Dental Patient Financing Fee Calculator

Does patient financing pay for its merchant fee, or should we carry the payment plan ourselves?

Enter a typical large treatment fee and what it costs you to deliver. Then describe three ways to collect it: third-party financing (you pay a merchant fee and are funded in days), your own payment plan (down payment, instalments, some patients stop paying) and pay-in-full at a discount. For each, the tool shows what the practice keeps in today's money, and weighs it by how many presented cases patients accept. It names the acceptance rate financing must reach to beat the alternatives and the merchant fee at which it stops being worth it.

Arithmetic on the numbers you type. Not legal, tax, accounting, lending or financial advice, and offering payment plans or financing can be regulated (lending disclosures, state rules), so check yours. The values shown are placeholder data, not benchmarks, market rates or any real practice's figures. Acceptance rates are your own assumptions.

The treatment

Treatment fee ($)

Your cost of delivering it (% of fee)

Card processing fee (%)

What waiting for money costs you (% a year)

Cases like this presented per year

Third-party financing

Financing company merchant fee (%)

Days until financing pays you

Cases accepted when financing is offered (%)

In-house payment plan

Down payment (%)

Plan length (months)

Patients who stop paying (%)

How far into the plan they stop (% of term)

Admin cost per paying account per month ($)

Cases accepted with your plan (%)

Pay in full only

Pay-in-full discount (%)

Cases accepted when patients must pay in full (%)

Questions people ask

Is third-party patient financing worth the merchant fee?

Compare what you keep per accepted case after the fee with what an in-house plan or cash-only keeps, then weight each by how many presented cases patients accept under that option. Financing costs more per case but often raises acceptance. This tool shows the acceptance rate financing must reach to match each alternative, so you can judge whether your own numbers clear it.

What does an in-house payment plan really cost a practice?

Beyond waiting for the money, there are card fees on every instalment, the admin time to run each account, and patients who stop paying. The tool charges each of these, values instalments at today's money using what waiting costs you, and shows the unpaid balance when some share of patients default.

How should I read the break-even acceptance numbers?

Each one is the acceptance rate an option needs to earn the same expected contribution per presented case as the comparison option. If you believe financing lifts acceptance above that figure, it pays for its fee; if not, it does not. The acceptance rates you type are your assumptions, not benchmarks.

At what merchant fee does financing stop beating my own plan?

The result shows the merchant fee at which financing and the in-house plan earn the same per accepted case, holding your other inputs fixed. Above it, each accepted case is worth more on your own plan; financing then has to win on acceptance to be worth it.

Not decided

Whether you may offer a payment plan or financing and what must be disclosed (lending, truth-in-lending and state rules), how financing companies underwrite and which patients they approve, interest-free promotional terms and who bears them, collections and credit reporting, tax treatment, patients who would pay in full but choose a plan, and whether financing changes the treatment patients choose. Acceptance rates are your assumptions: use your own case history. Ask a qualified practice consultant, accountant or attorney.