What to Ask Before Paying a Deposit for Surgery Abroad

Americans reported losing $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, a 25% jump on the year before, and bank transfers carried more of those losses than any other way of paying, about $2.09 billion, according to the Federal Trade Commission's March 2025 data release. That figure isn't about surgery, and most clinics abroad aren't scams. But it's a good reason to slow down at the deposit. It's usually the first money you send overseas and it often goes by wire. Once it's gone, you're relying on whatever the paperwork says.

And the paperwork is often thin. A coordinator's chat message saying "don't worry, it's refundable" isn't a policy, and it's hard to point to if something changes later. This guide covers the questions to get answered in writing before you pay, and why the way you pay changes what you can do afterwards. If you're still earlier in the process, start with our 26 questions to ask before booking surgery abroad.

Why is a deposit abroad harder to get back?

You're far from the only person sending one. The CDC Yellow Book 2026 says surveillance data show millions of US residents travel abroad for care every year, with dental care the most common reason, and that this care is usually paid out of pocket. A 2021 study in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, built on 2016 survey answers from 11 US states and territories, found Mexico was the destination for 41% of trips and dentistry made up 55% of them.

Out of pocket means there's no insurer standing between you and the clinic. If a US practice keeps your money unfairly, you've got a state licensing board and a local court within reach. If a clinic in another country does, you're up against its law, in its language, from thousands of miles away. So the protection you have is mostly the protection you set up before paying: clear written terms and a payment method that lets you dispute the charge.

What should you ask before paying a deposit for surgery abroad?

Get five answers in writing before any money moves: what the deposit pays for, whether it comes off the final price, who legally receives it, what happens to it if plans change on either side, and what the full price includes. A promise in a chat thread is hard to rely on later, so ask for each answer in the quote or the terms you sign.

Here's the fuller list, in the order it usually makes sense to ask:

1. What is this deposit for, and does it come off the total? Some deposits hold a surgery date and are credited against the price. Others are a separate booking or assessment fee that's never credited. You want the quote to show the deposit as its own line, then the total, then the balance left to pay.
2. Who exactly am I paying? Ask for the legal name of the business receiving the money and check it matches the name on your quote and invoice. A deposit to a personal account, or to a company with a different name from the one treating you, makes any later dispute much harder.
3. What happens if I cancel? Ask for the cut-off points in days before your procedure and what's kept at each one. "Non-refundable" with no dates attached tells you the answer is probably "everything".
4. What happens if the clinic cancels or moves my date? The terms should say whether you get the deposit back or a new date, and who decides.
5. What happens if I'm not a candidate once I'm examined in person? We cover this one in its own section below, because it catches people out.
6. What does the total include, and what's extra? Ask for a line-by-line list, and ask what's most often added for your procedure.
7. When and how is the balance paid? Paying by card at the clinic leaves you in a very different position from wiring the balance before you fly.

A deposit here means a part-payment made before treatment to reserve a date, a surgeon or a package, normally credited against the final price. The word on its own tells you nothing about whether you can get it back. Only the written terms do.

Sources: question set drawn from the FTC's guidance on wire transfers and the CFPB's guide to disputing a card charge.

Is it better to pay a surgery deposit by credit card or wire transfer?

Use a US credit card where you have the choice. Credit cards carry federal billing-dispute rights, including for services not delivered as agreed. A wire has nothing comparable: the FTC says wiring money is like sending cash, and once it's sent you usually can't get it back. That one decision can matter more than any promise in the terms.

A chargeback is the reversal of a card payment by your card issuer after you dispute it. Under Regulation Z, section 1026.13, which carries out the Fair Credit Billing Act, a "billing error" includes a charge for services that weren't delivered as agreed. You don't have to settle it with the business first. According to the CFPB, you send a written notice to the card company within 60 days of the statement that first shows the charge, and you don't have to pay the disputed amount while it investigates.

There's a catch worth knowing. The separate federal right to dispute the quality of something you paid for by card only applies, under the conditions the FTC describes, when the purchase was made in your home state or within 100 miles of your billing address. A clinic abroad usually won't meet that. So your strongest footing on a deposit is the "not delivered as agreed" route, and that's exactly why the written terms matter: they're the record of what was agreed.

Photo by rupixen on Unsplash

Other ways of paying give you much less to work with:

If a clinic will only take a wire, ask why, and ask whether it'll take a card even with a surcharge. The dispute right can be worth the extra. And if a wire is truly the only way, the FTC's advice is plain: never wire money to someone who pressures you to pay immediately. Check the bank details by phone with a number you found yourself, and treat any email that changes the account number as suspect until you've confirmed it that way.

What happens to your deposit if the surgeon says no when you arrive?

That's decided entirely by the clinic's written terms, so ask before you pay. An in-person exam or a new scan can change the plan, and a careful surgeon will sometimes decline to operate or propose different work. You want to know in advance whether you'd get the deposit back or lose it.

This happens more in some procedures than others. Implant quotes are often written before anyone has seen a 3D scan of your jaw, and a bone graft or sinus lift can appear once they do, which we cover in the costs that implant quotes leave out. For surgery, the CDC Yellow Book tells US clinicians to review a traveler's full medical history and encourages a talk with a US provider well before departure. Sending your records and a list of your medications to the clinic before you pay is the easiest way to find out early whether the plan will hold.

Ask one more question here: if the surgeon proposes extra work once you're there, can you say no and still go ahead with what you were quoted? If the honest answer is "no", you'd rather know at home.

Are there any add-ons once you're there?

There can be, and the deposit is your best moment to pin them down, because after you've paid and booked flights you've got less room to walk away. Ask for every line that isn't in the price, by name. For surgery that often means things like an extra hospital night, compression garments, take-home medication and post-op checks. For dental work it's scans, extractions, grafts and temporary teeth. Then ask which of those the clinic adds most often for patients like you.

Our guide to protecting your money when paying for surgery abroad goes further into how upselling works, and the red flags that should make you walk away include the payment requests worth refusing outright.

With JetWell, you don't pick a clinic from a list. You tell Jett what you'd like done and JetWell matches you with a clinic in its network. Your quote is a Care Plan: everything on it is price-locked, and anything not on it is extra, so you can see what you're paying for before you commit. Your deposit goes toward your package, the rest is paid as your quote says, often at the clinic when you arrive, and the cancellation terms are shown at checkout and on our Cancellation & Refunds page before you pay a cent. Your clinic is named on your Care Plan once your deposit is paid.

What should you keep after you pay?

Keep a folder, paper or digital, with these in it before you travel:

• The final quote, showing the deposit, the total and the balance
• The terms you agreed to, saved as a PDF or screenshot with the date
• The payment receipt, showing the business's legal name
• Every message about money, including the ones that promised something
• The names of the people who'll treat you, as the clinic gave them

If you ever need to dispute the charge, that folder is your case. Card issuers investigate what was agreed against what was delivered, and they can only see what you can show them.

If you'd like to talk through what you're considering before any money moves, ask Jett about your options. For the wider picture of planning care abroad from the US, our guide for Americans is a good next read.