The fees for the HSA providers in my state are extremely high, what are the typical fees for HSAs?
Sadly, high fees have become the norm. However, thanks to our provider map, you can quickly find lower fee alternatives in neighboring states. Great Lakes Tip - Focus on Fees, Not Interest Rates!

What exactly are First Year Fees?
First Year Fees were calculated using the following: Setup fee, Annual fee, Monthly fee, Transaction fees related to simple withdrawals or deposits, debit card fee or other fees that the typical account holder would pay in the first year of the account. Fees for traditional paper checks were not included unless online banking was not available. We assumed 12 withdrawals a year equal to 20% of the total deposits, traditional bank statements and a monthly deposit of $100. This deposit was not considered a monthly, automatic contribution. The fees were tabulated during the month of April, 2011 and will be updated in the first week of May, 2011. We believe this is the fairest way to compare the HSA providers. However, we recommend you perform your own analysis to find the HSA that best meets your needs and goals.

Why aren't the fees listed for every company?
The fees were not listed for a company if our team could not find the fees listed on the website. Those who did not list fees were called and emailed - most would not disclose their fees or respond to our request for the information necessary to calculate the first year fees. We would avoid those banks!

What is more important, a high rate of return or low monthly fees?
We asked the same question, and designed a program to analyze the variables. In most cases the accounts with the lowest monthly and annual fees had the highest Future Value. The accounts with higher interest rates typically had higher fees.

What type of services are provided with HSA accounts that might justify these fees?
Most banks do not provide technical or product knowledge related to HSAs. They act primarily as a custodian, or holder of your account. Banks do not want to get in the business of providing tax advice! To get expert advice related to HSAs, you need to talk to a third-party administrator that specializes in HSAs or a bank that is dedicated to HSA accounts. Examples are First HSA, HSA Bank and of course, Great Lakes HSA! This is a very important service if you are not familiar with the rules and regulations of HSAs. We recommend everyone go to a provider that specializes in HSAs. We will be listing the full service HSA providers in the next few weeks!

Why is Great Lakes HSA on states other then Ohio? I thought this was an independent website?
If our research team could not locate a HSA provider in your state or if the lowest fee provider in your state is above $50, we included Great Lakes on the list.

Are you saying these are the only companies where I can open a HSA?
Not at all! Almost every insurance company that offers high-deductible health plans that qualify for HSA accounts do offer or suggest an HSA account that is integrated within the Health Plan. In addition, we know there are other HSA providers across the country we may have missed. However, after a team of five, google searching experts searched the internet for 6 weeks, we feel fairly confident that this database contains a majority of the HSA providers across the country.