Help me pick an HSA provider

[boomhower]

My wife took a new job and has two options for an HSA account holder. The first is a local credit union. They have no monthly fee and a 1.5% interest rate. The second is BB&T. They have a $3 monthly fee and the option to invest in mutual funds any amount over a $3,000 balance. mutual fund options BB&T also paying monthly interest by I can't find it on their site. I've never had an HSA before so am just now researching them and what they do. Thanks for the help.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I would say the CU, but I'm partial. At least it would be guaranteed no fees and interest where as the other would be more risk oriented and still have fees.

 

[IronWing]

Do you expect to build up a sizable balance in the HSA?

 

[boomhower]

Do you expect to build up a sizable balance in the HSA?

Probably not. Neither of us make a lot of money and with her health problems and high deductable it's doubtful it will get sizable within the next couple of years. I'm leaning to the CU but wanted to get some thoughts from folks more familiar with it.

 

[JDawg1536]

If you plan on using it often for medical expenses then the CU without a doubt.

 

[TheGardener]

A lot of those mutual funds sold by BB&T are front-end load funds. Meaning you pay 2% to 5.75% for the privilege of helping someone make those monthly boat payments. Worst place to buy mutual funds is a bank.

 

[Born2bwire]

Probably not. Neither of us make a lot of money and with her health problems and high deductable it's doubtful it will get sizable within the next couple of years. I'm leaning to the CU but wanted to get some thoughts from folks more familiar with it.

If your wife has health problems, is there a low deductible FSA plan? My company offers a high deductible HSA and a low deductible FSA. Even with the $500 company contribution to the HSA, I found that the low deductible plan was better in the long run. This was due to the lower maximum out of pocket and making full use of the FSA. But I could only make this determination by knowing that I would be maxing either them out. So I sat down and worked through all the numbers for my taxes and deductibles to see which one was better. You may want to do a similar exercise and see if it makes a difference.