I have an exciting development to report. I have used my HSA card for the very first time, and made a purchase, using pretax dollars, of an eligible product. I went on 1800contacts.com to check out the prices for contacts that I last bought at Costco (where I was unable to use my HSA card because they don't have the proper vendor code), and upon viewing the homepage, saw that FSA (Flexible Spending Account, an inferior predecessor of the HSA) cards can be used to purchase contacts. I called customer service to check if I could use my HSA and they said "yes". Even though the contacts are quite a bit cheaper at Costco, it's a long drive for me, and I was able to finally put my HSA card to the test. It was just like using a normal credit card. This kind of stuff will only get easier.
I should note that, even if one cannot use one's HSA card at Costco's Optical department, as long as the receipt is retained, one may reimburse oneself with HSA funds by doing a transfer to a personal account or writing a check. It's an extra step that takes away some convenience, though.
Here are some statistics and U.S. Treasury documents from HSA Insider.
1 comment:
I must point out that the woman helping me at the time did not understand that HSAs are different than FSAs. With an HSA you use the card just like you would a debit card. It is up to you to use it on qualified expenses and retain the records. With an FSA, the merchant code has to be a medical one and therefore you can't use it at Costco Optical. HSAs are fine and you need to know that in case the salesperson does not.
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