Financing for Plastic Surgery and Fact Finding Mission

Hello all!  I had surgery coming up to one year ago February 6th and I have lost 120 pounds.  I have decided I want to have my arms done and a tummy tuck.  I have about 15-20 pounds to go before I reach my goal weight, and I want to be firmly at my goal weight (and stable with it) for at least 1 year (if not 18 months) before I go under the knife.  I have a consultation with a plastic surgeon whom my GP recommended (this surgeon did my GP's mother's tummy tuck).

I am going for the consultation only because I want to (a) get the prices of the two procedures I want to have done and (b) meet the doctor and see if we have a good rapport.  It is way to early for me to book a surgery, this I know, but knowledge is power.  The consultation is in late April.

My question is this:  Have any of you that have had plastic surgery used any of those plastic surgery financing companies?  I am going to save as much $ as possible for my surgery and I have probably 2 years at least to do this, and I thought about trying to get a loan from the bank, but was wondering if you could share your experience with me re: coming up with the money, how you did it and what your experience was like. 

Thank you so much for reading and I hope to hear from you if you have experience in this area and don't mind sharing.

Hugs,

Dreamy74

Former banker here so can tell you that their interest rates will be much higher than a bank would be.  I have a friend who used Medicard I believe it was called and depending on your current credit bureau, that dictates the rate of interest they charge you.  Even with a good bureau, her rate was extremely high.  I'd suggest if you don't already have one, get a line of credit if you quality from your bank as the rates are much lower.  Most of the medical lending places are almost as high as a credit card.  I'd take money out of my RRSP before I'd use them if I couldn't get a loan or line of credit.  Hell I'd even put a 2nd mortgage on my house before doing that as the rates are so much lower.  Just as an example, we have a line of credit and our interest rate is 4%, YMMV as they now go by total holdings to decide on what rate each client gets so the more you have with one bank, both lending and investments, the better your rates are.  One nice thing about a line of credit is that it's revolving credit.  If you don't use it, the available amount just sits there until you do need it.  Ours has been at a zero balance for many years but it's nice to know should we need it for something it's there to be used without having to go in and see a personal banker and get a loan, etc.  

If you have investment holdings at that bank (e.g. Rrsp, gics, etc.) that you don't want to cash or have locked (can't cash) in you may also opt for a secured line of credit with an even lower interest rate (Tracey please correct me if I'm wrong here). One caveat is that in order to access the investment in the future you would have to either pay off the line of credit or transfer the balance to a different loan. However, I did this and got an interest rate of prime plus 0.5%. Obviously this isn't an option for everyone, but it could help :)

This option does assume that you have an investment equal or greater in value to the amount of credit you need -- I.e. you have $15,000 in savings and you need $15,000 or less for surgery. You also can't have something else secured against the investment (like a car loan).

Meg~

I left banking over 10 years ago but back then RRSPs could not be used for a secured line of credit.  It had to be non-registered money only so GICs or bonds.  Things may have changed since I left but a secured line of credit is the best rate going for sure. 

This is not accurate. A secured line of credit is secured against real estate, not against investments. This is also known as a home equity line of credit. This is also a good option, and will get you the best interest rate. Your basic qualifier is at least 20% equity in your home if you own. Unsecured lines of credit can still have a decent interest rate if you don't qualify for a real estate-secured product.  

I'm not familiar with the type of product you have, but I haven't heard of any of the Big Six securing a line of credit against savings. It sounds like your investments were used to support your RESL application.  

As Tracey mentioned it can be secured against unregistered savings such as GICs (not a savings account, something locked in). I wasn't sure about RRSPs, but you could always ask. And mine is definitely secured -- labelled as restrained. This is an ongoing thing, not just for the application and it is with a major Canadian bank. I'm pretty sure that a secured line of credit against some form of savings would have a better interest rate as it is more liquid than real estate. Although many people are not in a position to use savings to secure credit.

Secured line of credit is secured by either investments or real estate property.  I worked for one of the big chartered banks and you can definitely get a secured line of credit with more than just the equity in your home.  

Tracey this is excellent advice!  Thank you very much!  xo

I agree 100% with Tracey. No personal experience but I have seen very high interest rates with these financing companies. Get an appointment at your local bank branch and discuss your options for applying for a line of credit, which is likely your best bet for financing.

Start pinching those pennies in your budget now to save what you can, and if you need to, you can finance the rest.

  Yes Line of credit is a much better option but also look into  the possibly of your plastic surgeon getting you pre-approved for the panniculectomy portion from OHIP if He/She thinks you might qualify.