Care credit is a credit card / revolving account.
I think you already outlined it, finance what you can on the 0% and either finance the rest or pay cash for it.
I’ve been considering LASIK too, I am just bad with contacts even if I tolerate them well they are just a hassle I don’t need, like worrying about them drying out on a dry windy day on a soccer field while refereeing.
Bleh. I can’t fault the decision ultimately it’s your money, and you are doing the smart thing and looking to minimize immediate financial impact.
At some level the APR on care credit or whatever is just a short term insurance model, really no different than what I did with my HELOC where I was out of work last year for a non-trivial part of it.
I think you already outlined it, finance what you can on the 0% and either finance the rest or pay cash for it.
I’ve been considering LASIK too, I am just bad with contacts even if I tolerate them well they are just a hassle I don’t need, like worrying about them drying out on a dry windy day on a soccer field while refereeing.
Bleh. I can’t fault the decision ultimately it’s your money, and you are doing the smart thing and looking to minimize immediate financial impact.
At some level the APR on care credit or whatever is just a short term insurance model, really no different than what I did with my HELOC where I was out of work last year for a non-trivial part of it.
@Anonymous wrote:Hi all, I am strongly considering getting LASIK for both eyes—this is an expensive purchase ($4k) and I have thought about it for a while. I am concerned with what my finances in the next 6 mo will look like if I commit to this treatment. I have enough money to pay for it cash but it would leave me in a financial situation in which I would only have about $1k cash in savings and $2k cash invested. I am asking for advice considering multiple aspects. My priorities are to maintain or improve my credit score, not pay any interest or fees, keep a healthy cash cushion, and to possibly earn cc rewards in the process.
The options I am aware of are to pay for it all cash, to pay some of it up front and finance the rest, or to finance all of it. The LASIK office recommended CareCredit but I am unsure as to how that would work in terms of my credit score. I don't know if it would be another credit card or if it would be an installment loan. Additionally, I have a WF Propel card with a $2.5k limit that still has 9 mo of 0% promo APR. This option would allow me to pay no interest and still keep a cash cushion. I do not know the credit ramifications of maxing out a cc despite it only being around 10% of my total credit limit. If I take this option, I would pay more than the minimum and pay it all off by late June.
A little bit about me: I am a 20yr old college student with no student loans or car payments, I have a part-time internship that earns me at least $600 a month, rent is $475 a month, utilities around $75 a month, food & misc is about $200, I will receive around $1.9k in late June and $7.4k in late August. My score is around 750-760 depending on the bureau and I have 5 open credit cards totaling a $23.6k limit.
While I understand that the financially savvy route would be to not subject myself to such an expensive procedure, I think that it is worth it. Worst case scenario I liquidate my investments and survive until July. Let me know if I can provide any additional info that would help. Any and all advice is much appreciated.
Thankfully,
Rojas
1. Care credit is a credit card, with all that entails from a credit score viewpoint. E.g., if you get a $4k credit line and use it all you'll wind up with a 100% maxed out card. It provides zero interest for awhile, but if you can't pay it off within the promotional period you get slammed with a huge interest rate. By the way the promo period isn't free... your health care professional is paying through the nose. It's issued by Synchrony Bank, and there are limited opportunities to use it.
2. The credit ramification of maxing out a card is that it tanks your scores.
