Hello, I have found myself needing about $5,000 in dental work done. I might do a portion of it in Costa Rica but the extractions will cost about $1,800 and I will be doing those in the US.
My question is, if I apply for CareCredit, how does it affect my credit score. I would guess that it would hurt my utilization ratio right?
But, what if I applied for it and then immediately paid it all off. Would that HELP my utilization ratio? And, wouldn't it continue to do so in the future as long as the account is open if that is the case?
Is it treated the same as a credit card on my credit report?
Thanks for your help!
credit care by GEMB is something I use for my vets office. its a revolving credit line so its like a credit card. opening up the card will be a hit on your credit report and if you take it to the limit will affect your utilization, but they often offer 0 percent on large purchases for 6 months or longer..i wouldnt open the account just to pay it off
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Depending on your credit, it may be beneficial to apply for a major credit card for your purpose. Instead of "no interest" for the promotional period, the interest with some promotions is deferred. If you don't foresee using the card after your dental work, a card that offers an interest free period may be a better option since you can continue to use it afterward and have it grow.
Edit: Also, since CareCredit charges practitioners upward of 12% of the charge, a lot of offices don't accept it. With a major credit card, you'll have more dentists to choose from. Since you're not using insurance, be sure to ask for a cash price to see if cash would be a better option.
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lol I just got declined by CareCredit.
It says this:
What really concerns me is that I purchased my fico from myfico.com last month and it was 658. But it says this in the denial letter:
It says it pulled from Transunion. So, it dropped from a TU658 to a TU588?
Like I said, I only have that measly Capital One secured card and I pay that total balance off like every week and only use it for a purchase or two.
I did apply for a couple unsecured cards as I was suggested to do on some other boards and was declined by all. I applied for the Capital One Cash Rewards and the Chase cash back one. Could those inquiries have impacted my score that much?
I hope that the score on the denial letter is just inaccurate.
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It says it pulled from Transunion. So, it dropped from a TU658 to a TU588?
Sorry to hear about the denial, dollerprod. The difference in score sounds like a result of the TU98 and TU04 versions.
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Sorry to hear about the denial always sucks to get told no.
Not sure who advised you to go for Cap one or Chase, they are not most easy going credit card issuers out there.
The Inq's definitely brought your score down, but really it only matters if you had a high enough score to qualify and those 2 inq's brought it down enough that you no longer qualified. Which you probably will never know. Also even had you got approved for the cards and then few days later applied for the CareCredit, those approvals would not have helped at all. New accounts ding your score in the beginning because they bring down your AAoA, typically come with a hard pull and its a new account. (Some creditors don't like you to have new accounts right before opening one with them)
Its always a good idea if you have a need for credit coming up to not do anything to cause inq's leading up to it personally I would have advised that you apply for the care credit first to have the highest score possible and then later apply for cards if you wanted to.