Did You Pay Your Top Surgery Fee All At Once?

[King Malachite]

For the guys who paid out of pocket, did you decide to pay your top surgery fund all at one time, or did you set a date and then continued making payments until the time of your surgery?  Did you save up any amount of money first before getting a consult and booked date, or did you just plan on saving after you got the date?

I'm debating with myself if I should try to save and save up all of the money before gettting a consultation and my surgery done, or if I should save up the majority of the money first and then book it and pay on the rest later whenever I get a job.  I wanted to see how other guys have handled this sitation.  I know whenever, I do book it (with Dr. Garramone more than likely), I'm going to ask for it to be at least 6 months.

What do you guys think?

[Bimmer Guy]

I think you are going to want Garramone/whoever to see your chest through consult as close to the surgery date as possible, especially if you think that you might qualify for a surgery other than DI.  Testosterone and binding will effect breast tissue. 

Save your money, and then have your consult.  I would say plan for two months to get in for surgery at the time of scheduling.

You need to give them $500 non-refundable in order to schedule.  You need to pay full amount 3 weeks before surgery.  I am sure he is not going to want to deal with payments coming in the door.

If the idea of "payments" work for you, just set up an account that you will put so much money in per month.  Then maybe you will feel like you are moving more towards your surgery.

I had the money prior to consult.  You can borrow money, of course.  I know it is hard to wait to get surgery when you are dysphoric.

[King Malachite]

Thank you for replying, Brett.   

I'm large chested so I know peri would be out of the question for me.  I plan to have top surgery done before T and I don't bind so the only thing I can possibly see changing with my body is weight loss/gain, which if I go to him, I'm plan on getting his Mansculpture procedure so that would be something to take into consideration.  When you say he isn't going to wat to deal with payments in the door, do you mean, he may not want to tak all of the mony upfront?

I've thought about borrowing money from loans, but with the interest rates, etc. it may just be better to just save up as I can

[Darrin Scott]

I paid for mine out of pocket and I made payments every month and any extra money I had I put towards the surgery too. like Brett said, I'd pay it off then get the consultation. You don't want all of your appointments being too far out of the actual surgery date.

[Sebryn]

Ideally I would have saved the full amount before the surgery but life circumstances made that pretty hard for me to do and I was beginning to suffer the effects of long term binding. I did save a good chunk of the money up front, plus the money I needed to pay other bills off in my down time, and the rest I financed. I don't regret it since I know I'll be able to pay it off quickly and I got my surgery done way before the unbearable summer time here.

I'd go with whichever option will work the best for you.

[Ayden]

I just scheduled and I made the $500 non refundable deposit. I saved for a year and I have the full surgery fee set aside, I just have to call my bank and let them know I'm going to be charging a huge amount of money (they have stopped my transactions in the past). I didnt even bother with scheduling my consultation until I had the fee saved up because I don't feel comfortable making payments on anything and I always pay up the full amount.

That being said, my financial situation is really quite stable. The lady at the office told me that the full fee needs to be paid a month in advance and they can't actually schedule anything until the first payment clears. Of course, this is Dr. Garramone's offices policy so I don't know about the others.

ETA: Dr. Garramone's office requires all payments be made with a credit card and they do not accept bank transfers, so bear that in mind if you do payments or pay all in one go. Credit card debt can build really fast, so either way you want to have enough cash saved to pay your card off without incurring interest charges.

[sbx]

When you say that Garramone's office doesn't accept bank transfers, does that include debit cards?

[Adam (birkin)]

Personally, I went in for a consult without the money saved. I had no idea how long the waiting list was going to be, and I wanted to get an idea of what I was in for. As I saw it, people go for consults all the time just to shop around for options - they don't expect that everyone who consults will follow through with surgery. I figured if worst came to worst I could reschedule (there is a fee of 10% of the cost of surgery if I do it 4 weeks or less before the surgery, but from what I understand, if I don't have the money I can postpone as long as it's far enough in advance). My surgeon needs full payment 6 weeks prior to surgery, so if I don't have money by the 8 week mark I will bump it up 2 or 3 months.

[Ayden]

When you say that Garramone's office doesn't accept bank transfers, does that include debit cards?

No. He doesn't accept cashiers checks, wire transfers and bank transfers. If your debit card had a credit card logo and can function as a credit card, that's fine. I used my debit/credit card.

[Bimmer Guy]

Hi, Malachite.

What I was saying is that Garramone wouldn't want you sending in "payments".  He wants your $500 and then he wants you to pay your full amount three weeks before surgery.

I got my surgery on 10/10/14.  I see where Ayden said the receptionist told him (recently?), that 4 weeks prior to surgery the balance should be paid, but Garramone's web site still says 3 weeks.

I also just read on the site that you have to pay an additional $500 at the time of scheduling if you want mansculpture.

A debit card would work, I assume.  If you give them the number over the phone, they can run it through just like a credit card.

When I was talking about payments to self, I was saying that maybe what you want to do is create a separate surgery account and then have money automatically go into it every time you get paid.  Put any birthday money, Holiday money, etc., in there to get it done faster.

There is always Care Credit if your dysphoria is too much to bear.  That much money takes a very long time for most people to save.

With all that said, if there is a part of you that is just craving to have a contact with Garramone while you are saving, you can do a consult now.  You already know for sure that you are getting DI and your chest won't change that much.  You will see him the day before your surgery (pre-op appointment), so it is not like he will be surprised at your chest/body (if you lose weight), on surgery day.

[Bimmer Guy]

Personally, I went in for a consult without the money saved. I had no idea how long the waiting list was going to be, and I wanted to get an idea of what I was in for. As I saw it, people go for consults all the time just to shop around for options - they don't expect that everyone who consults will follow through with surgery. I figured if worst came to worst I could reschedule (there is a fee of 10% of the cost of surgery if I do it 4 weeks or less before the surgery, but from what I understand, if I don't have the money I can postpone as long as it's far enough in advance). My surgeon needs full payment 6 weeks prior to surgery, so if I don't have money by the 8 week mark I will bump it up 2 or 3 months.

Garrmone's office takes scheduling very seriously.  I called back less than 24 hours after I scheduled.  I was asking to change it to one week later.  The girl was really hesitant to do it, saying that they aren't supposed to reschedule surgeries.  She relented after I explained that I wanted to stay at New Beginnings and they didn't have room that week.

[Ayden]

I got my surgery on 10/10/14.  I see where Ayden said the receptionist told him (recently?), that 4 weeks prior to surgery the balance should be paid, but Garramone's web site still says 3 weeks.

I also just read on the site that you have to pay an additional $500 at the time of scheduling if you want mansculpture.

A debit card would work, I assume.  If you give them the number over the phone, they can run it through just like a credit card.

I spoke to them early this morning here, so Monday afternoon US time. His website and the pre-op packets both so say three weeks prior, but when I was scheduling the gal said a month prior. I figured she meant just approximately one month prior to the date. But since his website and information packets both say three weeks, it's a good bet that that is the actual policy and the lady said a month before to clarify that it needed to be about that long before the date.

Debit cards work fine as long they are not just the cash cards that some small credit unions give out. My old credit union only have a cash card unless you had both a checking and a savings account. With the bigger banking institutions that's not a concern though.

[Ayden]

Garrmone's office takes scheduling very seriously.  I called back less than 24 hours after I scheduled.  I was asking to change it to one week later.  The girl was really hesitant to do it, saying that they aren't supposed to reschedule surgeries.  She relented after I explained that I wanted to stay at New Beginnings and they didn't have room that week.

I had the same experience. I wanted to schedule today and I was told that I needed to be absolutely sure of my dates because changing wasn't an option.

[Alexthecat]

Some debit/credit cards have a cap for the day. Like mine I can only spent $1500 in 24 hours. So Medalie's office had to withdrawal $1000 over how ever many days until it paid the whole amount. I paid up front in full. 

[sbx]

No. He doesn't accept cashiers checks, wire transfers and bank transfers. If your debit card had a credit card logo and can function as a credit card, that's fine. I used my debit/credit card.

That makes sense, thanks. I just got worried there for a minute because my credit line isn't anywhere close to being big enough to cover for surgery.

[aleon515]

That makes sense, thanks. I just got worried there for a minute because my credit line isn't anywhere close to being big enough to cover for surgery.

Some cards will allow a one time increase. But mine did not. I got my credit line increased and it's permanent. I could do that but of course not everyone can. I had cards that allowed for a one time increase though.

--Jay

[Adam (birkin)]

Garrmone's office takes scheduling very seriously.  I called back less than 24 hours after I scheduled.  I was asking to change it to one week later.  The girl was really hesitant to do it, saying that they aren't supposed to reschedule surgeries.  She relented after I explained that I wanted to stay at New Beginnings and they didn't have room that week.

Fair enough, with what a high demand he has. I imagine my surgeon would prefer I didn't postpone but it was given as an option. I would prefer not to myself but it's a if worse comes to worse thing.

[Jack_M]

Thank you for replying, Brett.   

I'm large chested so I know peri would be out of the question for me.  I plan to have top surgery done before T and I don't bind so the only thing I can possibly see changing with my body is weight loss/gain, which if I go to him, I'm plan on getting his Mansculpture procedure so that would be something to take into consideration.  When you say he isn't going to wat to deal with payments in the door, do you mean, he may not want to tak all of the mony upfront?

I've thought about borrowing money from loans, but with the interest rates, etc. it may just be better to just save up as I can

Just so you know, mansculpture is essentially useless if you're not on T, so if you plan to get it without being on T, I'd say don't bother with this. The manscuplture procedure is to remove female distributed fat. This works great when you're on T and fat isn't going there any more, but if you're not on T you're removing fat from areas that are just going to gain fat again. It'd be a waste of money.

[King Malachite]

Thanks for all of your replies, guys.  I think it might be best if I try to get the majority of the money saved up first.

Jack M you do make great points now that I think about it.  I do plan on going on T sometime in the future after top surgery, so it may be best for me to wait a while to see where my body fat distributes.  I really never thought of it from that angle.  From what I've heard, the fat cells cannot come back, but I would want to take that extra precaution if T is going to be involved.  It's something to think about really and I'll even ask Dr. Garramone about that when I get a consult, but for now, I may just save up for the basic top surgery and do extra working out.  After I'm on T for a while, I'll consider going back to Dr. G for that procedure and view my options.  Thanks for looking out, man.

With that possibily out of the way, the goal does seem a bit more acheivable.

[aleon515]

Another thing, is that lipo really hurts! The fat will redistribute, and I find myself MUCH more motivated to work out since I have been on T. I didn't have the mansculpture but people I know that have had lipo (and it some cases it is needed for top surgery) it isn't pleasant. So you have the top surgery and the discomfort and pain of top surgery. I wouldn't want it.

--Jay