Elements Financial

Overview / Commentary

www.elements.org

317-524-5076

225 S East St Ste 300
Indianapolis, IN 46202

Elements Financial is headquartered in Indianapolis and is the 4^th largest credit union in the state of Indiana. It is also the 182^nd largest credit union in the nation. It was established in 1976 and as of September of 2020, it had grown to 180 employees and 115,755 members at 3 locations. Elements Financial has an A health rating.

Field of Membership Restrictions

Elements Financial is open to employees, students, retirees, or members of eligible Elements partners including Eli Lilly and Company, The Heritage Group, OneAmerica, Indy Chamber, College Park Church, Butler University or any one of the more than 135 select employer groups (a complete list can be found on the credit union's website). Immediate family and household members may also join.
See current membership details

Helium Promo Rate Drop - 1/27/2021

The 2.1% Helium Promo defaults to the regular savings rate when the promo ends. You should be aware (and plan accordingly): the current rate on that account is 0.4%.

View all posts from:

2021
2020
2019
Earlier

1/27 - Helium Promo Rate Drop

2/29 - Elements Financial Lowers APY For New Helium Savings Promo Accounts

10/10 - Elements Financial Offers 2.10% APY On Helium Savings For 1 Year
7/2 - Elements Financial Ups High Interest Checking To 3.00% APY
7/1 - 3.00% APY High Interest Checking

Reviews (5)

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Very Good For HSA

Posted by: MaryJones | Aug 18, 2018

I took an extremely long time to open our HSA accounts because as I reviewed all the ones out there, I was not happy with any. Most have tons of fees for doing anything, or nothing at all. My primary objective was to find one where there would be no fees if I simply deposit funds and don't do anything. Elements provided that.

These days most folks are looking for the ability to use their HSA to participate in the stock market, either utilizing a brokerage account of being able to invest in mutual funds. Elements provides that ability. Yes, there are fees - as there will be with any HSA which provides for it.

My only nitpick is that during the account opening process, for a new member, they limit the initial deposit to the HSA...that limit is below their minimum for avoiding the monthly fee. I wanted to contribute the full year maximum, which was above their minimum to avoid the monthly fee. Couldn't do it - had to open it with initial limit they imposed, then do a second transfer to bring the balance up - and get hit with a fee the first month. When I opened my spouse's HSA, I figured a way around this - first funding the member savings account (required to open the HSA) and then doing an internal transfer to the new HSA for the one year maximum contribution. Elements should either raise the maximum allowable initial deposit to the HSA, or post a tip how to open it and avoid the monthly fee. I opened our accounts almost 2 years ago, so maybe they have changed that since.

Anyhow, the interest rate on savings is not competitive, and again there are fees for using a brokerage account. However, if you're looking for a safe place to put your HSA money and not have it eaten away with fees for having it simply having sit dormant, this is a good one.

Comment

Generally satisfied customer.

Posted by: russelldickson2 | Jul 17, 2017

Generally, I have been very happy with Elements Financial Credit Union. I have been with this bank for over a decade. When I originally signed up for an account using a bank that was primarily online was a very uncommon thing to do. When I originally opened my account the bank was called Eli Lilly Federal Credit Union. There are branches available inside Lilly pharmaceutical, but are unavailable to me as a non employee. I only had a problem finding a service center during one period when I lived in Florida for a brief time. I was eventually able to find a service center, but it was quite inconvenient. There are a large variety of deposit options and they are all accessible via web or phone contact only. All in all, I was satisfied enough with my experience that I have opened an account with a different credit union under similar circumstances.

Comment

ACH Problems

Posted by: dnc2933 | Jan 1, 2020

I set up the Helium Savings account a month ago. I've tried twice to set up an ACH with Elements (back to my home bank). Both times failed. I called Customer service and they told me to try again and "sometimes it takes 3-4 tries". They need to do something to their system!

Transfers To External Accounts

Posted by: Hiyeld | Sep 19, 2018

1. They have $10,000 limit per day for outgoing ACH transfers
2. In my case, Wire Transfer Department took three attempts to type my account number correctly. Their email to me presented a correct number, but in wire transfer computer they typed incorrect. Wasted all day talking to both institutions.

General customer service is great and supportive.

For HSA Investing, Clunky And Expensive

Posted by: msf | Nov 25, 2017

Elements (formerly Eli Lilly FCU) used to be a good place to have an HSA investment account. These days, not good at all.

Most HSAs that allow investments have a banking side (here, Elements) and an investment side (either a small menu of mutual funds or a brokerage partner, here TDAmeritrade). Elements requires you to keep $2500 on the credit union side or pay $4/mo to invest. That's higher than many other providers. It also charges $25 per transfer to the investment (TDAmeritrade) side. That's quite unusual.

Also unusual is that instead of having two logins (one for Elements and one for TDA), you need three. The third is for a third party site (pilothsa.com) that handles the transfers.

That site imposes a three business day lag between the time a trade settles at TDA (i.e. the time that TDA says you can withdraw cash), and the time the transfer site will allow you to transfer the money. It also gets confused if you place multiple transfers too close together (even if there is enough money available). I'm still working on resolving that problem.

The final concern is that TDAmeritrade recently changed its list of NTF ETFs, replacing lots of inexpensive ones from Vanguard and iShares with more expensive ones.

If you just want to keep cash on the Elements side, it seems fine. But if you want to use this for investing within an HSA, it's not the most efficient or user friendly place to do so.

Comment

Health

Data as of Q3 2020

Learn why bank health matters

Health Grade Components

Overall
NCUA #	22468
Year Chartered	1976
Employees	180
Primary Regulator

Profit Margin
Return on Assets - YTD	0.92%
Return on Equity - YTD	10.48%
Annual Interest Income	$43.7MM

Assets and Liabilities
Assets	Q3 2020vs Q3 2019	$1.97B$1.66B
Loans	Q3 2020vs Q3 2019	$1.25B$1.25B
Deposits	Q3 2020vs Q3 2019	$1.67B$1.36B
Equity Capital	Q3 2020vs Q3 2019	$172.8MM$149.3MM
Secondary Capital	Q3 2020vs Q3 2019	$5.0MM
Loan Loss Allowance	Q3 2020vs Q3 2019	$11.4MM$9.5MM
Unbacked Noncurrent Loans	Q3 2020vs Q3 2019	$745.00K$4.6MM
Real Estate Owned	Q3 2020vs Q3 2019	$0$0

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