Q: How does Cherry patient financing work?

How Cherry financing works for patients and practices

A:Cherry pays the practice upfront, and the patient repays Cherry in weekly or monthly installments. Cherry is a financial technology company that calls itself "not a bank or a lender," and Lead Bank, Member FDIC, makes its loans.^1,2 Cherry also runs Allē Payment Plans inside Allergan's Allē loyalty program, and says they give qualifying patients six months of 0% APR on eligible Allergan Aesthetics treatments.³

Cherry says patients often compare it with personal loans, credit cards, and bank lines of credit.³ Cherry lists APRs of 0% to 35.99% in 2026, with terms from one month to 60 months, and it says its 0% APR plans have no deferred interest.^4,3 A medical credit card such as CareCredit, issued by Synchrony Bank, sets its purchase APR at 32.99% and charges interest from the purchase date on a promotional balance left unpaid.⁵

The patient completes what Cherry calls a 35-second application, with a soft credit check that does not affect their credit score. Plans run from an always-interest-free Pay-in-4 over six weeks to monthly plans, and a down payment equal to the first installment is due at checkout.⁴ Paying by credit card adds a 2.99% processing fee, while a debit card linked to a bank account has no processing fee, so a patient has a reason to pay by debit. Another benefit is that a patient can pay off a plan early with no fees or penalties. Cherry says it typically starts reporting a plan to the credit bureaus after 30 days, and late or missed payments can hurt credit.¹

For the practice, Cherry says the full amount, minus a merchant fee, lands within two to three business days, and Cherry collects each payment and takes on any default risk.⁶ Cherry says it only provides the financing and cannot force a refund, so a patient who wants to cancel has to contact the practice.¹ On our reading, staff should tell patients at checkout that a cancellation or refund goes through the practice. For more about patient financing, see our patient financing evidence.