Care Credit questions

[learningtheropesofcredit]

Is Care Credit hard to get?  Especially, say, a $5k starting limit?  Looking to spend about $4500-$5000 on cosmetic dental work, and the dentist takes Care Credit.

Are they inquiry sensitive?  Any data points or info I should know?

I had never even heard of Care Credit until I joined these boards, so I'm looking to the boards for more info.  It seems, though, if I'm spending that much in one purchase, it's the way to go with 60 months 0% APR.  Turns my $4500 purchase into $75 a month for 5 years, and I can manage that.

[Anonymous]

---

@learningtheropesofcredit wrote:

Is Care Credit hard to get?  Especially, say, a $5k starting limit?  Looking to spend about $4500-$5000 on cosmetic dental work, and the dentist takes Care Credit.

Are they inquiry sensitive?  Any data points or info I should know?

I had never even heard of Care Credit until I joined these boards, so I'm looking to the boards for more info.  It seems, though, if I'm spending that much in one purchase, it's the way to go with 60 months 0% APR.  Turns my $4500 purchase into $75 a month for 5 years, and I can manage that.

---

Care Credit is issued by Synchrony Bank. I would advise you read the threads on Synchrony before making a decision about whether you want to do business with them or not. There have been multiple reports of Synchrony closing accounts for no good reason and for reducing credit limits. Also many have had Synchrony report large balances off cycle and hurt apps they were planning for.

As far as approval, Synchrony is usually pretty generous with approvals and starting limits. If you need more credit than what is given you can call and ask for a recon, or you can even use the online account center and request a CLI, which is almost always a soft pull. My wife's Care Credit is her highest limit card. Her profile has 2 charge offs and her scores are usually mid 600 range. So to get an $8,000 limit with those stats is pretty great, imo.

Synchrony does use VantageScore4.0 to make credit decisions and to manage your account. They pull TU for their data. The only way to get this score is to have an open account with Synchrony. VS4 is calculated very differently than the previous VS3 which you can get for free at Credit Karma.

FWIW, I have multiple credit cards with Synchrony and they contribute to a good portion of my available credit. I use the cards quite often adn have had very few issues with Synchrony. During the pandemic several of my cards had their limits decreased by Synchrony, but I had high utilization and Synchrony was not the only bank to do so. The biggest difference is, I was able to get CLIs to restored and exceed those previous limits without incurring any HPs. The other cards (Chase and Barclays) still have reduced limits and a CLI request would cost me a hard pull. I have no issues with Synchrony, but my case isn't the most common reported around here...

[KatSoDak]

I agree with ^^

One thing I will add is to verify that your dentist allows 60 months to pay a $5,000 charge with Care Credit. Apparently providers have agreements with Care Credit that differ. My dentist has a limited plan. Even though he takes Care Credit the promo period his office agrees to is limited to 12 months. I don't know if Care Credit takes a bigger swipe fee on longer promos or why, really, but I was disappointed to learn I cannot use an 18 or 24 month promo. 

[KLEXH25]

So can someone apply for Care Credit ahead of time like a credit card? Or do you only apply for it when you need it (like at the doctors office)? I've seen people mention that they ask you how much you need for a particular procedure when applying to determine your CL. Is that accurate? If a bill is going to come to $4,900 and they give you $5k, won't you be maxed out? I'm still a bit confused by how it all works. 

[FinStar]

---

@KLEXH25 wrote:

So can someone apply for Care Credit ahead of time like a credit card? Or do you only apply for it when you need it (like at the doctors office)? I've seen people mention that they ask you how much you need for a particular procedure when applying to determine your CL. Is that accurate? If a bill is going to come to $4,900 and they give you $5k, won't you be maxed out? I'm still a bit confused by how it all works. 

---

You can apply for it at anytime, even before the anticipated purchase or procedure. You can select a ballpark amount, but the deciding factor on the final approved limit will be based on a person's overall profile, income, etc. I believe there was a pre-qualification link floating around somewhere. 

[Anonymous]

---

@KLEXH25 wrote:

So can someone apply for Care Credit ahead of time like a credit card? Or do you only apply for it when you need it (like at the doctors office)? I've seen people mention that they ask you how much you need for a particular procedure when applying to determine your CL. Is that accurate? If a bill is going to come to $4,900 and they give you $5k, won't you be maxed out? I'm still a bit confused by how it all works. 

---

You can apply at any time for Care Credit. Correct, if the bill is the majority of your CL your card will be maxed. You can always request a CLI and see what happens to keep it from being maxed. If no CLI is available then you will need to weigh your options and determine if having a maxed card is worth it, similar to evaluating if a BT (or any other promotional extended financing terms) is worth the added CC utilization. IMO, finances > FICO. Your score loss from a maxed card will be temporary and recover once the card is paid down.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

---

@FinStar wrote:

---

@KLEXH25 wrote:

So can someone apply for Care Credit ahead of time like a credit card? Or do you only apply for it when you need it (like at the doctors office)? I've seen people mention that they ask you how much you need for a particular procedure when applying to determine your CL. Is that accurate? If a bill is going to come to $4,900 and they give you $5k, won't you be maxed out? I'm still a bit confused by how it all works. 

---

You can apply for it at anytime, even before the anticipated purchase or procedure. You can select a ballpark amount, but the deciding factor on the final approved limit will be based on a person's overall profile, income, etc. I believe there was a pre-qualification link floating around somewhere. 

---

There isn't a prequalify link. It's the normal app, but if you choose a certain category it will do a prequal. I can't remember off the top of my head, but I posted it in a thread of mine. I think I chose dental as a category and there was no prequal, but changing it to vet brought up the prequal. Or maybe it was the other way around...🤔

[Legal_Girl]

I applied and received my Care Credit card about a year and 1/2 ago.  I started out asking for $2k but they have me $3,500 and they auto increased me about 6 months later to $7,000.  They recently increased me to $10k.  I currently have about $1k on the card.  If you do get the card, as another contributor mentioned, verify with the provider how long they will give you the promotional offer before using it for the procedure. The Longer the promotional offer is, the better.  Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

Each individual care provider chooses the CareCredit plan(s) they want to offer their clients. 

I recently put two large vet charges on my CareCredit account. The SPCA only offers 0% for a 6-month payment plan. Otherwise, their next offers all carry interest charges, for 24, 36, or 48 months. But neither CareCredit nor the SPCA will tell you exactly what the interest rate will be until you actually accept the plan.

I agreed to the 6-month plan for both vet visits, but back at home and upon reconsideration I realized the combined monthly payment total is too steep for me. The second vet visit turned out to cost more than twice the initial quote (lots of extra lab tests). It wasn't optimal for me to have to make a snap decison about payment when I was under duress with a sick animal. Today I phoned both CareCredit and SPCA to ask if a 0% interest 12-month or 18-month option was available. No sorry, only the 6-month plan. So I ended up asking for a refund to my CareCredit for the second vet charge, and then put the charge on my Amex BCE in hopes of gentler terms with Amex's Plan-It when the charge posts. Also today I returned a jewelry purchase made in June on an existing Plan-It, which hasn't reached the first due date yet. I'm waiting for that refund credit to post to Amex, then I'll see how the new vet Plan-It works out.

So the moral of this long-winded story is to make sure beforehand that your care provider offers a payment plan that will be doable for you.