Pulaski

I have withdrawn from most of the "argumentative" threads* and my stress levels are much better for it.

There is clearly no point in arguing with people who have no interest in being persuaded, and yes, I would include myself in that group. I am pretty much "done" with TIO.

I dabbled in some of the post-election threads last week, and wish I hadn't. It was a complete waste of my time.

Giantaxe

The "Wells Fargo behaved badly" thread was hardly an argumentative thread.

Pulaski

Well the first time in several weeks I post on the subject and you immediately pounce on me, so thanks for proving that it would have been argumentative if I had posted on that thread.

robin1234

But you've also been doing yard work and using the chainsaw ... Well known stress reducers ....

MidAtlantic

I have banked with Wachovia, which was then taken over by Wells Fargo, for many years and always found their service to be excellent. Others have posted here about Wells Fargo's helpfulness in the mortgage field for new immigrants. It therefore seems reasonable to answer a question about opening a new bank account by mentioning Wells Fargo. Others will have other suggestions. On the other hand Wells Fargos' practices, which have come to light recently, obviously raise some issues. No doubt anyone opening a new account will take account of all this and make their own decision.

nun

CA does provide state funded Medicaid to immigrants....however I doubt an O-1 visa holder would qualify. But the OP mentioned Medicare which he/she can't get without at least 5 years permanent residency.

nun

My example was very approximate, but if you look at the CA health exchange you'll find lots of silver/gold family plans with ~$1k monthly premiums and $10k out of pocket max. If you go bronze the premiums will be ~$500/month but out of pocket max can be as high as $20k for out of network

Pulaski

But unless you have horrendous and/or expensive health conditions, such that your medical costs will exceed the lower of the deductibles you mention, then the HD option is almost a no-brainer because (i) you won't reach the $10,000 level where the policy would pay anything, AND (ii) you'd have $6,000 ($500 x 12) to put in an HSA to meet your healthcare expenses "out of pocket". And if you only have limited and modest healthcare expenses you'll have most of that to start accumulating a nice balance in your HSA.

Giantaxe

If providing accurate information is "pouncing on you" then yeh, I "pounced" on you.

nun

It's prudent to budget for the max annual cost, particularly as the OP says they have pre-existing conditions. Therefore, you should be ok with paying the premiums and the max out of pocket expenses. Hopefully you won't pay that much, but if you fall seriously ill you should not be scrambling to pay $10k in out of pocket costs on top of any premiums.

Pulaski

Agree, but the risk might it be much less what it first seems.

Using your example figures and taking the base-line choice as high premiums and a $10,000 deductible, which you would have to meet entirely out of post-tax funds, the alternative is to have lower premiums and putting the $6,000 of premium savings into an HSA, which means that you are ahead or breaking even if your out of pocket costs don't exceed $6,000, but then there is the tax saving on the HSA, so that $6,000 probably cost you less than $4,500 (assuming two people working), so you've saved at least $1,500, so you can add that to the $6,000 to reach $7,500 of expenses before you're worse off than the higher cost- lower deductible policy.

Beyond $7,500 of expenses you are in the same situation as having the higher cost- lower deductible policy (you have to pay the deductible out of taxed funds), and that will continue on a dollar for dollar basis until you reach $17,500. I agree after that point you will be worse off, but only until (using your example numbers) you reach $20,000. This is entirely consistent with my previous observations and experience: there is a range of medical expenses where you will save with an HD policy and an HSA, there is a large range of medical expenses where there is no difference between HD and non-HD insurance, and there is a relatively small window, or as Americans would call it, "a donut hole", where you would be worse off. ..... But only one "low cost" year would be sufficient to give you the accumulated HSA balance to entirely mitigate the donut hole.

And back to the OP, there are plenty of on-going medical issues that are not necessarily high cost in the US, especially if you shop around and are prepared to take generic drugs. Goodrx.com is a good resource for finding prescriptions at the best price.

Little Miss actually has an ongoing medical issue, thankfully a relatively innocuous one that can be managed, but that hasn't stopped Mrs P and I accumulating very substantial balances in our HSA's over the past seven years - both in the five-figure range, and mine more than twice Mrs P's.

bewildering

Find a bank branch near a university. These branches have experience with immigrants. I have used Wells Fargo since I have arrived and have no complaints. But I did not use them for a mortgage - it is much cheaper to go online and use something like quicken loans.

On an O-visa? Does your employer not provide health insurance? It is much better to get health insurance through your employer in the US.

MidAtlantic

Unlikely to work for someone with no SSN or US credit history, so far as we know.

mrken30

Credit Unions tend to be easier on fees and account charges, but banks tend to be more professional. They also tend to be more flexible. It was not just Wells Fargo opening up accounts without permission. Both are insured, so my advice is look for one that is convenient for you and the account charging requirements fit your needs. Some require ACH deposit and debit card transactions, some are minimum funds requirements. They are all different.

petitefrancaise

Wells Fargo are generally easy to open an account with as a new arrival and since they have branches and cash machines all over the place, they are easy to use too. You don't have to keep the account with them forever, it's fairly easy to open another account if you want to.

Advancial Credit Union were targeting new arrivals a while ago with offers of unsecured credit cards and car loans at decent rates. They seem to require that you are eligible to open an account but may be fairly easy going on that. My credit union gave me an account on the basis that I used to have a gym membership with Lifetime for example. They also gave us an unsecured credit card soon after we arrived too even though we did not have accounts with them. This was organised through AIG Inbound insurance (not really an insurance, more of a concierge service) which I can highly recommend.