Whether plastic surgery is purely cosmetic or is meant to provide certain health benefits, it’s always expensive. Since most health insurance providers won’t cover it, you’ll have to come up with the cash on your own. You should be aware that certain procedures — such as plastic surgery to repair a deformity — might be covered at least partially under your health insurance, but you’d have to ask your provider about the specific circumstances they’ll acknowledge. If you aren’t covered, here are six ways to pay for plastic surgery.
Start Saving
The first way to pay for plastic surgery is the old-fashioned method of saving until you have enough. Decide when you want to have the surgery and figure out how much you’ll have to put aside per month to pay for it. If you stick to your plan, you’ll be able to have the surgery when you hoped. Sometimes, things will come up that will set you back a month or two, but eventually you’ll get there. Be sure to set up a separate savings account so that you won’t be tempted to touch it in the meantime. Plus, a savings account will earn interest, putting you closer to your goal.
Pay with Credit
If you have a credit card — or if you can get one — that has a sufficiently large credit limit, you can always charge your plastic surgery. Keep in mind that you will have to pay interest until you are able to pay the balance off, but if you make your monthly payments on time, there shouldn’t be a problem. Check in advance to make sure the surgeon accepts credit cards as a method of payment (most of them do) and call your bank to make sure you have enough funds available.
Pay Partially with Credit
To pay for plastic surgery, you can also combine the first two ideas. Pay for half with money you’ve saved from your pay check and the other half with plastic. This will cut down on the interest you have to pay but will allow you to have the plastic surgery much faster than if you had to save all of it. Call the surgeon ahead of time to make sure that he or she can split the payments to avoid confusion later on.
Get a Personal Loan
The next way to pay for plastic surgery is to take out a personal loan. Both banks and credit unions offer these, usually in amounts starting at $2,500. Whether or not you qualify for a loan will depend on your credit report, your credit score and your history with that particular bank. In many cases, consumers with credit scores lower than 650 will have to have their loan underwritten by a third-party investor. Talk with your local bank to determine your options and to inquire about interest rates.
Request Doctor Financing
In some cases — and this is definitely not the norm — doctors will finance plastic surgery for their patients. Since plastic surgery is a high-dollar business, some doctors are wealthy enough to provide this service, though interest rates are typically greater than 10%. Talk with different surgeons about this option and find out about their specific payment plans.
Ask for a Gift
It is doubtful that any one relative or friend will give you a gift as enormous as plastic surgery, but let everyone know that it’s what you really want and see if they’ll chip in for several birthdays or Christmases. This will give you a chance to save as well as use money provided by friends and family for the procedure. Keep in mind, however, that if the plastic surgery is purely cosmetic, some people won’t agree with your decision, and will probably refuse to finance it in any way.
