Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Rolling along

So far everything is right on track. Hubby got his all clear, cootie free phone call on Monday. I have my very first appointment with an acupuncturist on Friday. Both excited and nervous about that. (Would love to hear feedback from people that did acupuncture and IVF!!!) Next Wednesday is the all holy IVF class, which is supposed to answer every question I have and have been put off and told to wait until class time from my fertility clinic.

Hubby and I are starting to dig deep on how we are going to pay for this IVF. We have about 7k in the bank. We could easily give all that to the clinic and then just charge the meds on a credit card. I am a little nervous about clearing out our account and having no emergency fund if something (probably not fertility related) comes up. So hubby is supposed to be going to the bank in the next couple of days to see if we might be able to swing a signature loan or something similar. We would like to leave 2k-3k in the bank just in case the roof caves in, the wheels fall off the car, or either one of us loses our jobs.

Chalk something else ugly that infertility has brought into our lives. . .debt. Yes we have a house mortgage. But we have never been a victim of debt. Never bought a car on credit. Didn't do student loans for neither my undergrad or master's nor hubby's VERY EXPENSIVE undergrad and job training. Our credit cards have zero balances. I grew up with parents who have very old fashion ideas about finances and a lot of that rubbed off on me. So chalk some "compromising on principles" up to infertility as well.

During the discussion of "how we were going to pay for IVF?" I told/begged hubby that I would be willing to do anything that he wanted in order to pay for it (credit cards, home equity line, signature loan, ect) as long as he didn't say "lets wait." I know in my gut that waiting until we have the cash would be the smart thing to do. But I am feeling too desperate to be very smart.

My credit card has so generously (said the spider to the fly) offered to send us a check (or direct deposit) for 9k. No interest, no required payments until June 2010. Only a 3% fee would apply. If worst comes to worst, we will do this and pay off the balance before June 2010 (or else they would hit us for some MONSTER finance charges.) This option is not tops on our list, but did I mention that I feel desperate???

3 comments:

Once Upon A Time said...

Hey- my first acu appointment is Friday too. We are planning on doing IVF this summer. I am interested to hear how your experience goes.

JD said...

here from iclw! and i have to say - you are right, you should leave yourself some money in savings. i'm with you - not having anything in the bank gives me hives.

i recommend you take the credit card deal - because you can keep all your savings. then you can pay it back, even using some of your savings to make a big hit in it. but, unless you have a weird credit cared, you will not be hit with monstrous finance charges at the end of the promotional offer. you will only start to accrue interest at that point (not back interest). now, i could be wrong, but after working for several banks in the credit card division...you usually don't pay back interest on a major credit card (on furniture store cards, electronics stores, etc., yes).

either way, debt, for only a chance of getting pregnant, is probably the hardest part of ivf! its a mental hurdle that is pretty painful to jump.

good luck to you!

xoxo
~jd

Missy said...

I hear ya on the financial concerns. We have been trying hard to pay off our (ok, my) student loan debt but now are diverting some of our extra payment on that to saving up for IF treatments.

Another thought, do you get any rewards on your credit card? We also carry no balance month to month but we use our CC to rack up the bonus points and cash them in for lots of fun stuff. Maybe you can get something you both want (besides a baby) for using that special CC deal.

ICLW