I use them:
-Health Equity:
-------cash balance is high enough that I don't incur any account management fees
-------a handful of mutual funds, using the ones with the lowest expense ratios I could find (they auto DRIP, which can be annoying because I live in California, where HSAs don't have the same tax benefits)
-------occasionally reimburse myself from the cash balance
-------cash + investments balance is almost $6000
-------website is easy to navigate and I've always found the 24/7 customer service reps helpful and informative
-BancorpHSA:
------cash balance is lower than the $2,500 minimum to avoid fees, so I've just started paying $2.50/month as I've recently left my previous employer who hired out Bancorp to administer
------cash balance about $1500
------occasionally reimburse myself from the cash balance, more often from this account than HealthEquity
------website/user experience is ugh.
Since the savings account rates at each account are so negligible, I'm not even really using that as any kind of comparison measurement. Again, since I'm in CA, any interest within the HSAs is taxable.
Based on my research, I am thinking of the following candidates:
-Elements Credit Union: $24 fee every time I transfer to TD so I would limit this activity to once a year, and $3/month for savings balances below $2,500. Access to Vanguard ETFs. Not sure if I can just keep $60 in the savings account every year if I decide to go all-in investment-wise and let that annual balance be my "fee fund."
-HSA Bank: $2.50/month unless savings account is <$5k and $3.00/month to invest unless savings account is <$5k but would have access to Vanguard ETFs. So $66/year in total fees. This seems to be the most popular choice and I'd love to know why.
-Saturna: no fees, except the $14.95/trade commission fee (so I would limit buys to once a year) with access to Vanguard funds. As far as I can tell, no minimum required?
I have an HSA with my new employer, but my goal going forward is to use that account as my primary reimbursement vehicle, and allow the non-employer HSA to grow in investments but also serve as a back-up for funds if I deplete my new HSA towards medical expenses. (Confession: I'm having a hard time figuring out where my new HSA even IS and the HR coordinator hasn't been terribly helpful in solving this riddle: all the administrators she keeps mentioning don't have me in their system. So I am not comfortable with dumping my old HSA accounts into my new one at this time, but who knows--I may find that the new administrator blows everyone out of the water and I end up consolidating everything into it. [Unlikely, right?])
For those of you who have any of these accounts, and use them not only for investing but also for belated reimbursements, what has your experience been like? How easy/difficult is it to reimburse yourself via ACH? How easy/difficult is it to migrate money to/from the investment side? Do you like the investment offerings? Are the funds auto DRIP (when applicable) or can I turn that off?
Wow, this post hasn't been exactly an easy read, has it? Sorry about the lack of clarity!
