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Home » Investing » Health Savings Account » Optum Bank HSA Review: Affordable HSA Platform Packed With Features

Optum Bank HSA Review: Affordable HSA Platform Packed With Features

Updated: October 23, 2021 By Robert Farrington

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Optum Bank

For anyone with a High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), contributing to an HSA is a great way to save on taxes.

Optum Bank’s HSA provides about everything anyone may want in an HSA at affordable prices. With its full-service HSA product, you get access to saving, investing, a variety of spending methods, and live customer service. In fact, HSA customer service is available 24/7 by phone or email.

Whether you’re an employee or individual, Optum Bank can meet your HSA needs. In this article, we’ll review its features and costs.

See how Optum Bank compares on our list of the Best HSA Providers.


Optum Bank logo

Quick Summary

  • Monthly fee for individual accounts below $3,000
  • Employees often won’t have to worry about the maintenance fee
  • Full-service HSA administrator with solid features and service
OPEN AN ACCOUNT

Optum Bank HSA Details

Product Name

Optum Bank HSA

Monthly Fee

$2.75/month (Waived When Balance Reaches $3,000)

Account Minimum

$0

Investment Options

Mutual Funds (Through Schwab)

Digitally-Managed Portfolios (Through Betterment)

Promotions

None

Table of Contents
Who Is Optum Bank?
What Do They Offer?
How Does Optum Bank's HSA Compare?
Are There Any Fees?
How Do I Open An Account?
Is My Money Safe?
How Do I Contact Optum Bank?
Is It Worth It?
Optum Bank HSA FAQs
Optum Bank HSA Features

Who Is Optum Bank?

Optum Bank is an HSA administrator. And it's one of the largest in the industry with more than $12 billion in HSA assets and servicing nearly 5.6 million HSAs.

Optum Bank is part of Optum Financial, a technology-focused health and wellness company owned by United Health Group (UHG). It was founded in 2003 and is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Optum Bank is not a traditional bank, but is rather a Utah state-chartered industrial loan corporation.

Most people first experience Optum Bank through their employer as it manages many employer-sponsored HSA plans. However, anyone who's enrolled in an HDHP plan can apply to open an individual HSA account with them.

What Do They Offer?

Optum Bank offers various tax-advantaged health savings plans, including HSAs, FSAs, HRAs, and MSAs. In this article, we’ll focus on its HSA offering. HSA accounts are triple-tax advantaged. This means:

  • Withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are income tax-free
  • All contributions to an HSA are income tax-free
  • Any interest earnings and investment growth from deposits are income tax-free

Employees of Optum and UHG automatically receive Optum Bank as their HSA administrator. These employees don’t pay a fee for investing in their HSA accounts. Other employers may charge a monthly fee, which can be dependent on the HSA account’s balance. However, it's more common that the monthly fee is waived for employees.

Individual account holders, on the other hand, will incur a $2.50 monthly fee until their account reaches $3,000. After that, the fee is waived.

Qualified Medical Expenses (QMEs)

QME spending is at the heart of an HSA. As long as you follow IRS publication 502 or IRS publication 969, you’ll meet the spending requirements. Some examples of QMEs include medical, dental, vision, and prescription expenses.

Money going into the HSA is tax-free dollars. For employees, this is easy since contributions come directly from their paycheck.

For individuals, they are contributing taxed dollars. To claim those dollars as tax-free, the individual must include their HSA contributions on their tax return. Using HSA funds for eligible medical expenses works the same for both employees and individuals.

Spending Your HSA Funds

As long as your HSA funds are spent on QMEs, they’ll remain tax-free. Any interest earned in the account will also be tax-free.

There are several ways to spend your HSA funds:

  • Debit card included with your account
  • Request paper checks
  • Bill pay
  • Spend out-of-pocket and request a reimbursement from your account

Optum Bank also recently launched an online store that only sells HSA-eligible products. And account holders can get up to 5% off their Optum Store purchases and free shipping by using the code OPTHSA5.

Optum Bank HSA

Earning Interest And Investing

For non-invested funds at Optum Bank, you’ll earn interest at tiered rates. Unforunately, these rates are not publicly disclosed. To see your specific APY, you'll need to login to your account. You can also choose to invest your funds.

Optum Bank HSA investing

Self-directed brokerage services are provided by Charles Schwab. Before you can start investing, your account balance must be at least $1,000. Once you've hit that savings mark, you can invest in a solid variety of mutual funds and target date funds.

You can also choose digitally-managed portfolios through Betterment with automatic rebalancing. It’s easy and fast to move money between your HSA and investment account in $100 increments.

How Does Optum Bank's HSA Compare?

The Optum Bank HSA offers an impressive variety of spending and investing options. However, it does charge a monthly fee until your balance reaches $3,000. If you'd like to consider your alternatives, check out this quick comparison chart:

Header
Optum Bank logo
HSA Bank logo

Rating

Monthly Fees

$2.75

(until min balance met)

$0

$2.50

(until min balance met)

Min Deposit

$0

$0

$0

Min For Investing

$1,000

$0

$1,000

APY

Not disclosed

0.01%

Up to 0.20%

FDIC Insured

Cell
OPEN ACCOUNT
READ THE REVIEW
READ THE REVIEW

Are There Any Fees?

At Optum Bank, you are not charged on any of the following:

  • Check order fee
  • Wire transfer fee
  • Nonsufficient funds (NSF) fee
  • Official check fee
  • Excess contribution fee
  • Returned deposit item fee
  • Stop-payment fee
  • Research fee
  • Document copy fee
  • Check processing fee (or ACH fee)

There is a monthly fee of $2.75, which can be avoided with a higher balance. The actual amount will depend on your employer. For individuals, the amount is $3,000. Additionally, the following fees apply if you choose to use these options:

  • $2.50 per ATM transaction plus any fees charged by the ATM’s bank.
  • $20 to (outbound) transfer your HSA to another bank or custodian.
  • $1.50 printed statement fee. You can choose online statement delivery to avoid this fee.

Finally, if you choose to invest some of your HSA funds, you'll be charged a monthly brokerage fee of 0.03% of your invested assets, up to a maximum of $10 per month. Thus, this brokerage fee only applies to the first $33,000 in your investment account.

How Do I Open An Account?

You can visit the Optum Bank website to open an account. The application process takes about 10 minutes to complete and there are no account opening fees.

Is My Money Safe?

Yes , Optum Bank’s website uses encryption and deposit account funds are FDIC-insured. However, any funds that you invest through Betterment are not FDIC-insured. 

How Do I Contact Optum Bank?

Optum Bank offers 24/7 customer service. To contact them by phone, you'll call 866-234-8913. You can also email them at customercare@optum.com.

There also separate support channels for members who have employer-sponsored HSAs with MyCDH or UHC. Those phone numbers and email addresses can be found here.

Is It Worth It?

There's a lot to love about Optum Bank. They've been servicing HSAs for nearly two decades, are reliable, and provide everything you’ll need in an HSA account. Plus, once you reach $3,000 in your account, the monthly fee is waived.

Even if you do have to pay the monthly fee (which is on the high side) Optum Bank could still be worth it for all of the services that you receive in return, especially it's investing options through Schwab and Betterment.

See how Optum Bank compares on our list of the Best HSA Providers >>>

Optum Bank HSA FAQs

Let's answer a few common questions about the Optum Bank HSA.

Who owns Optum Bank?

Optum Bank is owned by UnitedHealth Group Inc. which a multinational healthcare company that's headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Did Optum Bank change its name to Optum Financial?

No, while Optum Bank is now a part of Optum Financial, banking customers will continue to see the "Optum Bank" name on their account materials.

Is Optum Bank part of Wells Fargo?

No, but Optum Bank did acquire all of Wells Fargo's HSA accounts back in 2016.

Can I withdraw money from my Optum Bank HSA account?

Yes, debit Mastercards are provided to all HSA accounts holders that can be used to pay providers directly or to withdraw cash from ATMs to reimburse qualifying expenses that were paid out-of-pocket. 

Optum Bank HSA Features

Monthly Fee

$2.75/month (waived when balance reaches $3,000)

Printed Statement Fee

$1.50 (waived if customer chooses e-statements)

Account Closure Fee

$20

Account Minimum

$0

Minimum Balance For Investing

$1,000

Investment Options

  • Mutual funds (through Schwab)
  • Digitally-managed portfolios (through Betterment)

Brokerage Fee

0.03% monthly fee


  • Capped at $10/month ($33,000 in assets)

Debit Card Issued

Yes

Debit Card Daily Spending Limits

Not disclosed

APY

Not disclosed

ATM Cash Reimbursements

Allowed

ATM Withdrawal Fee

$2.50

ATM Withdrawal Limit

$300 per 24 hours

Customer Service Number

1-866-234-8913

Customer Service Hours

24/7 availability

Mobile App Availability

iOS and Android

Bill Pay

Yes

FDIC Certificate

57408

Promotions

None

Optum Bank Review
  • Commissions and Fees
  • Customer Service
  • Ease of Use
  • Tools and Resources
  • Investment Options
Overall
3.8

Summary

Optum Bank is an HSA provider that offers multiple spending methods, investing through Schwab and Betterment, and 24/7 customer service.

Pros

  • Debit card, check, or cash payments
  • Bill pay service included
  • Self-directed (Schwab) or managed (Betterment) investing
  • 24/7 live customer service

Cons

  • Monthly fee charged until account balance reaches $3,000
  • $1,000 minimum balance required to start investing
  • Fee charged on ATM withdrawals
  • Try Optum Bank
Robert Farrington
Robert Farrington

Robert Farrington is America’s Millennial Money Expert® and America’s Student Loan Debt Expert™, and the founder of The College Investor, a personal finance site dedicated to helping millennials escape student loan debt to start investing and building wealth for the future. You can learn more about him on the About Page, or on his personal site RobertFarrington.com.

He regularly writes about investing, student loan debt, and general personal finance topics geared towards anyone wanting to earn more, get out of debt, and start building wealth for the future.

He has been quoted in major publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Fox, ABC, NBC, and more. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes.

Optum Bank HSA Review: Affordable HSA Platform Packed With Features
Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, or other advertiser and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
Comment Policy: We invite readers to respond with questions or comments. Comments may be held for moderation and are subject to approval. Comments are solely the opinions of their authors'. The responses in the comments below are not provided or commissioned by any advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any company. It is not anyone's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
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