care credit

[cloyddeux]

This is so important! But how do you care for your credit score? Does having a lot of credit cards helped you? But this is the realty. Holding balances on too many charge cards can damage your credit score. To be able to staunch the bleeding and perhaps obtain a much better interest rate, many consumers consider consolidating credit via balance transfer.

 

[hqueen13]

This is better late than never, but I thought I'd toss it in there since I do have experience with this.
I have a Care Credit account now from some dental work that I had done. I needed it, and it helped me greatly.
You MUST make payments of your own accord, and know how much you need to pay each month in order to pay it off. They don't send you updates reminding you that your bill is due, you must remember to pay it yourself. Each vet or doctor chooses which plans they wish to participate with. Many offer no interest options that range from 6 months to 12 months. Some plans have a minimum amount, anything less than that and you have to choose another shorter plan. When inquiring, you may also want to ask if they offer a cash discount, the company I work for up charges financed payment by a small amount because the financing companies charge so much more than a standard credit card percentage, especially if the client chooses the no interest options.

I actually had my credit score pulled the other day, and Care Credit does show up on your score.

Wells Fargo also offers a very similar service, for slightly better interest rates (though I only know this from the business side as my company offers it for our patients. I do not know what it is like to be a member if the treatment is similar to Care Credit).

Its a great service if you need it. If your credit isn't super strong, it is a good idea to get a co-signer on the loan to help boost the amount of credit that they will give you. My credit wasn't very strong, and even with The Other Half as co-signer they still only offered me $1000.00 credit. It was better than nothing and helped me a lot!

 

[tortoise]

even the 2 vets we rutinly use wouldnt even let us post date a check till friday. we got paid friday, but they wouldnt see him till then if we didnt have money in hand. and we called all vets in a 50 mile radius and not a single one would even consider it. the bill wasnt super high and we can pay it off friday. if it is only used in an emergency, then i think it will be worth it.

i couldnt belive that our rutine vets (1 we use for the dogs and cats, they dont do large animal or farm calls, and the other is for farm calls) wouldnt even help out. and they know us! made me think- what if it was life or death? (and it nearly was)

Care Credit requires very good credit and it has a very high interest rate! I had an emergency with my dog 2 years ago. I was quoted $2K. I applied for care credit and was denied. I went to my bank and they gave me a loan. Better interest rate too! It worked out better for me because I would have used care credit after the emergency and overspent.

"Payment due at time of service" is veterinary industry standard. You won't believe how many people don't pay their bills! There is valid reason for the change in the industry!

 

[Denim Deb]

Vets offices can be crazy. When we had my son's dog neutered several years ago, we had the option of making payments. But, we chose to pay it all up front so we wouldn't have to worry about it. They sent her home w/out an Elizabethian collar. Well, she managed to remove some of the stitches. My son realized it, and called me. By this time, he had his license, and I couldn't take her back. I called the vet and told them, they had him bring her right in. But, he didn't have the money for the collar. I got a nasty call from them. Ok, I had JUST paid the whole bill-which was over $100, and you're going to hassle me about $11?! We found a different vet after that.

 

[hqueen13]

Care Credit requires very good credit and it has a very high interest rate! I had an emergency with my dog 2 years ago. I was quoted $2K. I applied for care credit and was denied. I went to my bank and they gave me a loan. Better interest rate too! It worked out better for me because I would have used care credit after the emergency and overspent.

"Payment due at time of service" is veterinary industry standard. You won't believe how many people don't pay their bills! There is valid reason for the change in the industry!

Things have changed in the last few years since center you applied. I did not have very good credit at all before I applied and was approved for $800.00, then asked for more and got $200.00 more, which was a drop in the bucket for the dental work I needed, but every little bit helps. Since I could get interest free for a period of time it was a better deal than I could get anywhere else.

 

[cd2675]

has anyone else got this?

we are out of cash after going to des moines last week, so when our dog had an emergency vet visit and we didnt have the cash the vet sugested we sign up for this. it is like a credit card to be used for vet care for your pet, dental and eye for people. a LOT of area vets take it (we only know of 2 that dont so far in a 50 mile radius). i had never heard of it before.

I have Care Credit for my emergency vet visits and my son's orthodontist. It does help with credit if you can pay it, but as someone else said, read the fine print. It does hurt your credit if you don't pay for it and my interest rate is 26+%!! I think it was retroactive to the initial purchase, too.....big surprise on my bill last month. Fortunately I'm on top of it and I get an alert from another company I use, mint.com, that keeps me apprised of when bills are coming due via text messages.

If you do it, make sure you can pay the bill.

 

[Sprouts]

I LOVE Care Credit!! As someone else mentioned, you MUST make sure you pay it off during the interest free period, you must also make every single payment on time and it is free money! If you fail to pay it off during the interest free period they hit you with outrageous interest rates and you have to pay interest that begins accumulating at the time of the purchase.
I've had Care Credit for about 10 years give or take and I've never paid a dime in interest. All of my vet and dental expenses go on my care credit!

 

[Britesea]

There are several of these around- each one specializing in a particular area. We have one for our cars- I've used it to get new tires a couple of times and it really helped. But now I'm working on beefing up our savings account so I won't need it anymore, because I'm always afraid that I'll forget to pay it off before the grace period ends, and then I would get socced with a large interest bill.

 

[Mini Horses]

I've used a care credit in past for a dog who needed 1800 in emergency surgery! Paid before date so no interest. For me, it was good at the time. Often we must make choices and it can be very helpful when you need it. Card was closed for lack of use. LOL

Being "kinda" retired, while I save for known things coming, you can always have that "WOWZER" hit and need a little bit more.
Trust me, if you don't already know, if you hit the savings it rarely gets replenished.

 

[Denim Deb]

I like the large animal vet I'm using now. If I have an emergency, she'll bill me and let me make payments. I'm working on getting money set aside for vet emergencies, but it's slow going.