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?
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
HSAs are an annoying attempt to fix US health insurance. They are tax free (meaning your money goes farther), but you can only contribute to them if you have a high deductible health insurance plan.
Additionally, you are limited to a couple thousand a year in contributions and that money can only be used for approved health expenses. The slight upside is that the money won’t ever go away, meaning you can keep building up your HSA and even invest it.
Where it’s gotten weird is that many people actually just use it as tax deffered savings, as after 65 (I think) the money becomes general use.
However, this means HSAs primarily benefit wealthier people by only really being accessible to those who already have insurance and have excess money to contribute.
You can’t contribute to the HSA but can spend it on qualified medical expenses or sit on it until age 59.5 and draw it down or use it to pay Medicare premiums starting at 65.
Well, I spent the money using the American healthcare system. Because my insurance sucks so much that I often get shafted with huge bills. One such recent one was learning I had to get hearing aids out of pocket as my plan had no coverage. That is why my HSA is gone.
That’s unfortunate: it definitely sucks both that hearing aids are inordinately expensive and that they’re not usually covered. I assumed from reading your post that it was more intentionally spending down and abandoning the account
As somebody who works in designing software systems, including for large companies, lets just say that the amount of human time that goes into a customer account closure is negligible because main business operations such as openning and closing customer accounts are the ones that get automated the soonest and the furthest.
The stuff that uses “lots” (in relative terms) of manpower is supporting customers with really unusual problems involving third parties and even then spending 2.5 h man/hours (assuming the administrative person get paid $10/per hour) is pretty uncommon.
You’ve been lied to, repeatadly, for at least 3 decades.
I’m not saying that I accept their word, which I am apparently failing at conveying. I am a technology director myself and agree that it’s not any effort. I’m just saying that they will lie and charge you money.
Not living in the US, I’m not up to date with US salaries.
That said, even for administrative personnel paid $25/h, $25 will pay 1h of somebody’s work which is way beyond what is needed to close a retail customer account in any modern administrative system were such thing is a common operation which should take less than a minute to do, because people who design the kind of company administrative computer systems (such as yours truly, at least during part of my career) will make the most common business operations be the fastest to do in that system.
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
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.
The admin fee is $0. Can you just transfer all of the money out and keep the account empty?
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?
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
HSAs are an annoying attempt to fix US health insurance. They are tax free (meaning your money goes farther), but you can only contribute to them if you have a high deductible health insurance plan.
Additionally, you are limited to a couple thousand a year in contributions and that money can only be used for approved health expenses. The slight upside is that the money won’t ever go away, meaning you can keep building up your HSA and even invest it.
Where it’s gotten weird is that many people actually just use it as tax deffered savings, as after 65 (I think) the money becomes general use.
However, this means HSAs primarily benefit wealthier people by only really being accessible to those who already have insurance and have excess money to contribute.
You can’t contribute to the HSA but can spend it on qualified medical expenses or sit on it until age 59.5 and draw it down or use it to pay Medicare premiums starting at 65.
Well, I spent the money using the American healthcare system. Because my insurance sucks so much that I often get shafted with huge bills. One such recent one was learning I had to get hearing aids out of pocket as my plan had no coverage. That is why my HSA is gone.
That’s unfortunate: it definitely sucks both that hearing aids are inordinately expensive and that they’re not usually covered. I assumed from reading your post that it was more intentionally spending down and abandoning the account
Hey, Jackal, is the Kuzko’s poison?
That is Kuzko’s poison indeed.
The poison. The poison for Kuzco, the poison chosen especially to kill Kuzco, Kuzco’s poison. That poison?
Take it, Kronk! Oh, feel the power.
Is that my voice? Is that my voice??
Does it benefit the company in some way to have empty accounts on their books?
It’s that someone has to do work and they want things to be automated. Everything with a fee is to cover salaries.
That’s a funny way to spell executive bonuses.
What I mean is that if a human has to interact with you, you have to pay for that time. That, at least, would be the justification.
As somebody who works in designing software systems, including for large companies, lets just say that the amount of human time that goes into a customer account closure is negligible because main business operations such as openning and closing customer accounts are the ones that get automated the soonest and the furthest.
The stuff that uses “lots” (in relative terms) of manpower is supporting customers with really unusual problems involving third parties and even then spending 2.5 h man/hours (assuming the administrative person get paid $10/per hour) is pretty uncommon.
You’ve been lied to, repeatadly, for at least 3 decades.
I’m not saying that I accept their word, which I am apparently failing at conveying. I am a technology director myself and agree that it’s not any effort. I’m just saying that they will lie and charge you money.
Ah, right - I misunderstood that point you were making.
So, as it turns out, we’ve been in agreement all along.
YAY!
$10/hr for customer support? Any random fast food joint will pay you more if you have a pulse. Maybe if you offshore it…
Not living in the US, I’m not up to date with US salaries.
That said, even for administrative personnel paid $25/h, $25 will pay 1h of somebody’s work which is way beyond what is needed to close a retail customer account in any modern administrative system were such thing is a common operation which should take less than a minute to do, because people who design the kind of company administrative computer systems (such as yours truly, at least during part of my career) will make the most common business operations be the fastest to do in that system.
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
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.