FSA is it worth it?

[gottaluvPluto]

I max mine out at 5k. I LOVE IT. It is usually all spent by sept or oct for us - I have two children which chronic health problems - asthma and my daughter has anaphylaxis. My husband has been a train wreck the past two years too, so its GONE and its so worth it. Our tax advisor told us to keep on doing it because it was saving us so much money!!
I also do dependent care FSA too -max it out at 5k too because I have two kids in daycare. I get the money right back as soon as it goes into my account. SO WORTH IT.

Under the new law - you can only have $2500 on the FSA.

 

[Kitzka]

The childcare max is $5000. I think the new healthcare max is $2500

Lara

 

[jadeblue13]

We love our FSA. Unfortunately we used ours already due to 2 emerg. surgeries I had this year. I will say I did not like the debit card only because I was being denied and they wouldn't tell me why. I had 2 go through and one in between that was denied-so we have .90 left that I can't buy anything with. I'm sure now that we know the deal I can write down an envelope with the amount left on the account like I would do with the envelope system for the budget. That way I could pick which bill comes closest to the amount left on the card.

 

[MyDizneyBoyz]

I thought the Healthcare FSA max was determined by employers until 2013 when it will be subject to a $2,500 cap? The Dependent Care FSA is set to a max of $5,000 by the IRS. It is really hard to find reliable info on this stuff online!

Our companies (mine and DH's) haven't formally opened their annual enrollment yet so I can't see what our options are, we can just review the generic info.

 

[mrodgers]

I canceled my vision insurance and went with FSA. I have a debit card available to me so I can use it instead of out-of-pocket.

I canceled my vision coverage because it cost me $120/year and it covered $40 eye exam. I wear contacts, thus had an additional contact exam at $40 and 4 boxes of contacts at $35 each per year. Nothing with the contacts was covered. If I wanted a pair of glasses, the insurance covered plain lenses and about $60 on frames (frames are EXPENSIVE!) My vision cost me a total of $300, with only $120 of that taken pre-tax.

Now I put $300 in my FSA. With that, it now cost me $80 for the eye exam along with my contact stuff that I was paying anyways. That leaves me an extra $40 that I would usually use for OTC medication for my allergies and the kids flu medications. Now instead of only $120 of the $300 I spend taken as pre-tax, all of it is pre-tax.

 

[JeffreyY]

Does anyone else have a fee involved.

I also realized we should look at what DH's company offers. He thinks they get the debit card which would be easier and maybe his fee is lower since it is a smaller company.

Thanks for the advise.

 

[lori123]

We have no fees for ours. We put in the max - and are STILL paying out of pocket. And that is only using it for the Dr, Dentist, Eye Doctor, Glasses, Contacts, prescriptions, etc - no over the counter anything. I wish we could put in more since next year I will have at least 1 - maybe 2 in braces ! Love having the flex plan. The only thing that is a little annoying are the letters asking us to substantiate the charges While I get WHY they have us do it - it's still a bother to get copies and mail them off.