ViaCord Reviews
Our promise. We provide a buying advantage with verified reviews and unbiased editorial research.
About ViaCord Reviews
ViaCord offers cord blood and cord tissue stem cell banking for families who wish to save their child’s stem cells for future medical use. ViaCord has been a leader in the cord blood banking industry for over 25 years and offers families quality, innovation and trust. Over 500 customers have used their stem cells stored with ViaCord for a transplant or regenerative medicine research. Its state-of-the-art laboratory is FDA-registered, CLIA-certified, and AABB-accredited for processing and storing both cord blood and cord tissue stem cells in five-compartment bags.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Cord blood and cord tissue options
- $35,000 product quality guarantee
- 24/7 customer support
- Multiple payment options
Cons
- No guarantee you use the stem cells
Bottom Line
ViaCord processes and stores cord blood and cord tissue stem cells for private use. It also offers genomic testing for newborns, children and adults. The company guarantees storage fees for five years.
What is ViaCord cord blood banking?
ViaCord gives families the opportunity to store stem cells from their babies' umbilical cord blood and cord tissue in case they ever need it for a transplant or regenerative medicine research.
ViaCord has more than 25 years of experience in the cord blood banking industry, according to the company's website. Both cord blood and cord tissue stem cells are collected and stored in a five-compartment bag, which gives families plenty of flexibility to use as much or as little of their stem cell unit as needed.
More than 500 families have used their stored stem cells at ViaCord for treatment or research. The company advertises on its site that it has the highest published transplant success rate of any family bank with an 88% success rate after one year. ViaCord safeguards more than 500,000 newborn stem cell collections at their FDA-registered, AABB-accredited and CLIA-certified lab located just outside Cincinnati, Ohio.
How does ViaCord work?
You can sign up with ViaCord online or by phone in just a few minutes. The company then sends you a health history questionnaire and service agreement, which you complete and return by email or fax. ViaCord also notifies your health care provider that you intend to bank your baby’s cord blood (and cord tissue, if you choose).
ViaCord sends you a collection kit with everything your health care provider needs to perform the collection on the day of delivery. One to two hours after the stem cells have been collected, call ViaCord Customer Service at the number provided and the company will dispatch a medical courier to pick up the collection kit for transport to ViaCord’s lab for processing and storage. ViaCord lets you know as soon as the collection kit arrives at the lab.
After ViaCord receives the collection kit, the stem cell collection goes through an FDA-recommended process of cell separation to reduce red blood cells and unwanted plasma. The stem cells are then stored in a five-compartment storage bag and cryopreserved in storage tanks similar to ones used at major medical research facilities. If your family ever needs to use the stem cells, contact ViaCord, and it provides documentation and samples to your health care provider and coordinates delivery to the appropriate facility.
ViaCord price
ViaCord pricing starts at $635 for cord blood processing, plus $175 per year for storage at the time of publishing. Pricing depends on which type of stem cells you want to store — cord blood only or cord blood plus cord tissue — as well as the number of children whose stem cells you are banking, whether you want to prepay for 20 or 25 years of storage and available promotions at the time of purchase.
For cord blood stem cells only, you can prepay for 20 years of storage for $2,765 or for 25 years of storage for $3,225. Adding cord tissue processing to cord blood increases the initial price from $635 to $1,330; storage prices double.
ViaCord also offers six- or 12-month payment plans, so families can choose the best option for them. These plans do slightly increase the overall cost. Additional services from ViaCord include Newborn DNA Guardian ($175), Newborn Digestive Health ($250), a Genetic Insights Panel ($750) and Whole Genome Sequencing ($2,500).
ViaCord cord blood banking FAQ
What does ViaCord’s cord blood banking service include?
ViaCord’s service includes 24/7 on-call staff, a medical courier service to pick up and transport your collection kit to its lab, an FDA-approved cord blood collection bag and state-of-the-art processing and storage. As part of the company's standard cord blood report, it offers collection volume and cell counts. ViaCord also provides families additional health insights.
Is ViaCord public or private?
ViaCord is a private cord blood bank. This means that only the family that pays to store the baby’s cord blood has access to the cord blood stem cells.
Is ViaCord FDA-approved?
Yes, ViaCord is registered with the FDA. You can confirm this registration by searching the FDA’s Human Cell and Tissue Establishment Registration (HCTERS) database.
Where is ViaCord's processing and storage lab?
ViaCord’s storage facility is located near Cincinnati, Ohio, and operates 365 days per year.
Does ViaCord offer placenta tissue banking?
ViaCord does not offer placenta tissue banking. It only processes cord blood and cord tissue.
Is ViaCord worth it?
ViaCord offers strong credentials, experience and a record of successful transplants using stem cells it has processed and stored. Its quality guarantee says that if your child’s stem cells fail to engraft during a transplant, the company will pay $35,000 toward securing an alternative source of cells. If you have decided to store your baby’s stem cells with a private bank, ViaCord is a worthy option.
ViaCord Reviews
A link has directed you to this review. Its location on this page may change next time you visit.
- 4,313,826 reviews on ConsumerAffairs are verified.
- We require contact information to ensure our reviewers are real.
- We use intelligent software that helps us maintain the integrity of reviews.
- Our moderators read all reviews to verify quality and helpfulness.
Reviewed Sept. 1, 2023
It would be fortunate to be a bit prepared of having this stem cell cord blood. It can be super helpful for your baby later on helping with diseases and even leukemia for later on in life if he does have to go down that path. We did our own research and fell in love with the option that ViaCord gives people nowadays of being able to do something like that that can help your baby. The fact that it helps with over 80 diseases or complications that the child may have and some cancers. That is what rung in our ears of this could save his life one day or just help him with other things that he might just be struggling with.
We would spend the money now, but it could our baby's life later on or save us thousands down the road in medical bills. Let your OB know that this is something that you would like to do and bring your kit with you to the hospital when the baby says that it's time and they make the process super easy from there. They go ahead and send you the kit early on so you can be prepared whenever baby decides to come.
Thanks for subscribing.
You have successfully subscribed to our newsletter! Enjoy reading our tips and recommendations.
Reviewed July 29, 2023
The lady that I talked to in the office told me what to do with the package. They sent one that says ViaCord on it and it has all these directions. I was emailing back and forth with the office lady, sending all the paperwork to her and she broke it down for me as far as for my daughter, what the benefits of that would be. My daughter's doctor who is the leukemia doctor that she sees brought my attention to ViaCord. Before him, the social worker mentioned it to me. I’m about to have my son soon so they said I have a perfect chance of being able to save stuff to help my daughter through her treatment if we need to.
ViaCord is useful, especially if someone is going through what I'm going through with my 19-month-old daughter. I would want them to know if they have that option. A lot of people don't know that ViaCord does that sibling thing, where one of the siblings has a qualifying sickness. That's something huge that they can bank their cord blood for their future kids with it. It’s awesome, especially since there was so much money when I was thinking about for my daughter who is sick, when I was gonna do it for her at her birth.
Reviewed April 10, 2023
ViaCord's was a central location that had less chance of a natural disaster hitting it. You can't prevent fires, but it wasn't somewhere that had hurricanes, earthquakes or tornadoes or they were least common in that area. I filled out a questionnaire and I was able to get somebody on the phone. They walked me through the steps. I filled out everything when I was for my second, third and fourth pregnancy. I didn't wanna have them at different storage units. You set it up on your own. ViaCord would send you the kit. And it's managed through their web and app to make sure you're following up on your payment so you don't lose storage. The main thing for me was getting a good rate. And they offer discounts to multiple pregnancies you use their platform. And they were very quick to get me the kit.
You would never know what's gonna happen. And that you may need this service at some point in your child's life. It's one of those things that you wish never happens. But it's there. It's like an insurance policy. And if you can afford to do it, it takes that kind of devastation if something were to occur out of the picture. It's an easy process for you just fill out, make a payment. They ship it to you. And even at the delivery, I didn't have to do anything with them. They work directly with the hospital to pick it up. You get confirmation that the kit arrived. And it was within 12 hours that everything was processed and on its way back to their facility.
Reviewed March 25, 2023
Our child is gonna be of mixed race. With the availability of blood donations, we wanted to make sure that if anything were to happen, our baby would have had something available instead of trying to find a donor and not being able to find a match. I had the most exposure to ViaCord and there was somebody on social media that used it. I'd been following her for a while and ViaCord was the company she used for her family. Even though I've never met this person, she did it for all three of her kids, so it was a trusted company to do mine with.
Interestingly enough, ViaCord is not an insurance policy per se and in the hopes of having something just in case your baby is sick. It's more like it could save your baby's life or if your baby doesn't end up needing it, it could save another baby's life. If something happens, you could trust that your baby will be okay. The siblings can use it, but it's not 100% since it's obviously not the same blood as the baby that it came from.
I initially watched an online webinar and I had a representative that I went through the paperwork with. I then got moved to somebody to finalize the paperwork and it's been smooth sailing ever since. Since I watched the webinar, they answered most of the questions that I had, as far as whether or not the nurses knew what to do and if there was anything I had to do. The webinar was pretty self-explanatory, for the most part.
Reviewed Feb. 26, 2023
We were told by our hospital here about cord banking and once we went to the orientation, we knew it was better with ViaCord. We didn't even look at any other cord banking companies. We liked what they gave in the orientation and we stuck with them. Our cord blood rep was very informative. The doctor in the Zoom call had a PowerPoint presentation. Even though he had the PowerPoint up, he went more into detail for every slide. He showed us a quick video and explained it. I really liked how detailed it was.
My biggest thing was how fast the delivery and the pickup of the box would be once the baby was here, and they exceeded it. Immediately after I called and said, "Hey, the baby's here," the next morning, they were here. It was fantastic. The baby was born at 2:00. By 6:30, the rep was already in the lobby. He called me and told me he was gonna let me know when he was leaving and gonna be at the lobby and he did exactly that. I would recommend ViaCord completely because of the customer service that they provided and how detailed they were and how important it is to have cord banking just in case. If not today, for the future.
Reviewed Sept. 13, 2023
My sister-in-law is a doctor and my husband is a nurse. They know more about cord blood banking, and they explained to me that it can help in some things that our children can get over the years when they have a health issue. My sister-in-law also told me to get it because of that. She did it first with my nephew, then she recommended me the company for my first baby, and I did it.
This time, I already knew more or less the process since I already have my first son's cord blood banking with ViaCord, but the rep made it very easy. He was very good. He was always on top of when I made the decision to see when I was gonna do it, and he would send me emails with information. I would recommend cord blood banking with my eyes closed and tell people to do it with ViaCord because they are very efficient and always helpful.
Reviewed Sept. 12, 2023
I attended a webinar and it was very informative. My doctor co-hosted it and it was very clear. ViaCord provided some options and they've been very responsive and the kit arrived quickly. So, the experience has been good so far. I would recommend them. They had explained or expressed during the webinar about their storage fees and how the pricing has come down, and a little bit of insight about the clinical trials. I would be pleased if that stays true and moving forward, that the storage fees don't go significantly up. I froze my eggs a few years ago and the storage fees have tripled since then, which I was not accounting for when I signed up. The question was asked beforehand and they stayed at that. So that's one thing that I would look for in the future. Banking my baby’s blood cord is an insurance and I'm a believer in that. I’d rather have it than not. It’s an investment and you don't have a chance to decide later.
Reviewed Sept. 12, 2023
I did cord blood banking for my second child. This is my third pregnancy, and I wanted to do it again. I was comfortable with ViaCord. The first time was very simple. This time, I have to do it a bit differently, so I didn't like that so much. I still have to open the package and I have to send something to them. I still have three weeks to go. Every time I called ViaCord, if I had questions or anything, they reached out very fast and made it clear. It was very smooth. I was just hoping there would be a better discount for a second child. When I talked to the lady, it seemed like there isn't much.
Reviewed Sept. 12, 2023
Everything was great with our experience with ViaCord. The reps really had a good explanation. They were also extremely courteous and very helpful in answering questions.
Reviewed Sept. 12, 2023
I had a good experience with ViaCord. They called me right away. The girl that called me was really nice. She asked me if I had any questions. I told her, no. She just kept calling me and making sure that I didn't have any other questions. But she wasn't pressing about it. So, I liked that. I would recommend ViaCord.
ViaCord Company Information
- Company Name:
- ViaCord
- Address:
- 940 Winter St.
- City:
- Waltham
- State/Province:
- MA
- Postal Code:
- 02451
- Country:
- United States
- Website:
- www.viacord.com