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Dental insurance

2K views 19 replies 10 participants last post by  scbrooks87 
#1 ·
I have dental insurance, but my girlfriend of 8 years does not. We dont live together. She has had some shaddy work done to her teeth and its starting to show. A recent infection caused swelling and is going to be 1700 bucks out of pocket (with a 20% discount).

I dont live with her and I think my insurance only allows family and spouse to be covered.

Is there any insurance companies that someone can recommend that I can sign up for dental coverage? I COULD pay the 1700 out of pocket but it leaves me with nothing, especially when they want the payment in 2 weeks.

I like this location, as we got an exam done by them. Very nice and honest.
Ultimate Dental
7521 W Stockton Blvd Ste 130, Sacramento

Can anyone shead some light?
 
#4 ·
.... reread post and removed.

you should get more than 20% off. Mine gives me 50% for cash payment. Doctors hate insurance companies as much as we do
Mine also offered to do a 3 payment in-house payment plan with me when I had to do a root canal and crown
 
#7 ·
You could try CompBenefits . com Not an insurance but more like a discount type. We've got it and it's not too bad.
 
#8 ·
Like NWA said - they are not gonna cover her if she's not already on the policy. And it's very doubtful that she is going to be able to get coverage now for a pre-existing condition that she's going to have worked on in the near future. That's not really how insurance works.
 
#12 ·
what do you mean?

Did some homework today. The company I want to go with doesnt want to hook it up at all. They said 2 payments in 2 weeks thats it. So perhaps I wont go with them.

Called western dental and they had a financing option with zero down, zero financing, and 99 bucks a year. Then I read 5 pages of bad reviews online with people saying that they charge 4x as much as normal. Thats with typing in "western dental good reviews". So scatch that.

I now have to look at delta dental.

If im going to pay a SUPER HIGH PREMIUM that western dental wanted for their services I might as well open another credit card and go with the company I have now.

I DO want dental coverage for my girlfriend. I think she needs it. She has some cavities forming to. Im glad I didnt purchase a new car like I planned lol.
 
#13 ·
search for "individual dental insurance <insert your state here>" in google. THat's how I found mine. I pay 50 dollars a month for a plan that covers 2000 a year in dental work.

Also, most dentists do payment plans, I'm in the industry, and they would not have very many customers if they didn't finance.
 
#14 ·
WEll I found a company that offers a discount but only to certain places.

Careington 500 is not an insurance plan. Its a discount plan. I can save an additionall hundred bucks over the school discount. So its not bad.

But I called again and she said that she can do a payment plan but I cant have the school discount in place. But she did say that I can do the cleaning and the build up, and then do the crown later...that really helps !

I looked up delta dental and it seems it will work out. However it wont be active till over a month from now. So she said, for now fix the infection and pay 718 with the current discount insurance company. THen in 2 months, come back with your delta dental and I will only have to pay around 160$ instead of 789$.

So this is what I may do. The fee is 90 bucks for careigton 500 a year. I have to pay the fee of 718$ up front but that I can definitly do. Then in 2 months when the delta goes through, ill be set. She needs LOTS of dental work. Perhaps the cap will be done at my old dentist that accepts delta dental.

Now I got to decide if I want to put it on my credit card, open another credit card to up my credit, or just pay cash.
 
#15 ·
just pay cash

credit card charge 20% interest, you wanna pay that on 800 dollars? haha..

That means even if you pay off the next month you owe extra 13 dollars. take 6 months to pay off and its extra 80 dollars, a year and it's 160 dollars... And that's assuming you are disciplined enough not to purchase anything else on the card in the meantime!

Always if there's a choice of credit over cash, take cash!
 
#17 ·
Yes, but an empty credit card is not good for credit, a new card is also not good for credit. And if you pay it off in a year, then close it, all the credit associated with it will disappear as well.

I hate credit cards, I only have one, which I'm sure to use and pay off each month. And with just one card, my credit score is 782, which isn't bad. The thing that raised my credit the most was my car payment and house payment. Things that haveinjured my credit the mmost was refinancing my house and not having enough potential debt. (ridiculous)

But at least you're someone responsible with credit, I only said cash before credit because so many people in the USA treat credit like free money
 
#19 ·
Yep, when you close a credit card it removes the credit history associated with that card. It even shows as a negative on your credit report as a loss of credit but only for a little bit.

I know, it's stupid, but it's like a game and unfortunately the credit card companies are the ones who make the rules.
 
#20 ·
The benefit of having an open credit card with zero balance is that it helps you debt/credit ratio. So lets say you have 1 credit card with a $2000 limit, and have a $500 balance on it, then you're at a debt ratio of 25%. But if you have a second card with no balance on it, and another $2000 credit limit, your debt ratio is now only 12.5%

Usually anything over 16% debt ratio is considered to be too high by credit card companies, so sometimes it IS beneficial to open another card if you expect that you'll be making a large purchase that you'll be paying off over a long period of time. Hard to know which would hurt worse, the credit inquiry, or the very high debt ratio. Probably depends just how high the debt ratio would be.

-Scott
 
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