Healthcare providers don't usually think of their financing partner as a growth tool — but the data says otherwise. When patients have a clear, frictionless path to paying for care, treatment acceptance goes up. When they don't, they leave to think about it and often don't come back.

United Credit and Cherry Payment Plans both sit in the patient financing category, and both let patients spread the cost of care across monthly payments. But United Credit is a loan marketplace — it connects patients to a network of third-party lenders and steps back. Cherry is a third-party financing partner that makes its own approval decisions, pays practices up front, and was built specifically for healthcare.

For medical providers evaluating their options, that structural difference has real consequences for how patients experience financing and how reliably practices get paid.

What is United Credit?

United Credit — formerly known as United Medical Credit (UMC) and United National Credit — is a healthcare financing marketplace that connects patients with a network of third-party lenders. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Irvine, California, United Credit does not issue loans directly. Instead, it submits a patient's application to its lending partner network and returns available personal loan offers based on the applicant's credit profile, credit history, and income.

In 2022, the company rebranded from United Medical Credit to United Credit, reflecting a deliberate expansion beyond healthcare into retail financing categories including home improvement, tutoring, fitness equipment, and tax relief.

The procedures United Credit covers are broad: dental work, cosmetic surgery, plastic surgery, dermatology, fertility treatments, bariatric surgery, vision correction, and hearing care, among others. For patients who want to explore multiple funding options without applying to each lender individually, the marketplace model has real appeal.

But for healthcare practices, the loan marketplace structure introduces a layer of variability that purpose-built financing platforms don't have. Loan terms, interest rates, and approval criteria all depend on whichever lending partner ultimately matches with the patient — not on United Credit itself. That inconsistency shapes the experience for both patients and providers in ways that matter at the point of care.

How Does United Credit Work?

For Patients

The process starts with an online application on the United Credit website. Patients enter basic personal and financial information, and United Credit runs a soft credit check to assess eligibility — this initial step does not hurt their credit score.

If prequalified, patients receive loan offers from lenders in the network and can compare payment terms, loan amounts, and interest rates before choosing. Once they select an offer and move forward with the full application, most lending partners will conduct a hard credit inquiry, which will appear on their credit report and temporarily hurt their credit score.

Key terms for United Credit financing:

• Loan amounts and APR vary by lending partner and applicant creditworthiness
• Repayment terms vary by lender — there is no single universal set of loan terms
• Cosigners are permitted, which can improve approval odds for applicants with limited credit history or poor credit
• No single origination fee or prepayment penalty structure — terms depend on the matched lender
• Funding timeline varies by lender, typically several business days after final approval

For Providers

Here is where a meaningful limitation emerges for practices considering United Credit as a patient financing solution. United Credit is a patient-facing marketplace. There is no unified point-of-care enrollment workflow and no integration with practice management systems. Depending on the lending partner, funds may be disbursed to the patient's bank account or directly to the provider — but that outcome is not guaranteed and varies by lender.

For practices financing high-ticket cases, that structure means taking on collection timing risk with no guarantee of when — or whether — payment will arrive.

What is Cherry Payment Plans?

Cherry is a healthcare-first financing platform built to help patients afford care at the moment they want it. Over 60,000 providers have made Cherry their go-to financing partner — from dental and orthodontic offices to plastic surgery centers, med spas, dermatology clinics, veterinary hospitals, and vision and hearing care providers. At clinics where it’s offered, Cherry is offered first over its competitors more than 80% of the time.

Where United Credit connects patients to a rotating cast of third-party lenders, Cherry owns the entire financing experience from application to repayment.

How Does Cherry Work?

For Patients

Cherry makes financing feel like a natural part of the care experience rather than a separate errand. Patients can apply for financing from anywhere — a link sent before their appointment, a tablet at the front desk, or their own phone — and walk away with an instant approval decision and a range of payment options that fit their budget. Credit score impact is never a concern: Cherry uses a soft credit check at every stage, including final approval, so patients can say yes to treatment without worrying about what happens to their credit report.

• Loan amounts up to $65,000 to cover eligible medical bills
• Repayment terms from 1 to 60 months
• True 0% APR for qualified borrowers — no deferred interest, ever
• No origination fees, no hidden fees, no prepayment penalties
• Approval rates up to 90% across all credit profiles
• Payments accepted via credit card, debit card, or ACH

For Providers

From a practice operations standpoint, Cherry is built to be invisible in the best possible way. Staff don't need to redirect patients to a third-party website or follow up to confirm whether financing came through. The application happens in the office, the approval is instant, and Cherry takes it from there — handling all underwriting, repayment servicing, customer service, and default risk so the practice never has to. With Cherry, practices benefit from:

• Upfront payment to the practice within 2-3 business days
• Merchant fees starting at 1.7% — the lowest in the healthcare financing industry
• Ready-to-use marketing materials included with enrollment
• Exclusive approvals (patient must use financing at the practice where they applied)
• Dedicated support team with healthcare-specific expertise

Cherry vs United Credit: A Quick Comparison

The Biggest Differences Between United Credit and Cherry

1. Built for Healthcare vs. Built for Everything

Cherry has never operated outside of healthcare. Every product decision, every support hire, every feature has been made with medical and wellness practices in mind. United Credit started as a healthcare financing marketplace before expanding its payment solutions to include retail categories like home improvement, tutoring, fitness equipment, and tax relief to its merchant network. Healthcare is still part of what United Credit does, but it’s all of what Cherry does.

For practices, that distinction is more than philosophical. A platform that serves HVAC contractors and dental offices through the same lending network is not optimizing for the nuances of healthcare — the sensitivity around credit checks, the complexity of treatment financing, the importance of same-day decisions at the point of care. Cherry is.

2. A Loan Marketplace vs. a Financing Partner

This is the structural distinction that everything else flows from. United Credit is not a lender — it is a connector.

When a patient applies, their information is passed to a network of lending partners, and the terms they receive depend entirely on which lender matches with them. That means loan amounts, interest rates, payment terms, and approval criteria can all vary from patient to patient, visit to visit, with no consistency a practice can count on. And since United Credit's 2022 expansion into retail financing, healthcare is one vertical among many — sitting alongside home improvement contractors, tutoring services, and fitness equipment retailers in the same lending network.

Cherry is a financing partner. It makes its own decisions, sets its own terms, and stands behind the approval it gives every patient. For practices that want a predictable, repeatable financing experience — one they can confidently present to every patient who walks through the door — that distinction is fundamental.

3. The Hard Inquiry Problem

United Credit's prequalification step uses a soft credit check, so patients can explore their options without any impact to their credit score. But once a patient selects an offer and submits a full application, most lending partners in the network will run a hard credit inquiry. That hard check appears on the patient's credit report and can temporarily lower their credit score — a friction point that can give hesitant patients a reason to pause or walk away.

Cherry never performs a hard credit inquiry. The soft check used at prequalification is the only check that ever runs, regardless of loan amount or credit profile. For patients who are actively managing their credit or struggling with medical debt, that difference can be the deciding factor between moving forward with treatment and putting it off.

4. Who Gets Paid — and When

With United Credit, the practice is not part of the transaction. Depending on which lending partner funds the loan, payment may go to the patient's bank account or directly to the provider — but there is no guarantee of which outcome a given practice will see, and the timeline varies by lender regardless. For practices managing cash flow across high-volume schedules or financing larger cases, that uncertainty has real operational consequences.

Cherry eliminates the gap entirely. The practice receives payment upfront, typically within 2-3 business days of the patient's approval, and Cherry takes on all repayment risk from that point forward. Combined with the industry's lowest merchant fees, that model gives practices both the cash flow certainty and the cost structure to grow.

5. Approval Rates Across All Credit Profiles

Because United Credit routes applications through a lending partner network, approval rates are not consistent — they depend on the individual underwriting criteria of whichever lender a patient is matched with. Patients with less-than-perfect credit, poor credit, or limited credit history may receive offers, but at significantly higher interest rates — or they may not receive an offer at all.

Cherry approves up to 90% of applicants across all credit profiles. That high approval rate — combined with instant decisions at the point of care — means fewer patients leave without a financing path, and more treatments get accepted across every demographic a practice serves.

6. True 0% APR vs. Interest on Every Loan

United Credit does not offer 0% APR. Every loan surfaced through its lending partner network carries an interest rate, with the specific APR depending on the patient's creditworthiness and the lender they are matched with. For patients financing larger procedures over longer terms, the total cost of borrowing can be substantially higher than the original treatment price.

Cherry offers true 0% APR for qualified borrowers with no deferred interest. That distinction matters. Deferred interest financing, common across many healthcare credit products, appears interest-free but can retroactively apply accumulated interest if the balance isn't paid in full by a promotional deadline. Cherry doesn't use deferred interest. What a patient agrees to repay is what they owe, with no surprises.

7. Loan Amounts and What They Can Cover

Because loan amounts through United Credit vary by lending partner and applicant credit profile, there is no guaranteed ceiling a practice can communicate to patients. A patient financing a mommy makeover, full-mouth dental implants, or a bariatric surgery procedure may receive an offer that falls short of what they need — with no clear path to bridge the gap.

Cherry's ceiling is $65,000, covering the full range of procedures most healthcare practices offer. Combined with flexible terms from 1 to 60 months, patients have the flexibility to structure payments that fit their budget — whether they are financing a single treatment or a comprehensive care plan.

The Bottom Line

United Credit is a legitimate financing marketplace with a track record of helping patients access consumer loans and medical loans across a wide range of procedures. For patients who are comfortable applying independently, comparing offers from multiple lenders, and managing payment separately from their provider, it can be a useful tool.

But for healthcare practices whose goal is to increase treatment acceptance, protect cash flow, and offer a financing experience that is as seamless as the care itself, United Credit's loan marketplace model introduces variability and friction that a purpose-built platform simply doesn't. Higher loan amounts, broader approvals, no hard credit inquiry, true qualifying 0% APR, and direct payment to the practice — Cherry was built for healthcare and nothing else.

Find out why practices offer Cherry first over the competition more than 80% of the time. Claim your personalized demo today.