There are many ways you might fund IVF, whether using savings or money earned from working overtime, an IVF loan is just one more option.
An IVF loan works pretty much like any other form of loan, in that you borrow a certain amount of money from a lender and pay it back over a set period. The key exception is that in many cases you won’t receive the money from the lender in your bank account. Instead, your IVF loan is used to pay for treatment.
Here we’ll explore everything you need to know about applying for IVF loans.
In this article:
- Research IVF costs
- Review your finances and IVF loan options
- Check your credit score
- Decide how much you want to borrow and for how long
- Make sure you have all the relevant documents
- Complete your IVF loan application
- After applying for an IVF loan
Research IVF costs
Working out how much IVF will cost can be far from easy.
The cost of private IVF treatment can vary widely across the U.K. with one cycle costing up to £5,000 or more. Which doesn’t include additional costs for medicines, consultations and tests. Make sure to find out exactly what’s included in the price in discussions with your fertility clinic.
As you look into treatment, make sure you take a note of IVF add-ons and discuss which (if any) you may need with your fertility doctor, as these are unlikely to be included in the treatment cost initially. Identifying only the add-ons you might need will help you reduce any unnecessary IVF expenses.
Review your finances and IVF loan options
Staying on top of your finances can seem like a challenging task but looking through them, especially before completing an application for an IVF loan, can be a big help.
The best way to start reviewing your finances is to look over which parts of your expenses are the most important, such as bill payments, and assess other payments like subscriptions to products or services. Ask yourself if you still need or want these products or services and consider cancelling any which no longer hold any value for you.
Reviewing your finances will help you make spending adjustments, keep your goal of IVF in mind, and spot any problems or unexpected costs before they become an issue.
Check your credit score
To determine your credit score, credit referencing agencies, like Experian, collect information from various sources, which influences the score they produce. These include: your accounts, the electoral register, and court records.
A higher credit score may mean you’re more likely to be accepted when you apply for a loan, although that’s not guaranteed. It’s helpful to know that you don’t have just one credit score. Each credit reference agency may hold different information about you and has their own criteria for scoring. Potential lenders also conduct their own scoring when you apply for a loan.
When you apply for a loan, lenders contact their preferred credit reference agencies to check your credit record, which highlights any risks of lending to you. Your credit score also impacts the interest rates and sum a lender may offer you. This is a is routine part of any loan application, whether it’s for an IVF loan, a mortgage, a credit card, a personal loan, an overdraft or car finance.
Decide how much you want to borrow and how long for
Once you have a clearer picture of your finances and IVF costs, you can decide how much you want to borrow for IVF treatment. If you have savings, you may only want an IVF loan to cover some of the cost of treatment rather than the full amount, which is entirely up to you.
You’ll also have to consider how long you want to borrow for, some lenders offer 0% or interest or lower interest for specific terms. When choosing an IVF loan term, in the end, as with any other form of loan, it’s a question of whether you’d prefer to pay more each month to clear the debt sooner, or pay less each month but pay more in total over a longer period.
Make sure you have all the relevant documents
To apply for an IVF loan, you may need to provide certain documents to act as evidence, including:
- Proof of identity: passport, driving licence
- Proof of address: a utility bill less than three months old
- Proof of income: recent payslips, bank statements, self-assessment tax return
Complete your IVF loan application
The final step will be to complete your IVF loan application, where you will be asked how much you want to borrow, how long you need the repayment period to be and what your reason for borrowing is.
At this stage, you will need to provide the lender with your personal and financial information, such as your:
- Name
- Address
- Contact details
- Employment status
- Income
- Outgoings
After applying for an IVF loan
When you’ve completed your application, the lender assesses your creditworthiness using the information available to them. They’ll usually consider:
- Information from your credit report
- Your application details
- Any data the company already hold on you (e.g. if you’re an existing customer)
- The company’s own criteria
These checks are for the lender to determine how much you can borrow and what interest rate to charge.
Access Fertility offer 0% interest IVF finance, up to £12,000 repaid over 12 months, to help patients spread the cost of treatment.