Does Quicken Support HSA Credit Cards?

Moskose

OK, when we looked for our prescription expenses, I realized we were missing almost 100% of the data. This occurred because, before I retired, I put aside money into a Health Savings Account.

I have a Visa card which is "loaded" with the funds from the HSA account, like a cash card, and it can be used to pay for medical expenses. The bulk of the funds are in a linked "Investment account" with a higher return and I make an occasional electronic transfer to the cash account which is linked to the card itself.

Is this possible to set up in Quicken? I can easily set up the Investment account and manually record the transfers to the card but wondering if there is a way to set up the cash card as a credit card and note the starting cash balance and let Quicken tell me when it's time to transfer funds, and keep accurate track of my medical out of pocket expenses? I see a Line of Credit as an account type but not sure if this would work?

Frankx

Hi @Moskose,

Yes, you can setup an account in Quicken that will do what you describe above (i.e. interact with the HSA "investment account").  In fact, there are a number of "types of accounts" that you could use for this purpose.  You could setup a simple "Cash" account, you could use a "Checking" or "Savings" type or even a "Credit Card" account (I would have included a "Debit Card" type account if Quicken had that type, but it doesn't offer it.). 

If you are going to download transaction activity into the Quicken account, I might favor using the credit card account, since it functions the same way in terms of transactions (e.g. no check numbers like a checking account) it just is always in a "debit" condition or state, whereas credit cards are mostly in a "credit" state most of the time (unless you overpay the balance due, return an item purchased, etc.).  I suspect that a financial institution - for downloading purposes - may characterize the account as a "credit card" when you go to setup the download.

Let mw know if you have any followups.

Frankx

Frankx

Moskose said:

The card has a running cash balance so I'm guessing that I establish this as the opening balance when I set up the HSA card?

Yes, you should use a balance from a statement (or online) if possible and then record transactions dated after the starting date balance.  And also "yes" you can manually add that via an "Adjustment transaction" but if you determine that downloading from the financial institution that issued the card is a possibility, it would be best to delete the test account and start from scratch with both setting up the account in Quicken and connecting that account for downloading.

Frankx

Frankx

Hi @Moskose,

Yes, you can setup an account in Quicken that will do what you describe above (i.e. interact with the HSA "investment account").  In fact, there are a number of "types of accounts" that you could use for this purpose.  You could setup a simple "Cash" account, you could use a "Checking" or "Savings" type or even a "Credit Card" account (I would have included a "Debit Card" type account if Quicken had that type, but it doesn't offer it.). 

If you are going to download transaction activity into the Quicken account, I might favor using the credit card account, since it functions the same way in terms of transactions (e.g. no check numbers like a checking account) it just is always in a "debit" condition or state, whereas credit cards are mostly in a "credit" state most of the time (unless you overpay the balance due, return an item purchased, etc.).  I suspect that a financial institution - for downloading purposes - may characterize the account as a "credit card" when you go to setup the download.

Let mw know if you have any followups.

Frankx

Moskose

Thanks for the quick reply! I'll go with setting this up as a Credit Card account since it is linked to the HSA credit card. I am not sure if the HSA Bank site supports downloading but there are usually only 8-12 transactions per month so manual entry would work fine. The card has a running cash balance so I'm guessing that I establish this as the opening balance when I set up the HSA card?

Late last night, I created a test account w/o an opening balance. Can I manually add an Adjustment transaction to establish the balance or, if not, it's not too hard to delete the test account and start over.

I did set up the Investment account as an Investment account so I can transfer funds from there to the HSA card.

Frankx

Moskose said:

The card has a running cash balance so I'm guessing that I establish this as the opening balance when I set up the HSA card?

Yes, you should use a balance from a statement (or online) if possible and then record transactions dated after the starting date balance.  And also "yes" you can manually add that via an "Adjustment transaction" but if you determine that downloading from the financial institution that issued the card is a possibility, it would be best to delete the test account and start from scratch with both setting up the account in Quicken and connecting that account for downloading.

Frankx

Tom Young

" The card has a running cash balance so I'm guessing that I establish this as the opening balance when I set up the HSA card?"

Just to get started in the process, that's probably the way to go.  I'd give that opening balance a back date of when you first started using the card for medical expenses.  If you're able to re-create some of your spending history you can enter those transactions with the proper transaction date, and then change the dollar amount of that opening balance to keep your current balance correct.

"Can I manually add an Adjustment transaction to establish the balance..."

Yes.  Simply pick a date for the opening balance, enter the dollar amount and, in the "Category" box use the HSA Account itself (with the square brackets [ ] )as the offset.