Second-look subprime financing for elective medical and aesthetic care
A capable nationwide second-look subprime program that recovers patients prime lenders decline and covers elective aesthetics, but it is a generic retail-credit engine with higher-cost terms, opaque pricing, and no verifiable third-party rating.
Fortiva Retail Credit, a program of Atlanticus, is a second-look point-of-sale lender that specializes in the subprime segment of consumer credit. Its defining role is to catch customers who have been declined by a practice's primary prime lender, extending retail credit to applicants that bank-grade programs turn away. The program operates nationwide and explicitly includes elective medical and aesthetic services among the categories it will finance, alongside broader retail and home-related purchases.
Because Fortiva is built for the subprime tier, it fills a real gap for practices that lose patients at the point of financing when a prime lender says no. It is not, however, an aesthetics-exclusive product: it is a general second-look retail credit engine that happens to cover elective care rather than a program purpose-built for med spas. We could not confirm a clean third-party numeric rating (for example a verifiable Trustpilot or Capterra star rating with a review count), so no numeric third-party score is assigned here, and practices should confirm merchant fees and patient APR disclosures directly.
Ideal customer
Practices and med spas that want a second-look safety net to approve patients declined by their primary prime lender, and that are comfortable with subprime terms for elective procedures.
Fortiva Retail Credit, a program of Atlanticus, plays one specific and valuable role: it is a second-look subprime lender. When a patient is declined by a practice's primary prime financing program, Fortiva is designed to catch that applicant and still extend credit. It operates nationwide and explicitly lists elective medical and aesthetic services among the categories it will finance, so a med spa can position it as a safety net beneath a prime lender rather than a first-line option.
The honest framing is that Fortiva is a general retail credit engine that happens to cover elective care — not a program purpose-built for aesthetics. That breadth is a strength for approval reach but means the patient experience and marketing are not tailored to med spas the way a cosmetic-specific lender would be.
Choose Fortiva as a second-look layer, not a primary program: run it beneath a prime lender so patients who would otherwise walk away still have a path to financing. Confirm the merchant fee and patient APR disclosures with Atlanticus before enrolling, make sure staff can explain subprime terms plainly, and treat the limited independent verification as a reason to monitor patient outcomes closely.
By Med Spa Vendor Hub Editorial Team. Last reviewed June 29, 2026. Independent editorial review — how we score.
As a subprime second-look program, Fortiva's economics typically involve merchant fees and patient APRs that reflect higher-risk lending. Exact merchant fees and patient APR ranges are not published up front and should be confirmed with Atlanticus during enrollment; subprime terms generally carry higher costs than prime programs.
Retail credit program
Merchant fee per program terms
per transaction
Second-look subprime credit for approved applicants; merchant fee and patient APR set by program and confirmed at enrollment.
Pricing is researched from public sources and verified periodically; confirm current rates with the vendor.
A vendor-neutral guide to choosing patient financing for a med spa—covering why financing drives conversion, the six provider models, the deferred-interest trap, merchant economics, and how to match a provider to your patients.
Patient financing has no subscription - the practice pays a merchant discount fee (a % of each financed sale) and the patient pays APR or deferred interest. Here's a transparent 2026 breakdown of real merchant fees and patient rates by lender.
Patient FinancingAffirm is a large general-purpose buy-now-pay-later and installment lender that pays merchants up front and assumes default risk, used by some med spas through Zenoti and Stripe-based POS rather than built for aesthetics.
Patient FinancingAfterpay, owned by Block (Square), is a mainstream buy-now-pay-later provider offering interest-free Pay-in-4 on smaller purchases. Some beauty businesses and med spas use it for retail and lower-ticket services, but it is not a healthcare-built financing product for higher-ticket aesthetic procedures.
Patient FinancingAlphaeon Credit is a purpose-built healthcare credit card for aesthetic, cosmetic, dermatology, and plastic surgery practices, offering deep aesthetics fit but carrying a deferred-interest model and strongly negative consumer sentiment.
