Linking transaction cards with spending accounts

1. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions, execution of which by a computing device causes the computing device to perform operations comprising:

linking an existing card, associated with a non tax-advantaged account of a cardholder, to a Health Savings Account (HSA) of the cardholder;

receiving a request, initiated by a use of the card, for payment authorization for a purchase of a plurality of items, at least one of which qualifies for pre-tax treatment and at least one other of which does not qualify for pre-tax treatment,

authorizing payment for the purchase,

transmitting a payment authorization to a point of sale device,

causing the HSA to be debited for at least a first portion of a first purchase amount of the at least one item that qualifies for pre-tax treatment, and

causing the non tax-advantaged account to be debited for at least a second portion of a second purchase amount of the at least one item that does not qualify for pre-tax treatment.

2. An apparatus comprising:

means for linking an existing card, associated with a non tax-advantaged account of a cardholder, to a Health Savings Account (HSA) of the cardholder;

means for receiving a request, initiated by a use of the card, for payment authorization for a purchase of one or more items;

means for determining whether one or more of said items qualifies for pre-tax treatment;

means for determining at least partial payment authorization for said qualifying item, transmitting said at least partial payment authorization for said qualifying item to a point of sale device, and causing the HSA to be debited for at least a portion of the purchasing amount of said qualifying item based on said payment authorization in response to a first determination that at least one of said items qualifies for pre-tax treatment; and

means for causing the non tax-advantaged account to be debited for said non-qualifying item in response to a second determination that at least one of said items does not qualify for pre-tax treatment.

3. A method comprising:

linking an existing card, associated with a non tax-advantaged account of a cardholder, to a Health Savings Account (HSA) of the cardholder;

receiving, using a computing device, a request, initiated by a use of the card, for payment authorization for an item charge;

determining, using the computing device, whether the item charge qualifies for pre-tax treatment;

causing, using the computing device, the HSA to be debited for the item charge in response to a first determination that the item charge qualifies for pre-tax treatment; and

causing, using the computing device, the non tax-advantaged account to be debited for the item charge in response to a second determination that the item charge does not qualify for pre-tax treatment.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the determining whether the item charge qualifies for pre-tax treatment comprises at least one of:

determining whether the transaction instrument is associated with the HSA;

determining whether the FSA contains sufficient funds to cover the item charge; or

determining whether the merchant satisfies the requirements necessary to permit funds for the purchase to be drawn from the HSA.

5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the determining whether the item charge qualifies for pre-tax treatment comprises determining whether the item charge satisfies Internal Revenue Service Guidelines.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the item charge is associated with a plurality of items to be charged, and wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether any of the plurality of items does not satisfy Internal Revenue Service Guidelines;

separating out items that do not satisfy Internal Revenue Service Guidelines;

causing the HSA to be debited for a charge of an item or items that satisfy Internal Revenue Service Guidelines; and

causing the non tax-advantaged account to be debited for a charge of an item or items not satisfying Internal Revenue Service Guidelines.

7. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the item charge is associated with a plurality of items to be charged, and wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether any of the plurality of items to be charged is not eligible to be charged to the HSA;

separating out items not eligible to be charged to the HSA;

causing the HSA to be debited for a charge of an item or items eligible to be charged to the HSA; and

causing the non tax-advantaged account to be debited for a charge of an item or items not eligible to be charged to the HSA.

8. The method of claim 3 , wherein the card is a credit card.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the card is owed by the cardholder prior to an opening of the HSA by the cardholder.

10. The method of claim 3 , wherein the card is a debit card.

11. The method of claim 3 , wherein linking the card to the HSA enables usage of the card for HSA expenses, thereby creating a virtual HSA within the non tax- advantaged account.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising linking functionality associated with the HSA to the non tax-advantaged account.

13. The method of claim 3 , wherein the transaction instrument is at least one of:

an open or closed charge card,

a stored value card, or

an RFID chip based card or token.

14. The method of claim 3 , wherein causing the HSA to be debited further comprises submitting a receipt for the item charge to a third party administrator in response to a third determination that the item charge qualifies for pre-tax treatment, wherein the third party administrator charges the item charge to the HSA, and wherein the third party administrator determines whether substantiation of a portion of the item charge is necessary.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the third party administrator notifies the cardholder and charges the non tax-advantaged account in response to a determination that substantiation of the portion of the item charge is necessary.

16. An article of manufacture including a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, an execution of which by a computing device causes the computing device to perform operations comprising:

linking an existing card, associated with a non-tax advantaged account of a cardholder, to a Health Savings Account (HSA) of the cardholder;

receiving, using the computing device, a request, initiated by a use of the card, for payment authorization for an item charge;

determining, using the computing device, whether the item charge qualifies for pre-tax treatment;

causing, using the computing device, the HSA to be debited for the item charge in response to a first determination that the item charge qualifies for pre-tax treatment; and

causing, using the computing device, the non-tax advantaged account to be debited for the item charge in response to a second determination that the item charge does not qualify for pre-tax treatment.

17. The article of manufacture according to claim 16 , wherein the determining whether the item charge qualifies for pre-tax treatment comprises at least one of:

determining whether the transaction instrument is associated with the HSA;

determining whether the HSA contains sufficient funds to cover the charge for the purchase; and

determining whether the merchant satisfies the requirements necessary to permit funds for the purchase to be drawn from the HSA.

18. The article of manufacture according to claim 16 , wherein the determining whether the item charge qualifies for pre-tax treatment comprises:

determining whether the item charge satisfies Internal Revenue Service Guidelines.

19. The article of manufacture according to claim 18 , wherein the item charge comprises a plurality of items to be charged, and wherein the operations further comprise:

determining whether any of the plurality of items does not satisfy Internal Revenue Service Guidelines;

separating out items that do not satisfy Internal Revenue Service Guidelines;

causing the HSA to be debited for a charge of an item or items that satisfy Internal Revenue Service Guidelines; and

causing the non tax-advantaged account to be debited for charge of the item or items that do not satisfy Internal Revenue Service Guidelines.

20. The article of manufacture according to claim 16 , wherein the item charge is associated with a plurality of items to be charged, and wherein the operations further comprise:

whether any of the plurality of items to be charged is not eligible to be charged to the HSA;

separating out items that are not eligible to be charged to the HSA;

causing the HSA to be debited for a charge of an item or items that are eligible to be charged to the HSA; and

causing the non tax-advantaged account to be debited for a charge of an item or items that are not eligible to be charged to the HSA.