I left two cents in mine and just left it as is. I like to think that every time those pirates send me a letter telling me I have 2 cents left or send me checks which I don’t cash it costs them money.
There is a fee to close my HSA account
Submitted 3 days ago by ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/e91e7d18-fb18-455a-8194-6f3a558ec3fb.jpeg
Comments
Jumpingspiderman@lemmy.world 3 days ago
HikingVet@lemmy.sdf.org 3 days ago
It does cost them money, more than you have in the account.
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 2 days ago
At the very least, the USPS is getting money out of them. More than the 2¢, even.
ramble81@lemm.ee 3 days ago
Drain it to zero and then let them auto close it for inactivity. Or keep it open forever since there’s no admin fee.
slurpeesoforion@startrek.website 3 days ago
I’ve had one open for years that is empty. I think they’re hoping I eventually put money in it so they can drain it for the years it sat unused.
ryathal@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
It’s an HSA, keep as much as you can in it. Use it for medical if you have too. Let it become functionally an IRA when you hit 65.
jacksilver@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Cause everything is stupid and you can’t choose your own HSA, I had multiple at one point. It’s easier to merge them all and close the rest so you aren’t keeping track of a ton of accounts.
Vent@lemm.ee 3 days ago
The admin fee is $0. Can you just transfer all of the money out and keep the account empty?
jackal@infosec.pub 3 days ago
This is exactly what I do. Spend all the money out of the account and delete my login. Done this at least a couple times and I’ve never had an issue. What are they gunna do? File a bullshit claim on my credit?
AA5B@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Honest question: why? I’ve only been able to use an HSA once, and I thought the big advantage is that it’s your money you can keep and use whenever. Can’t you just keep using it normally, ideally save some of it?
In my case, my ex got it put in our divorce judgement that I would carry “traditional” insurance, so I knew that my HSA had no future
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 3 days ago
Hey, Jackal, is the Kuzko’s poison?
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 3 days ago
Does it benefit the company in some way to have empty accounts on their books?
stoly@lemmy.world 3 days ago
It’s that someone has to do work and they want things to be automated. Everything with a fee is to cover salaries.
AA5B@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I had this happen a couple jobs ago - I successfully spent it down to $1, but the they wouldn’t transfer that little. I suppose I may still legally have this amount somewhere
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 2 days ago
You can always just transfer it yourself. Withdraw it from a physical location (assuming there is one) for that bank and deposit it in your own hsa account.
dinckelman@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This is not mildly infuriating. This should just be illegal. Paying money to close your account is beyond infuriating
vk6flab@lemmy.radio 3 days ago
That schedule of fees looks like it’s straight from the 1980’s.
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
It deceives people whose idea of how things work in large companies hasn’t changed since the days when it was the manager of your bank branch who decided if you you should get a loan or not.
Nowadays, for certain in middle and large size companies, all the administrative main business pathways are heavilly if not totally automated and it’s customer support that ends up eating the most manpower (which is why there has been so much of a push for automated phone and chat support systems, of late using AI).
Those $25 bucks for “account closure” pays at most for a few minutes of somebody’s seeking the account from user information, cross checking that the user information matches and then clicking a button that says “Close accout” and then “Ok” on the confirmation box and the remaining 99% or so left after paying for that cost are pure profit.
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 2 days ago
fee fee fee fee fee fee
Pacrat173@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
Klear@lemmy.world 2 days ago
No lollygagging!
RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Reminds me of when my ISP who was “no contract” had a cancellation fee. Like I have to pay money to stop being billed? Something about that feels very backwards.
vk6flab@lemmy.radio 3 days ago
Not to mention illegal.
hitmyspot@aussie.zone 3 days ago
Yep,
I don’t consent to that charge.
Oh, it’s one of our rules.
Too bad so sad, no contract.
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 3 days ago
HSAs are a misdirect to get you to ignore how shitty high deductible plans are. Never take the high deductible plan.
scytale@lemm.ee 3 days ago
It depends though. If you are relatively healthy with no chronic issues (yet) and have enough saved for an emergency, it can save you a good amount of tax-free money that you can use for when you get older and sicker. That and the monthly premium is much lower than a PPO. Obviously universal healthcare is still the best option.
bitchkat@lemmy.world 3 days ago
My company has high deductible plan with $1800 deductible and another with $3600 deductible. I just divide those by 12 and add to monthly premium when comparing against HMO/PPO plans.
I’m single and old.
bitchkat@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I save money with the HSA/high deductible. I always plan around using 100% of deductible. Premium plus HSA contribution is less than the PPO option.
I’ll never pick an 80/20 plan. They generally charge more and cover less.
And I’m an old hag and have recently got cataract surgery in both eyes, hearing aids, etc.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world 3 days ago
HSAs are also a way to get healthy people away from wanting universal health care by catering to their self interest, just like how IRAs were intended to let people with money invest in retirement which eroded support for social security.
candybrie@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It really depends. My company, you always do the high deductible. The OOP Max is only $5k compared to $13k for the other. The difference in premiums plus my employers contribution to the HSA are more than the difference between the two deductibles. The plans cover the same stuff. I don’t really get why they’re set up how they are.
londos@lemmy.world 2 days ago
My company offers something similar, but I worry it’s a short term incentive to get more people onto HDPs and then quietly make that the only option.
tburkhol@lemmy.world 3 days ago
When I was looking for a non-employer HSA, there’s a lot of providers out there with not-exactly-predatory terms. All kind of fees or restrictions that you wouldn’t find on other types of checking/saving/brokerage accounts. I ended up a Lively, but they added some investment/transfer fees when Schwab bought Lively’s investment partner TDA.
I suspect it’s partly because most HSA are determined by the employer, so someone in HR can be induced to choose a fee-laden plan if it’s easier for them, and partly because the tax benefits are so great that it still makes sense even after paying a $20 junk fee here and there.
slazer2au@lemmy.world 3 days ago
The fact that you get charged for a paper statement and that is not an opt in is more infuriating.
donkeyass@lemmy.sdf.org 1 day ago
I found this bullshit out too recently.
therealjcdenton@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Don’t pay it
disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 3 days ago
You don’t get it. It’s a health savings account.
They charitably contribute a whopping 0.05% APY to an account that drains to zero every year.
phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
That’s FSAs.
HSA funds continue growing so long as you aren’t using them. If you’re healthy and actually middle class or better they act as a 3rd retirement vehicle, since after 65 you can use it for whatever and they don’t penalize you.
COASTER1921@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
Exactly this, they’re best used as a tax free investment account rather than anything health related. If you’re on a plan with high enough a deductable to be eligible for an HSA and can afford it you should max out your HSA contributions before even a penny of unmatched 401k contributions. Personally I’d argue that you’re better off maxing out the HSA and using post-tax money to pay medical expenses unless close to the end of your career. It’s one of it not the single most easily taken advantage of ways to not pay tax at all on a long term investment.
The system is indeed stupid but the least you can do is take advantage of it where possible and for the middle class the HSA is one of the best ways.
Sergio@slrpnk.net 3 days ago
You know, I can look up the definitions of HSA and FSA and things like that, and I can have the definitions right there in a document on my screen, but they still don’t make any sense to me in terms of how they relate to me specifically. A lot of times they seem like they depend on me predicting things in the future that are unknowable, like my future health or how and where I will be billed for something. And that’s assuming I also look up related terms like APY and deductible and figure out what those mean. If I ask any HR people they’re like “just contact the provider for an explanation” and I’m like yeah, I totally want to deal with the phone menus and hold times of some faceless corporation, just to have them pull some BS like OP’s talking about.
Sorry about the rant. I guess that’s what I find mildly infuriating.
disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I switched off of the family HSA plan after two years of paying out of pocket at the end of the term. It depends on the customer.
Regardless, the interest rates are abysmal.
dhork@lemmy.world 3 days ago
This is because you are not the customer. Your employer is the customer, they are the ones who get to choose the HSA provider for their employees. You are the goods to be sold. The HSA provider is simply harvesting profits.
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 2 days ago
“You are not the customer, you are the product” is true so often, but in many cases (like this one) it doesn’t really apply.
First off, “not the customer but the product” is an inherently antagonistic relationship. Your goals are opposed to Facebook’s, for instance, because you want to spend less time on the platform and you want to interact with friends and not brands, but Facebook wants the opposite of both. But with HSA administration, your goals and your employer’s goals are aligned: you both want someone who will quickly and painlessly manage your account without being a pain.
Second, “not the customer but the product” implies an undisclosed, extractive payment occurring behind the scenes. TikTok is harvesting a great deal of data from you and selling it to other companies. You are the product in that your data has value. But with HSA administration, the product is just the management of your HSA money; there’s no under-the-table dealing going on here (or there shouldn’t be); they’re getting paid by your company for their services.
Third, “not the customer but the product” relationships are entirely one-way; you have no way to impact the providing company beyond just not using their services. They do not, will not, and at some level can never care about your experience beyond making it as minimally useful to you to keep you on the platform. But that HSA provider desperately needs your company’s business, so if enough of your coworkers raise a stink and get your company to complain, they will make a change.
In actuality, “not the customer but the product” ignores the unfortunate reality of most HR/payroll service companies in this case: they’re just the lowest bidder, contracted at the bottom dollar to provide the cheapest services possible, because your employers don’t have to use their services and don’t care about your experience.
madcaesar@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Thanks, I hate it