Sunday, May 1, 2011

Show Me the Money (Updated)

Money is such a sticky subject, and one that is constantly at the forefront of most discussions of fertility treatments. We do OK. We don't sleep on a pile of Benjamins, but we know we are better off than so many others. If you remember, we paid off our car last Fall. Turns out it was a good thing too.

Our IVF cycle is coming up soon (OH-SO-SOON) and we'll need to pay between $7,000 and $9,000 up front. I maxed out my FSA this year, so it will reimburse about $6,000 of that, but only after the fact. We have to pay UP FRONT. We have a little money saved up and a little room on our credit card, but even those two options combined are insufficient to the task. After countless calls to our bank, we determined that our only reasonable option for raising enough cash to prepay our IVF cycle was to take a personal loan using that paid-off car as collateral.

(sigh)

Fortunately, the application process was quick and easy to complete over the phone. All the bank needed was a copy of our title showing all liens paid off. Oh snap! We never ordered that when we got the release after the payoff. So a quick trip to the DMV to order the new title and then wait for it to come in the mail. After about a week, it occurred to me that we had no idea how long to expect the new title to take.

Off to the internet I went and lo and behold the DMV website states that when requesting the removal of a lien, the new title can be expected in 60-90 days. OMG OMG OMG. This was our only viable option!

(Cue panic)

After 5-6 hours fraught with the fear that our lien release would not get processed in time to get the loan pushed through before our IVF start date, I checked the mail to discover the title had been delivered that afternoon. Five days. Whatever, I'll take it.

The loan was approved, the funds are sitting in my checking account. So that's that. Now we just have to wait for CD1. Today is CD1. Blood work tomorrow and BCP start Tuesday. Here we go!

UPDATED: What I neglected to mention above is that my leftovers of refills from my last (insured) IUI are almost all I need for meds. I will need to buy the BCP, Lup.ron and PIO. So, not too bad really for prescription expenses.

9 comments:

  1. It's totally stressful dealing with the financial implications of IVF. Even though I have "insurance"-it didn't cover my most expensive meds-to the tune of about 3500$. I'm glad that you were able to get your financing in place however and wish you the best of luck and success with this cycle!

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  2. WOW! This is moving fast. Good luck, friend!

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  3. CONGRATULATIONS!!! Best of luck!!!

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  4. so glad it all worked out- the financial aspect of IF is so stressful. wishing you all the best!!!

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  5. Yay for things going *smoothly*! Good luck with your cycle.

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  6. Good luck with this cycle. And yeah, the money part of this sucks.

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  7. Good luck!! We will be on similar cycles I think? I start down regulating injections end of next week and expecting egg retrieval sometime between 6-12 June.

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  8. I guess I didn't realize you were doing IVF so soon, that is great. Sorry that you have to deal with insurance bullishit.

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  9. Money was the biggest issue for last 3years since we were diagnosed of infertility. Loan was denided, our car payments were ridiculous, mortgage for the house that is not worth 1/3 of what we paid.. All these are on going issue for me, and i couldn't wait any longer. So we are borrowing money against 401k to do the IVF. Seriously,for me, no money = no hope.
    Glad that you got approved for the loan and now you are taking visible steps to IVF! FX for happy ending for all the effort you put in for this! HUGS!

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