My employer doesn't offer an HSA program. Does anyone have experience with an individual HSA? I'd like to know about any good experience people have had with an high-deductible health plan or an HSA bank.

It's very easy to get a individual HSA - and many choices for a trusted custodian of the account. Here are a few of my favorites:

chase.com/hsa
hsabank.com
msaver.com

If i had to pick between the 3, I would probably go with Chase, since they have a national presence, pays highest interest and low fees

hope that helps.

I've recently gotten my HDHP but have not started researching the HSA banks yet as I know I have until Tax day to fund the HSA and still get credit on my '07 taxes. That said, what are the prevailing rates with Chase or the other banks?

Its easy to get an individual HSA IF YOU ARE HEALTHY! If not, you can't get individual insurance in most states!

No offense, but your listing of favorite HSA providers are probably the 3 worst in the industry in terms of fees and customer service. MSaver has been renamed to First Horizon, their knowledge of the regs is terrible

Chase has probably the highest fees of any provider and use a 3rd party provider to handle their customer service -

Interest rates are almost meaningless until your account reached $3800. Fees will have more of an impact on Future Value then interest rates.

When you have BLue telling their clients not to use Chase (who is their HSA partner / provider) you know something is wrong!

hate to disagree with you but Chase is actually one of the lowest cost HSAs in the industry from what I've seen. you may think monthly fees are higher but they also pay a flat 3%+ interest rate on ALL balance levels, which cannot be said for msaver, hsabank, exante, B of A, and a host of others - most who pay on a tiered basis - basically penalizing the people who actually spend out of the account.

and for someone who is so down on the Blues, it striked me as odd that you advertise them on your website.

who's your favorite?

doesn't blue have their own bank?

All the banks mentioned so far as best I can tell are either national in scope and/or tied to the insurance companies.

What about local community banks or credit unions? How do they stack up?