American Medical Loans

Author: Kaitlyn Short

Intro to American Medical Loans

American Medical Loans is exactly what it sounds like—a company that provides loans for people who need help paying off medical expenses. The grand thing about these loans is that they can be used for any medical expense. Essentially, when you apply for a loan from American Medical, you’re asked to estimate your credit score. The company has options for people with the full gamut of credit histories—even those with a score below 620. 

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The Good

• Medical loans
• Provisions for those with poor credit
• Flexibility in loans
• Hassle-free application

Medical Loans

American Medical doesn't dabble in credit; they stick to medical loans, true to their company name. This can be seen as a good thing, though, obviously for customers who are seeking a loan and aren't interested in medical credit anyway. You can borrow between $1,000 and $35,000, which also calls for a niche customer base. Customers who need a relatively smaller amount of money fit into this category.

Provisions for those with Poor Credit

Not every financial company serves customers who have bad credit (or even no credit). In many ways, these are the customers who desperately need financial help for medical expenses, which are already so high in price. This company doesn't turn them away, though; they have options for people with all types of credit. If you have poor credit (below 620), you'll apply for a loan through Trusted Installment Loans, which then matches you with a lender who can help you. You can borrow up to $10,000 through them.

Flexibility in Loans

The loans offered by American Medical are really flexible in the sense that they can be used for any medical expense. Whether you need help paying for braces, Lasik, or alternative medicine, you can use this loan to help. Another way that they're helpful is that they aren't limited to certain providers in a network. American Medical makes no mention of a provider network that your preferred doctor has to enroll in in order to accept your funds. They say that once your application is approved, you have access to the funds within 48 hours to use at your discretion.

Hassle-free Application

Applying for a loan here is easy too. But what makes the application stand out are two things: first, that it costs nothing to apply and just see what your interest rate would be based off your credit score, and second, that applying for the loan will not affect your credit score. You just estimate what your credit score is when you apply, and then you go from there. This company offers patients flexibility and connections-connections to companies that can get you a great rate for the medical loan you seek. They also don't discriminate against people who have poor credit, which opens up their customer base a lot. And because their loans can be used for any medical expense, they make themselves a lot more useful to a variety of patients.

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The Bad

• Company background
• Contacting the company
• Loans only

Company Background

First of all, they don't provide any information about who they are as a company-nothing about their founding, business model, or client base. Customers, then, are left to wonder how American Medical got its start and who they even are. Transparency is key to trust, and American Medical lacks it severely. Next up, it's confusing that this company runs applications through other lenders, like the Lending Club-and all based on an estimated credit score. This leads customers to wonder who is actually providing the loan and whether the rate they get on an application is valid (if they don't know their exact credit score). American Medical itself has a customer login on their company website too, but they don't tell you up front what you can even do with this portal. They would do well to clarify how customers can manage their loans once they are approved.

Contacting the Company

This company is really vague about ways in which customers can contact their customer service. They don't provide a phone number, email address, or live chat tool that customers could otherwise use to get immediate information from a live person about a loan or account management. All they really provide is a contact form on their company website, which you could wind up spending days waiting to hear back from.

Loans Only

If the customer service limitations aren't enough to frustrate you, then you might not be satisfied with the fact that American Medical can only provide loans and not credit for medical financing. And for that matter, you can only borrow up to $35,000 (potentially less if your credit score is low). For some customers, a loan is not what's needed, and if it is, they need to borrow much more than $35,000. American Medical, then, has a limited customer base and is more of a small-scale company. Depending on your needs as a customer, these flaws may not deter you from working with a company. After all, some just care about the actual price of a loan and whether or not it can be used toward the medical expense they are trying to pay for. However, customer service and transparency say a lot about a company. If it doesn't frustrate you in the process of getting the loan, it well might while you're trying to pay it off. For these reasons, it's important to know that American Medical doesn't offer a lot of ways to communicate with customers and keep them fully informed.

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The Bottom Line

After all this, it probably doesn't come as a surprise that American Medical Loans is not a recommended company to work with. They have their positive points, of course. You can use a loan from them for any medical purpose, for one thing, and they don't limit you to a certain network of participating providers. Furthermore, it's very easy to apply for a loan. Especially if you're in need of a smaller loan or if you have poor credit but still need a loan, this company definitely becomes more appealing. Their small-scale loans and any-credit options have their place in customers' eyes. That being said, the cons outweigh the pros with this company. Their customer service is in short supply, and they provide hardly any resources for patients to manage their accounts, speak with a live representative, or do much of anything beyond applying for the loan itself. In addition, it's sort of a red flag when a company doesn't provide any information about their own background. It doesn't automatically give them a negative background, but it just prevents customers from feeling like they know the people they're borrowing money from.   American Medical would do well to spruce up the ways customers can contact them and especially in providing clearer information about their loans-who's funding the loans, what the range will be for interest rates, how you will receive the loan, and how you can even pay it back. You shouldn't have to go far to get information like this-you shouldn't even have to apply for the loan to get basic information. But for whatever reason, this company doesn't make a lot of this clear, and for that reason, they become a less-trusted financer.