Anyone Have Experience Using Care Credit for Trans* Surgeries?

[YumJellyDonuts]

Long story short I'm likely going to be getting peri areolar top surgery with Dr. Medalie in ohio either over the summer or early fall. Between now and then I will be saving as much money as I possibly can but the thing is I can't get a job. I've been binding for almost 5 years and for me the way my body reacted to it I now have severe debilitating back pain. Trust me, mentally and emotionally it was necessary and I don't regret doing it. So any job willing to hire me at least in my area involves having to lift 50 pounds or more throughout every shift. I sometimes have trouble picking up my 7 pond cat or sitting in plastic chairs at school. And pain meds don't help, just make me sick. So that is not possible.
Ive been on t for over half a year now and have a very supportive legal guardian, my therapist is ok with me getting surgery yknow its all good. My doctor says she is very confident that after some time completely out of a binder and maybe physical therapy my pain will clear up, so I know in the future I can get a job and can in the meantime use the child support I receive to make payments
I was wondering if anyone has used CareCredit to help finance surgery, I know for a fact Medalie accepts it. Ive heard mixed reviews when used for other purposes but would like to hear the experiences of other trans* people.
Also, not to do the shameless self promotion bit cuz you all have never even seen my face, but has anyone used an etsy account to try and help save?If so could you give me ideas on what to make without necessarily making this too apparent to friends cuz modesty and anxiety.
Sorry this was so long I just really wanna get some good info.Thanks!

[Alexthecat]

You do not want to use care credit unless you can positively pay it off on time. It's not like a regular credit card, they will charge you interest in the 1000s if you do not have it paid off by the deadline. You are better off trying to get your parents to pay for it with a promise of paying them back if that is what it takes.

[aleon515]

My cat lived an extra bunch of years due to CareCredit, so I don't feel like saying terrible things. OTOH, you MUST absolutely pay on time. The interest is pretty high anyway, but if you goof up for any reason at all or are late in your payment you can end up with huge amts of interest. I don't think they remind you to pay so you just must have the self discipline to remember. I have heard of people using this to help them with top surgery, but you MUST pay on time all the time.

--Jay

[Alexthecat]

Having heard several horror stories, I'm skeptical when it comes to CareCredit. Looking at sites like consumeraffairs.com (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/credit_cards/ge_carecredit.html), you can see the negative reviews for yourself.

Also check out this WashingtonPost article titled "Be skeptical of health-care credit cards" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/30/AR2010083003971.html).

Based on my understanding of finances and loans, you might be better off acquiring a loan from a local bank... or, as Alexthecat suggested,
Additionally, you could inquire about extended payment plans, many don't charge interest.

It's great if you can pay on time. I used it for my wisdom teeth but I have a job that made enough money to pay it off on time.

[aleon515]

You can check out a bank loan with lower interest and so on. There is a specific kind of loan that might be good for this sort of thing called a vacation loan, Christmas fund loan, and so on. The bank would have much better deals than these things do.

Keep in mind that unexpected stuff can happen, although most of the way that CC gets it's money is thru people being late for perfectly kind of normal reasons like just being late.

BTW, the Washington Post talks about how most credit cards will let you take out extra for something like that. Well don't know which credit card, but mine certainly will NOT. I have always had to raise my credit limit to do anything extra. So if it were more than $1000 or so, I wouldn't have the credit rating to do that (Note that I have very good credit).


--Jay

[Missadventure]

Also, not to do the shameless self promotion bit cuz you all have never even seen my face, but has anyone used an etsy account to try and help save?If so could you give me ideas on what to make without necessarily making this too apparent to friends cuz modesty and anxiety.

I tried the making money off etsy thing. I made skirts. Lots and lots of cute handmade skirts. Which netted me nearly $0 in the end. The trick with making money off etsy is you have to find something extremely unique that you can make incredibly well, charge a good grip of money for it, and hope some schmuck out there is willing to buy it rather than make it themselves.

Although, I did find, that as much as I made no money from etsy, making the products to sell was a fun and therapeutic hobby.

[aleon515]

I've heard of people making money to help with surgery (not fund the whole thing-- which you shouldn't do with CC either) thru making t-shirts and so on. But the people I knew of where it helped had a population to sell to, such as a trans resource center or a youtube audience.

--Jay