Metal Mouth Message Board

I still haven't decided what to do....
I go in a week from today and am uncertain if I should pay the 5K all at once or monthly. The rub is that if I have to stop treatment for some reason (such as my many crowns), would I receive anything back if I paid in one lump sum???
Whitney

My wonderful insurance does not cover ortho work if your over 18, so i paid half out of pocket ($2600) and monthly on the rest. I am doubling up the payments so i will finish early.

My ortho just took the total amount to be paid and divided it into the 18mths I'll have the braces on. They gave me the option of giving post dated cheques or giving my credit card so I gave them my card because then I get the points too! So when I'm done with my braces I'll be done paying too. It's not a bad set up.

I paid 2000 upfront and decided to go with paying $200 monthly. The reason for this was that I might have to move to Australia next year..not certain as yet so to be on the safe side, I decided to go monthly rather than paying unfront.

If it doesn't cost extra, I'd go with the monthly payment.
I assume you basically have the whole sum available in "cash", i.e. not credit card or anything else that has extra fees?
Think about getting a Flexible Spending Account so that you don't have to pay taxes on the amount.
If that's not possible, put the whole amount in a savings account, so that you get interest, then take each monthly payment out of that. That way you'll be sure the whole amount you need is there, not spent for anything else, and you get the added bonus of the interest.
My ortho has a 10% discount in December if you pay off all the rest of your amount; if your ortho has something like that, that's worth considering as well.

I made a down payment of $500. Then it's $125 a month for 24 months. Total of $3,500. I like monthly payments over the lump sum.

I paid a downpayment and the balance is being paid over 20 months. That way the ortho knows he'll get paid in full before the braces come off at 24 months (hopefully). He didn't charge any finance charges so it didn't cost any extra and I still get to earn a little on the money that stays in my savings.

Chris

I did the same thing KK did. I paid about $1000 down payment and then I am paying $200 a month. I figure that if something were to happen, like a sudden move or if I didn't like the ortho, then I wouldn't have to deal with any huge losses of money.

I too put down about $1,300 and have a monthly pymt for 20 mos. Not too bad. You kinda get used to it, like a car pymt.

My braces were $98 a month for I'm not sure how long. My dad didn't (and still doesn't) have any way to afford any kind of down payment so my ortho's plan worked great for him. My braces totalled $3200. Ins paid $1000 (I was 15 at the start) so he paid $2200 for about 22 months.

The nice thing about paying them off all in one year is that you can write them off on your medical part of your taxes if you do a long form!

What is FSA Meryten?

I paid like $200 down and now I pay $100/mo.

I'll be paying for the braces long after I get them off, but unfortunately, I couldn't have afforded to get them any other way. Also the reason I had to go to a chain dental health place isntead of a nicer private practice.

After reading everyone's replies, I guess I am lucky. My braces were only $2000, of which my insurance paid half. I was just finishing up my $75 monthly payments for my sons braces, so they just added my balance to the rest of his, so I just had to continue paying the $75 monthly. No down payment, no interest charges.

I'm paying $300 a month for 18 months, and then the records and x-rays were extra at the beginning. In total I'll be paying just under $6000. Well, I won't be paying for it.... but you get the idea