Are you overwhelmed by serious medical debt? Whether it’s an optional surgery or a medical emergency, expensive medical fees can quickly cripple your finances. Even worse, it could drive you towards bankruptcy!
But if you’re a homeowner, there is a way to avoid the financial crisis. Let us dive into the consequences of unpaid medical fees. At the same time, we will also discuss how refinancing may be your solution to get out of medical debt.
The Burden of Expensive Medical Fees
With hidden fees and complex billing systems, falling into medical debt is a common affliction. It isn’t a sign of personal failure. You often don’t know the exact costs when you visit the emergency room (ER) during emergencies. At least, not until the doctor examines your injuries.
Even people with good health insurance can fall into debt. So it’s safe to say that low-income and uninsured households will likely find it more challenging to recover from such problems.
For example, an elderly parent may require urgent medical treatment with high hospital bills. If the parent does not have insurance or savings, the individual might be overwhelmed by the sky-high medical debt.
What If Your Medical Fees Keep Accumulating?
Medical emergencies are beyond our control, but you should deal with the debt as soon as possible to prevent financial problems that can take years to overcome. The consequences of not paying off your medical fees include:
- Worsen financial situation
Individuals already struggling to pay other bills may deplete their savings and incur more debt.
- Impact your credit score
Medical providers may submit your outstanding medical bills to CTOS, and it will be reflected in the Trade Reference segment of your CTOS report. This may lower your credit score and affect your chances of obtaining a loan in the future.
- Debt collectors
Healthcare providers may send your debts to a debt collection agency if you don’t pay your accumulated medical fees.
- Declare bankruptcy
Many individuals have resorted to declaring bankruptcy as a last resort. Bear in mind that bankruptcy has serious long-term implications. These include seizure of assets to repay debt, travel ban, deactivated bank accounts and restricted employment.
Why Banks Loans May Not Be Reliable for Urgent Medical Fees
It might be tempting to take out a loan or put the fees on your credit card. But you’ll simply be delaying the eventual reckoning and rack up more debt from high interest rates. Before you consider applying for a bank loan, explore some reasons why banks loans might not be the right solution to your medical debt.
- Long waiting time
The application for a bank loan may take between 2 to 7 days. In addition, the waiting period to get your loan disbursement is about 60 to 90 days. In the meantime, you may incur more interest fees as you wait for your application to be processed.
- Risk of rejection
If you have a low credit score or insufficient credit history, lenders will likely reject your loan application as you are considered a high-risk borrower. Aside from your low repayment capacity, missing documents from your application will also lead to rejection and delay in obtaining a loan.
How Refinancing Your Mortgage Can Pay Medical Fees
If you own a home and have built up some equity in it, refinancing your housing loan can be a viable option to pay off your medical fees. Essentially, you pay off your old mortgage with a new mortgage for a higher amount. But of course, this depends on the equity in your home.
The difference between the mortgage amounts will be your cash-out earned, which you can use to pay off your debts.
Example
Your home is worth RM600,000 now, and you have RM200,000 left to pay off. That means you have RM400,000 in equity. Based on a loan-to-value ratio of 80%, you can get a cash-out refinance loan of up to RM480,000.
Current home value | RM600,000 |
Amount owed on mortgage | RM200,000 |
Refinance loan = Amount owed + Cash Out Needed | RM480,000 |
Cash-out earned | RM280,000 |
However, RM280,000 may not be the final amount as moving costs will be taken out of the total loan value.
How Bluebricks Can Help You
While refinancing is a relatively good financial move to pay off your medical debts with fast approval, there is no guarantee of total approval. That is why BlueBricks is here to help you with your application and ensure that you have a higher chance of approval.
Reputable Loan Agency Company In Malaysia
Drawing on our years of experience and expertise as a loan specialist in Malaysia, BlueBricks provides loan and real estate consultancy and comprehensive services for rejected loans. We also offer FREE one-on-one consultations and generation of CTOS and CCRIS reports.
Moreover, we do not ask for prepayment of our services until the bank has disbursed your loan amount to your bank account. For faster disbursement of funds and greater flexibility in financing terms, BlueBricks offers licensed money lending services as well.
Loan Rejected Services
Has your loan application been rejected? As a leading one-stop solutions provider of comprehensive loan rejected services, BlueBricks can help solve the underlying issue of your rejection.
This includes loan rejected services for your refinancing to pay off medical fees. We ensure that your resubmission process goes smoothly with higher chances of approval.
With our refinance housing loan rejected service, we can help you with your loan applications to save your precious time and money.
Refinancing for Medical Fees – FAQ
The hefty medical fees may leave you feeling like no recourse is left to pay off your medical debts. But homeowners can still rely on their home equity to pay off their medical expenses and get out of debt. Here is a helpful guide that may clear some doubts about refinancing and the repercussions of medical debt.
Contrary to what people think, paying off your medical fees will not improve your credit score – at least not immediately. The settled medical debt will remain on your credit report for at least a few years.
Aside from refinancing, there are other alternatives to pay off your medical fees, such as:
Ask for financial assistance or other payment plans
Dispute any billing inaccuracies
Enrol for a debt management programme through AKPK
Consider a home equity loan
Consider bankruptcy
Refinancing usually causes a small, temporary drop in your credit score. However, an unpaid medical debt will be reflected in your credit report and lower your credit score.