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CareCredit

Also a provider — view CareCredit’s profile →

“Can a specialist medical-financing private-label card evolve into a general-purpose health-and-wellness payments rail embedded inside every provider's checkout?”

Founded1987
HQCosta Mesa, California, United States (parent: Synchrony, Stamford, CT)
FoundersRalph Stern
Latest roundAcquired — subsidiary of Synchrony (NYSE: SYF)
IndustryFintech / Lending
The story

Founded 1987 as DenCharge, a private-label credit product for dental implant financing. Rebranded to CareCredit and expanded across health & wellness verticals (vision, veterinary, cosmetic, hearing) throughout the 1990s-2000s. Became a subsidiary of Synchrony after its 2014 spin-off from GE Capital. Recently pivoting from a closed-loop provider-enrolled private-label card into a general-purpose health-and-wellness financing rail — extending acceptance to Walmart, Sam's Club, Albertsons, Walgreens; launching the Rewards Mastercard for open-loop spend; and in 2026 embedding CareCredit as a merchant-side financing option inside Stripe and Clover.

Last 12 months
2026-08
2026-08
2026-06
Product timeline
1987
Founded as DenCharge by Ralph Stern, a private-label credit card for dental implants.· banking
1990
Rebranded to CareCredit, expanding into cosmetic surgery, LASIK, audiology and other healthcare categories.· pivot
2014
Became a subsidiary of Synchrony Financial (spun out from GE Capital).· acquisition
2019
Launched CareCredit Rewards Mastercard, expanding acceptance beyond in-network providers to general purpose spend.· card
2023
Synchrony acquired Pets Best pet insurance, integrating pet insurance into the CareCredit ecosystem.· acquisition
2026
Announced Stripe partnership — CareCredit can be activated as a financing option directly within Stripe payments for health & wellness merchants.· lending
2026
Announced Walmart.com and Clover distribution expansions for CareCredit acceptance.· banking
Acquisitions
Pets Best2023
Pet insurance company acquired by Synchrony and integrated into the CareCredit product suite to extend pet-care financing across a pet's lifetime.
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by CareCredit
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
10 layers disclosed in CareCredit’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Stripe
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Card issuing
in the full report
Card network
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
Insurance
in the full report
KYC
in the full report
Sponsor bank
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting
in the full report
Accounting gap: minor
13 more providers across 9 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.