I need to charge what is essentially a hospital stay for $11K. Currently I have various cards with bonus programs but the Cash Back I have is only the standard 1%. Discover has a 5% CashBack for select merchants, obviously none of which is a hospital. Has anybody recently evaluated the best rebate/Cash Back program for a large amt charge? I intend to pay off the charge in 1-2 mos so interest rate not so important, although it does matter a little.
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I'd take 2% from Schwab and time the payment such that it is made the day after the previous month's statement closes with a zero balance. That way you have around 6 or 7 weeks to pay it.
I'm pretty sure that if it takes you 2 months to pay it off and you dont time it properly, the 2 months worth of 25% interest may exceed the rewards.
I'd ask the hospital if you can pay half this month and half next month on the CC. Usually hopitals will negotiate since they have ridiculously high chargeoff rates.
If you have the cash now, I would offer to pay (3% off) with a cash discount. If you don't have the cash now, how do you expect to get $11k in 1-2 months?
Its not that I don't have the cash- I am timing the sale of stock to pay it down. I think I will pay it off immediately.
The hospital offers a 25% discount for cash up front, which they consider a credit card to be, and I took that offer, thats why it is 11K and not 13K. The doctor fees do not have that same promo. I can see why people that are really sick are tired of this BS, the last thing you want to be doing if you are really ill is negotiate a deal.
FYI, Chase Visa (mine is a Chase Amazon visa) has a 3% upfront fee with either 0% interest for 6 mos, or 2% interest for 1 year. The deal killer on these convenience checks is the 3% upfront but if I was thinking about dragging out the payment on this I would consider it.
just FYI, it doesn't really matter if you are putting $11, $1,100, or $11,000 on your credit card for points. nothing extra is earned because it's a "big amount". you should just put it on whatever rewards card you are using now.
Put it on a card with a 0% purchase APR. Direct money to pay off the card to a savings account, and hold it there until just before the promo rate expires.
Bigger purchases should go on a higher % CashBack CC than smaller purchases... check! Carry balances on reward CCs because "ZOMG, I got CashBack!"...check! Effectively borrow money at CC interest rates to time the market...check!
Dazreth, Sheesh, this forum is supposed to be about sharing ideas and information. Obviously if you have an $11K charge and you manage to get even 1% Cash Back and a 35 day grace period, you are better off than not even thinking about it- and until recently I haven't done much thinking about things like 1% Cash Back and grace periods, because my employment situation made it not worth my time to do so. I have to wonder if you are capable of reading, you appear to have read things I didn't say, but anyway who cares? Is there an ignore feature?
mharris1x said:Its not that I don't have the cash- I am timing the sale of stock to pay it down. I think I will pay it off immediately.
The hospital offers a 25% discount for cash up front, which they consider a credit card to be, and I took that offer, thats why it is 11K and not 13K. The doctor fees do not have that same promo. I can see why people that are really sick are tired of this BS, the last thing you want to be doing if you are really ill is negotiate a deal.
so 8k hospital bill knocked down to 6k, and 5k for the doc. The doc needs to eat something too.
You're still getting ripped off if you're paying retail price for hospital services. Most insurance plans negotiate rates that are 40-60% lower then full retail.
It actually might be worthwhile to start a hospital thread here at FW to discuss these things, because as I say unless you actually need to self pay for surgery, it is very difficult to figure out what to pay, what is customary etc. Part of the issues with the current system.
As for me, this is an eye surgery which is a pre-existing condition that I must pay for. It is also somewhat elective. I have never priced self pay services before, and I am a newbie at FW because I am a former exec at a fortune 500 company, I would have never bothered to think about Cash Back on credit card charges before. Now that I have to do this, and I am sitting around worrying about it, I am going to nickel and dime myself into the lowest price, or try anyway.
I was told the standard hospital charge for this type of surgery is $27K and change. My rate as a prepaid self pay is $8591.06, or 32% of retail. Which begs the question, is that really retail? Hard to know or find out. Hopefully medical reform will involve OPEN POSTING of prices for various procedures.
Then I have the anesthesiologist. He is $997.50 for an outpatient eye procedure. Seems very steep but I was told this is 50% off. Local anesthesia. Procedure takes 2 hrs.
Next my doctor who is $1250, 50% off. He gives me great rates I have no issues with him. I have a legacy with this practice, my mother used to work for one of them. $1250 is a rock bottom rate I am sure.
So, total charge for this is $8591.06+$997.5+$12.50 = $10,838.56.
forgot to mention that I was told the hospital retail was 27K, and then that there is a 25% discount for cash up front also. With both of these the hospital comes to $8591.06 for me. Therefore it would appear they have some sort of "payment plan" for self pays which would come to $11455. if I did NOT pay upfront. That price is 42% of "retail".
I priced catastrophic healthcare coverage when my Cobra ran out a while back and for me with various preexisting conditions, it came to about $500/mo, it didn't cover anything and there was a yearly max of $6K. Now I actually HAVE that catastrophic situation I worried about and based on these various discounts I feel the catastrophic coverage from blue shield is a waste of money since I would have been out the same amt had I had their "coverage". Of course that policy is more for the REALLY bad stuff like cancer and various procedures that run $50K and up, I understand, but when I was pricing out policies my eye coverage was the big deal they all rejected me for. This kind of thing is why retired execs get jobs as Baristas at Starbucks.
If you are paying it off immediately, the best CashBack card for now is the 2% (on all purchases) Schwab card which is returned as cash into a brokerage account. You'd effectively be getting ~$110 over your 1% card but in exchange you'd be taking that slight credit hit from applying for another credit card.
If not paying it off immediately, just get the lowest APR card you have.
People here hate Capital One, but this is a perfect situation to get their card. You can use their "Card Lab" to design a card with 2% Cash Back for the first year, plus 0% APR on purchases for the first year. Get the card, charge your medical expenses. When you sell your stock, put the cash in a 2% savings account until the 0% intro rate expires. Between the reward and interest, you can probably get at least 3.6% of your money.
narshe14 said:mharris1x said:This kind of thing is why retired execs get jobs as Baristas at Starbucks. Retired execs should have had to means to save up enough to not have to get a minimum wage job after retiring/getting laid off. The point is that, if you retire before Medicare kicks in, you pretty much have to do something to maintain an insurance plan. If you're not healthy enough to get decent rates on an individual plan, working at Starbucks is at least a low-stress option.
Even if you've saved up a lot of money, getting medical care without insurance can still be devastating. I get a lot of lab work done, and I noticed that the negotiated rate that the insurance company gets is routinely discounted 90% or more from the "cash" price an uninsured person would pay. (I'm not talking about my out of pocket cost, but the total payment the lab gets from an insured patient vs. an uninsured patient.)
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