CareCredit® credit card Review

If you find yourself facing out-of-pocket medical costs, the CareCredit® credit card could be a useful tool for spreading your payments out over time. It’s a credit card specifically designed for healthcare-related expenses and is accepted at more than 250,000 providers across the United States. Plus, it can even be used for veterinary care, so it could be a lifeline if your pet needs an expensive procedure or has to spend time at the emergency vet.

The card is issued by Synchrony Bank, and offers interest-free financing periods of 6 to 24 months on purchases of $200 or more — as well as longer financing periods where you’ll pay interest.

However, the CareCredit® credit card has a catch: It’s a deferred interest card, which means you’ll only qualify for a no-interest introductory period if you pay off your full balance within the financing period. You’ll have to pay interest for the full balance — even on what you’ve already paid off — if you don’t pay off everything in time.

If you’re not sure you can make the full payment within at least 24 months, then it may be better to see if you can get enrolled in a payment plan for your medical costs. You might also apply for a credit card with a true 0% intro APR.

• Pay for your healthcare and your pet's, too

  When your health insurance doesn’t cover the care you need, the CareCredit® credit card can be used to manage out-of-pocket expenses. Many different types of services can be eligible, such as:

  • Animal/pet care
  • Chiropractic
  • Cosmetic
  • Dentistry
  • Dermatology
  • Fitness
  • Hearing
  • Hospitals and surgical centers
  • Labs and diagnostics
  • Medical equipment/supplies
  • Pharmacies/personal care
  • Primary care/clinics
  • Sleep labs and medications
  • Spa services and treatments
  • Specialists in a variety of areas
  • Vision (including LASIK)
  • Weight loss surgery

• Extra time to pay off healthcare bills

  This card offers both short-term and longer-term financing for healthcare purchases. There is promotional financing available for six or 12 months on health, wellness and petcare purchases of $200+. To qualify for 0% interest, you must pay off your balance by the allotted time period, or else you’ll owe a 32.99% APR on the full balance.

  There’s also long-term financing for periods of 24, 36, 48 or 60 months. These aren’t 0% interest offers, but they do offer low APRs.

  For purchases of $1,000 or more, you may qualify for the following financing periods and APRs:

  • 24 months: 14.90% APR
  • 36 months: 15.90% APR
  • 48 months: 16.90% APR

  For purchases of $2,500 or more, you may qualify for a 60-month finance period with a 17.90% APR.

• $0 annual fee

  There’s a $0 annual fee for this card, so if you decide to get the card and only need to use it rarely, you don’t have to worry about being charged just to have it.

• Easy ways to apply

  If you decide to apply for the CareCredit® credit card, you have options for how to proceed. You can do so on carecredit.com, by calling 1-800-677-0718 (applicants must be 21 years old or older to apply by phone), or while you’re visiting a healthcare provider that accepts CareCredit.

• Promotional periods involve deferred interest

  What’s key to know about CareCredit’s no-interest financing periods is you’re agreeing to deferred interest. If you don’t pay the purchase in full by the end of the financing period, you’ll be charged the regular interest rate on the entire purchase amount from the purchase date. Moreover, just making the minimum payment each month may not be enough to pay off your purchase within the financing period. And with the CareCredit® credit card‘s 32.99% regular purchase APR, deferred interest could get very costly. If you have even just a penny left of your balance at the end of the intro period, you could end up owing hundreds of dollars in interest.

  If you want to avoid this risk altogether, you might consider signing up for a 0% APR credit card instead.

• Very high APR

  This card’s regular purchase APR is 32.99%, meaning that if you don’t pay off your introductory offer in time, or you make purchases you make that don’t qualify for a financing period, you will be subject to expensive interest charges.

• You can't use this card everywhere

  More than 250,000 providers across the nation accept CareCredit. However, there’s no guarantee that your provider takes the card — so you might want to verify before deciding to apply.

Ask about a payment plan

Rather than risk deferred interest on the CareCredit® credit card‘s shorter financing plans, or accepting a higher APR for one of the card’s longer plans, consider asking your healthcare provider about a payment plan. If available, you may be asked to choose between a shorter-term repayment plan where you pay no interest or a longer-term plan where you pay a lower monthly amount but do incur interest charges.

Apply for a 0% intro APR credit card

If you have good, very good or exceptional credit (a credit score between 670 and 850), you might decide to apply for a credit card offering a 0% intro APR period on purchases like the Wells Fargo Reflect^® Card. Cardholders enjoy a 0% intro APR for 21 months from account opening , after which a 17.74%, 24.24%, or 29.49% Variable APR applies.

Unlike a deferred interest offer, if you have a balance remaining after an intro APR period expires, you’ll just start accruing interest on your balance from that point onward — you won’t be charged interest on the amount of the entire purchase going back to the purchase date. This means a card offering an intro APR on purchases is a much safer option than the CareCredit® credit card‘s deferred interest financing.

While the Wells Fargo Reflect^® Card doesn’t offer rewards, the annual fee is $0, and there’s cellphone protection of up to $600 ($25 deductible per claim) when you pay your phone bill with this card.

The CareCredit® credit card can be a useful tool to spread medical payments out over time if you don’t have the cash on hand to cover the bill in full upfront. It can also be a helpful option when dealing with an unexpected expense such as a trip to the emergency vet, because you can apply from the provider’s office.

However, make sure you know how much you need to pay each month to cover the full purchase amount before your CareCredit financing period ends, because you don’t want to risk getting charged deferred interest with this card’s 32.99% APR. And before pulling out the plastic, consider checking with your healthcare provider whether they offer a payment plan. If they do, it might be a better choice than the card.