Care Credit

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

I know a lot of people have used this service before for the animal care bills.

I was wondering, how it worked exactly.

Can someone who has used it explain it to me?

 

[Jenn]

Bonnie, we just had to use this for my doberman's emergency visit to the vet a month ago when he broke his jaw in 2 places after getting run over by my husband on his atv. You call a number and answer a few questions about your income, and you are given a quote on how much money you will be credited with. So it is like a credit card to make monthly installments on your bill. We have 6 months to pay it off in full with no interest, after 6 months, interest is then applied in full.

 

[threewingedfury]

It's just like a credit card, but is only accepted at certain offices for vets, dentists, doctors, surgeons, etc. I use it when I get my teeth cleaned and I also charged my LASIK surgery to the Care Credit card and I pay $90/month on it for a couple years.

As Jenn mentioned, they do have certain deals where there's no interest if you pay within a certain number of months. When I get my teeth cleaned, I pay it off in 6 months and there's no interest. My LASIK surgery was charged as a fixed payment with interest because the term was 5 years.

My vet office doesn't accept Care Credit unfortunately, but I know of others that do. You would just have to be approved for the card and you can apply online or on the phone. The interest rate is 26.99% though if you do not pay the balance off before the promotional period has expired.

 

[Marie5656]

My husband used it a few years ago for some extensive dental work, as we do not have dental coverage. The way it worked for us was 18 months no interest. Not sure if that is something they always do, or because he was new to Care Credit

 

[greychins]

We've used care credit on several occasions. There's always been a promotional
period during which you can pay it off with no interest, but if you don't get it paid off in that period, as I understand it, they retroactively figure out interest...so it's in your best interest to pay it off in the promotional period...or it's really no better than your average credit card. Our promotional period has always been 6 months, but we've only used it for chin bills and our highest bill was $800. So maybe the period differs with the amount charged.

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

What is the difference in it and a regular credit card, exactly? Since I'm sure vets accept those, why use this one?

 

[threewingedfury]

What is the difference in it and a regular credit card, exactly? Since I'm sure vets accept those, why use this one?

There really isn't, except the no interest promotional period. Most credit cards also have the same 6 months or 1 year without interest when you first get them to get you hooked, but it just depends on the card. It's a credit card that's not accepted everywhere and is used for healthcare only. You have to be a Care Credit provider to accept the card.

I guess I like this card because it can only be used for healthcare, and I won't go and splurge on something I don't need where Mastercard and VISA are accepted ;-)

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

One more question, with care credit, is it every time you use it, you have 6 months to pay of that bill like...

Say a person took a dog to the vet and charged to care credit. They have 6 months to pay that off. Then they had to take their guinea pig to the vet 3 months later.
Do they have 6 months to pay off that bill or does it combine with the first bill and you have 3 months to pay them both off before interest is charged?

 

[greychins]

Ditto on what was said above. For me, the main advantage in using care credit is the promotional period. I do have my own credit card, and it's got a higher limit than my Care Credit card... but that said, it also has something like 25% interest rate. So, if I were to charge $1000 in chin bills and paid it off in 6 months, I'd end up paying a crapload in interest... versus if I charged it on Care Credit, paid it off in the same 6 months, and didn't pay any interest.

For awhile, I carried a balance on my regular credit card (due to a $3700 pneumonia incident vet bill and week-long vet stay for my dog). The interest was killing me. Some months, when hours were getting cut at work, all I could pay was the same amount (or less!) for what I was getting charged in interest. It was ridiculous. Took me forever to pay it off, cause I probably ended up paying double the actual bill cause of all the interest. Of course, I didn't have Care Credit back then... but had I, I might have ended up paying only $3700.

I like Care rcedit cause I know it's there when I need it and it allows me to use my actual credit card as backup. Now, I hardly ever charge anything on my credit card, but I like knowing that I have my Care Credit card, and then if I somehow maxed that out (heaven forbid), I still have my other credit card to fall back on. That said... I don't have high limits... I know some people with like $30,000 limits on their credit cards... not me, my Care Credit is like $3700 and my regular credit card is like $5000, so... not that I want to max those out, but it'd be easier to do than $30,000!

 

[greychins]

One more question, with care credit, is it every time you use it, you have 6 months to pay of that bill like...

Say a person took a dog to the vet and charged to care credit. They have 6 months to pay that off. Then they had to take their guinea pig to the vet 3 months later.
Do they have 6 months to pay off that bill or does it combine with the first bill and you have 3 months to pay them both off before interest is charged?

While I've never had this happen (yet... it will eventually, with the rescues), I would think that each would be its own separate 6 months. That would be my thought. However....that said, when you log into gemoney to pay off the care credit, I don't know if it would be separated out into separate bills? Because I've only ever had one charge going at a time.

I would think, for the sake of the pet owner that takes their dog in in January for a $200 surgery and has it mostly paid off but then at the end of May the dog has an unexpected $3000 surgery... it wouldn't make sense to require that all be paid by June. But... life doesn't always follow the rules of common sense.

This might be something to call up customer support and ask. It's a good question.

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

Okay! Thanks for answer my questions.

I think I'm going to apply for one myself, just as a back-up. =)