Best credit card rebate for $11K charge?

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.

"1-2 mos so interest rate not so important, although it does matter a little."

Interest rates will probably cost more than the extra .25% you get from another Cash Back card.

CCC

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

I was only a VP in a fortune 500 for a few years. Prior to that I did the startup company thing, with limited success and made no money. The point of bringing that up was to address a prior poster who implied that people who are unaware of how to play these games with rebates, card fees etc are mentally challenged. Fact is, this type of purchase bargaining is time consuming and tedious. Many people aren't going to do it. The fact that this is a medical procedure just heightens the challenge. I think we can all agree that charges for medical procedures should be much more upfront to the public as a whole than this.

As to my insurance, I have insurance, the problem is this is a pre-existing condition. When I was discussing my insurance choices before, that was a policy I denied which WOULD have covered this pre-existing condition at a high cost of high deductibles etc. I passed on that one and chose another plan which left me uncovered for these eye issues.

Thanks for the input on Capital one and schwab. Yeah Capital one sucks but if you are certain you will pay off the card and manage it, its probably ok *as long as* you don't start to get harassed by CO's agressive direct marketing campaign.

90% off lab, wow. OK thanks for that.

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.

We can stop the thread here guys. This says it all.

LH2004 said: ThePessimist said: 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.You're living in the past, man.
So I am. I hadn't realized they'd killed Card Lab. That's a pity, but I guess not a surprise.

Cap1 still has the "No Hassle Miles Rewards" - 0% APR for a year, 1x miles for the first $1000 in spending in a billing period, and 2x miles for all spending over that. Since you can redeem miles for cash at a 1 mile = 1 cent ratio, on an $11K charge this gives $210 back plus the year of 0%. So it's 1.91% Cash Back instead of 2% in this particular case, but it's still worth considering for OP's situation.