The cost of cosmetic surgery can be high. The drive to look as good as one can look will force many into some financial decisions that otherwise would be completely off the table. But the end result is almost always worth whatever was sacrificed to pay for the procedure for those who choose to do cosmetic surgery.
But what consumers are beginning to realize is that their options aren't so limited. They don't have to sell their car or antique collections or family heirlooms to pay for it. When someone asks "is financing my cosmetic surgery an option?" The answer is usually yes.
More Americans are obese today than ever in history. Many are dropping 100-plus pounds only to find that years of obesity have left them with unsightly amounts of excess skin, especially around the midsection. But tummy tucks will cost more than $8,000 in some cases and not many Americans have that kind of cash lying around.
Cosmetic surgery is a multi-billion dollar industry. More than 90 percent of the patients are women and some will have multiple procedures done in one setting. Take for instance a woman who has had a few children and is looking to recapture what her body once was. A breast augmentation procedure and a tummy tuck should take care of it, but the price will reach $20,000 pretty quick. Again, this is when one would ask if financing my cosmetic surgery is a valid option.
While tummy tucks, breast augmentation and Botox injections are very common procedures, new techniques are being devised every year. One of the latest is a stem-cell facelift operation whereby the surgeon uses the patient's body fat to inject under the skin to offer a more youthful appearance. But it's not cheap - running between $5,000 and $10,000.
Estimating a return on investment is extremely difficult, but for those who have had cosmetic surgery and witnessed how it changed their lives for the better, cost is not an issue. For other more fiscally minded folks, they might be comforted, slightly, to know that one economist estimates that for every dollar spent on a cosmetic procedure, the return was about 15 percent.
Many consumers will seek out the funding through secondary consumer patient finance companies, like Universal Guardian Acceptance, which offers more creative financing options than the traditional lending institutions can offer.
