Medical loans

What is a medical loan?

A medical loan, similar to a payday loan, is an amount of money that’s lent to pay off medical treatments or for surgery.

In Australia, we have an elite health care system that covers the cost of many treatments and doctors visits for an Australian citizen. However, our free health care only extends so far. Under our current scheme, public healthcare – namely Medicare – is free of out-of-pocket costs. It’s funded by the tax that Australian’s pay on their wages.

This means that if you require medical attention you can visit GP’s that are part of the bulk bill program, public hospital, and receive medications at a reduced price under the PBS scheme, without paying anything out of pocket. Medicare covers 100% of costs when it comes to public hospitals and bulk bill GP’s, and it subsidizes some of the costs for other services.

Some of the other things that have all – or part – of their total costs covered by Medicare include:

• Specialists visits
• Tests for treatment eg x-rays, pathology.
• Surgery and therapeutic procedures by doctors;
• Specific items that are part of the Enhanced Primary Care (EPC) program; and
• Specialised appointments as part of the Chronic Disease Management Plan
• Elective surgery (like cosmetic surgery)

If your required treatment falls outside of these categories, you may need to pay out of pocket. Some medical treatments that aren’t covered (or only includes partial rebates) under our health care scheme include:

• Treatment or surgery that can only be done by a specialist doctor
• Medications (these are discounted but will always incur some amount of out of pocket expense)
• Ambulances
• Many specialists services like physio, podiatry, speech therapy, chiro and psychology.
• Most dental services
• Eye examinations, glasses and contact lenses
• Hearing aids

The majority of the time medical costs don’t come cheap and more often than not, they pop up unexpectedly.

When you’re sick or recovering from surgery or treatment, the last thing you need is stress. It’s often detrimental to your health and affects your body’s ability to recover. If you’ve found yourself in a position where you need medical treatment but can’t afford to pay the bill, a personal loan may be the answer.

Our medical loans are approved quickly, often the very same day, so that you can receive the money fast and attend to your health straight away. We’re able to offer a loan amount between $500 and $5000.

We offer our medical loans as an unsecured personal loan, so no security or collateral is required – you will have the amount that you’ve approved for deposited as cash into your bank account and, from here, you can pay your medical bills as you please. Plus, if you find yourself in a situation where you’re able to pay off your personal loan early, you won’t be charged any early repayment fees, either.

Am I eligible for a medical loan?

Unlike big banks and some other financial institutions, we are very flexible with who we determine is eligible for a loan with us. If you’ve had some medical bills pop up that you need to pay – we should be able to help you with a loan. We’ll simply require that you’re age 18 or older, have some supporting bank statements and a form of income.

You may be wondering if you’re eligible if you’re unemployed or have a less than perfect credit history. The answer is yes, you can still be eligible. We recognize any form of government benefits – like Centrelink payments for example – as a form of income. If you don’t have a good credit score, we can still help. We offer bad credit loans and no credit check loans as forms of personal loans, too.

What supporting documents and information do we need to process your medical loan application?

At City Finance the process of applying for a loan is simple. We don’t need a bunch of different documents, all we require is the following:

• A copy of your ID
• A short application form with details such as your address and phone number
• Proof of your income (either wages or Centrelink benefits)
• 90-day history of bank transactions

Not receiving regular income because you are a pensioner? We might be able to help – check out our pensioner loans.

Why choose City Finance?

• Quick decisions, quick deposits
• All-inclusive lending
• Flexible repayments and no early repayment fees
• Responsible lending trusted by thousands of Aussies
• Hassle-free borrowing
• We understand crises

We understand that when it comes to deciding who to borrow money from – and what lender is best for you – it can get stressful. In times of need – like medical emergencies – stress is the last thing that you need. Securing personal loans through City Finance can help to take the stress out of the equation. We are a trusted lender that has granted personal loans to thousands of Aussies for over two decades. You can feel safe when you apply for a medical loan with us.

We’ve extensively trained our team to understand that each applicant is different. We don’t judge our customer’s eligibility on a set of numbers – or a checklist of criteria they must meet. Instead, we consider each applicant’s eligibility by considering their personal financial circumstances. Our team members will work with you to figure out a loan amount and repayment scheme that will work for your situation.

If you receive a personal loan from us and find yourself in a situation where you can’t meet the repayment that’s due- don’t stress! Get in touch with one of our friendly team members and they will work out a contingency plan with you. We also have strict rules about not charging early repayment fees and have no penalty for extra repayments.

In many cases, when an individual applies for a medical loan, the money is needed quickly so that they can get the required treatment and settle the bill. Even if the money isn’t required immediately – spending days or weeks waiting for a decision on your application, and then more time waiting for the money to be deposited can be frustrating.

That’s why we prioritise assessing and approving personal loans quickly. Once a loan is approved, we’ll deposit the money in your account straight. Many of our customers have received the money in their account the same day that they apply for a loan with us.

Because the purpose of the loan, as well as the applicant’s personal situation, varies greatly, we have flexible loan terms, too. No matter if you’re looking for a small short-term loan, a bigger long-term loan or anything in between, we can tailor the loan to fit your needs. You can check out our loan calculator here to get an idea of our loan terms and the interest rates we charge.

We also pride ourselves on our inclusive personal loans. A lot of bigger financial institutions will automatically reject applicants if they don’t meet their criteria, for example, if they have a bad credit score, no credit score or are self-employed for a short amount of time. We strive to help as many people as we can by lending to people with less than perfect financial circumstances for a loan.

We’ve also taken the hassle work out of loan repayments on your personal loan. We have implemented a system where repayments are automatically direct debited from your nominated bank account on the due date. This saves you the manual labour or transferring yourself, and helps you avoid missed repayment fees in case you forget to make a payment on the due date.

What can I use a medical loan for?

Dental expenses

After an hour or so of having their mouths poked and prodded, most people have walked out of a dentist with a big dent in their bank accounts and a sore mouth. Unfortunately, dental appointments are a necessity of life, and they don’t come cheap, either.

Some dental work needs to be done urgently too – like if you have painful wisdom teeth growing through or are in need of a root canal. The Australian health care system doesn’t cover any dental services that you receive that are primarily for the health of your teeth.

So, if you need dental work done- or have some overdue dental bills – and are struggling to find the cash, get in touch with us for a dental loan.

Cosmetic surgery

A lot of the time cosmetic procedures won’t necessarily be urgent, but that doesn’t mean that you need to wait to have it done.

Cosmetic surgery is almost always expensive and is almost never covered by Medicare. The only time that Medicare may cover some of all of the costs of cosmetic surgery is when it’s linked to an accidental injury or if it is to improve the function of a malformed body part.

If you want to get cosmetic surgery done and don’t have the funds available, you can still have it done without waiting until you save up enough money. Simply take out a personal loan with us and then you’ll be able to pay the balance back gradually.

Specialists appointments

Most specialists appointments aren’t covered by Medicare. The way around this is by becoming part of the CDM (chronic disease management) program. If your GP determines that your condition is eligible to be a part of this program, you can receive up to five rebates per calendar year on part of the price of your specialist appointment.

However, even if you are part of the CDM disease, you’ll still need to pay part of the specialist cost out of your pocket. Specialists aren’t cheap and often require multiple visits, so the costs can add up. If you’ve found yourself in the position of requiring specialist treatment, but aren’t able to cover the high costs, take out a personal loan with us and get treated fast.

Ambulance

In urgent situations, ambulances are non-negotiable and may well save your life. However, ambulances aren’t cheap. In Australia that costs somewhere between $800-1200 for a single ride. If you’ve recently been in a situation where you required an ambulance and have been hit with a large bill that you’re unable to pay, you can take out a personal loan with us to cover the costs and pay it back over a period of time.