Viacord vs. CBR - Which one and why?

The pricing looks similar, give or take a few dollars ($$$ either way). Can anyone tell me why they chose the company they picked? It's such an expensive, important decision, and I want to be well-informed. Thank you!

Re: Viacord vs. CBR - Which one and why?

I picked CBR because I found their customer service to be really helpful but the deal breaker was that Viacord is in a flood zone, and CBR is in the middle of a desert. I feel the storage facility for CBR is more reliable than Viacord.

Re: Viacord vs. CBR - Which one and why?

We're using CBR because they are the preferred cord banking company when a c-section is involved. My OB highly recommended them.

Re: Viacord vs. CBR - Which one and why?

Re: Viacord vs. CBR - Which one and why?

We went with CBR. My dr's office recommended them and after looking into Viacord as well, I liked CBR better.

Re: Viacord vs. CBR - Which one and why?

We also went with CBR. Customer service is excellent. I also felt they had the most experience and as a PP mentioned, the storage facility is not in a flood zone. Their success rate was higher than Viacord as well.

Re: Viacord vs. CBR - Which one and why?

we also went with CBR. they are bigger. (have more blood in storage) and their storage facility was in a better location. they were slightly cheaper when we looked (over a year ago now) and our OB recommended them.

my OB did mention to me, there was a local bank near the hospital i delivered at. It was cheaper, and considered reputable. yet it went out of business. i wanted the biggest company i could get, in the hopes that the bigger they are, the more likely they would remain in business long term.

Re: Viacord vs. CBR - Which one and why?

Wow, it looks like CBR is the one to go with...thank you!

Re: Viacord vs. CBR - Which one and why?

we went with CBR again for all of the reasons above too!!!

Re: Viacord vs. CBR - Which one and why?

Re: Viacord vs. CBR - Which one and why?

I went with Viacord for a variety of reasons. I found that none of the companies had salespeople who gave reliable information. They made it impossible to compare apples to apples because they each had different ways of forming statistics. I had to do a lot of my own research and my doctor was willing to spend a lot of time educating me. The flood zone thing does not worry me because I believe that river has flooded twice in about 50 years, with repairs made (I had exact information at the time). It is in a major city. In fact, I learned that the transport time is crucial, so I was a bit happier with Viacord's location. I heavily investigated about 7-8 companies. The final choice was between CBR and Viacord, either of which would have been fine. CBR would have cost us a little less because DH was able to get a discount through work. DH felt that it was important that Viacord does research. One of the studies that we were very interested in was one we learned about from a CBR rep. but it was Viacord's study.

Re: Viacord vs. CBR - Which one and why?

We chose Viacord because they are not only a storage company, they are heavy into R&D.

I am happy to know that my $$ is going into finding cures for diseases, and uses for cord blood, as opposed to just "paying rent."