見積・予約金・最終見積 ― 実際に拘束力を持つのはどれか

The question every quote from abroad avoids is the one that decides the bill: what is being priced, and what is still open. A number sent before anyone has examined you is an estimate of a treatment plan that does not exist yet.

Three numbers, not one

The quote is what a clinic thinks the plan will cost, based on photographs and what you have described. It is a working figure.

The deposit is what secures a date. It is not a proportion of the final bill unless the clinic says so in writing, and its refund conditions are the part worth reading twice.

The final estimate is set after examination in Seoul, because that is the first point at which anyone has seen the thing being treated. A plan can grow, shrink or change entirely at that appointment. If it cannot, the examination was not an examination.

What is usually outside the number

Ask explicitly whether the figure includes anaesthesia, the facility, follow-up visits, post-operative care sessions, medication, and any garment or dressing. Ask what a revision would cost, and under what circumstances the clinic performs one without charge. A quote that covers only the procedure is not wrong; it is just narrower than the trip.

The two questions that change the total

First: how many nights does the plan actually require? A procedure with a review at day seven is a nine-day trip, not a weekend, and the accommodation is part of the cost of the decision.

Second: what happens if the doctor recommends against the procedure you came for? The answer tells you what the deposit was for.

Where our own interest sits

This magazine is published by a facilitator that is paid by clinics. That is a reason to read this page sceptically, and it is why the page contains no prices, no ranges and no comparison between clinics: those are exactly the numbers our interest would bend. What it contains is the shape of a bill, which is checkable against any quote you are sent.