Funding a type rating with a Job offer

[flyboy1818]

I have just received my first job offer!

Very pleased after years of searching, but unfortunately it comes with a catch. I have to fund the type rating (27k). I currently have just 5k of debt and a well paid job, but have no assets. My parents are not very wealthy and unable to assist by securing a loan against property etc.

Does anyone have any suggestions? The banks don't seem interested!

[magicmick]

Congratulations on the job offer, no mean achievement in the current climate.

Does your potential future employer not have a link with a loan provider that will lend the money?

What about the TRTO where you will go for the rating? Not many people have easy access to that amount of money, especially when they have funded training up to and including MEIR. The TRTOs know this and may have arrangements with lenders, otherwise they'd lose loads of business.

Do you have a written job offer with salary details that you can present to a lender?

You seem to be in a better debt situation than a lot of low hours applicants, good luck with your search.

[RTN11]

You'll generally struggle to find an unsecured loan for more than £15,000, might be able to find £25,000 at a push, but the interest rate will not be too pleasing.

Depends how badly you want it though. Personally, if I needed to find £27,000 in a hurry, I could put at least £18,000 on credit cards and find a loan for the rest, and just worry about it another day. Depends how good the terms and conditions are that you've been offered, and how secure an offer it is, like not just to the end of line training or something ridiculous like that.

[Kelly Hopper]

Just think about what you have just said! Max the CC at 29% interest plus another 10k or so in the hope you get a job???
You guys are spending money that a) you will never earn, and b) even if you do, are sacrificing your entire future with regard to home ownership, relationships, stability. You need your heads read! Think about it?

[TeaTowel]

1. Accept the job offer.
2. When asked for the extortionate amount of money tell them you don't have it.
3. Your job offer will be suspiciously retracted and offered to some other candidate who has large amounts of money.
4. Sue the company and the guy or girl who tried to buy your job into oblivion.

[RTN11]

You can juggle credit cards around though. Not sure what cards you have, but none of mine are 29%, that's absurd. 17% is more realistic. Once you have the balance, you can then transfer it to another card, some cards are offering 0‰ for 29 months with just a 3‰ fee, so that works out at just about 1.3% APR. Try finding any other loan at that rate!

[Tekor Bali]

Don't do it.
Even if you have a sign on a paper!
Save money! They need you? They pay for you

[RTN11]

It's very easy to say don't do it.

It's not a situation I've been in myself, I was lucky that my first airline job offer came with a fully funded type rating, but I can certainly sympathise.

It's a very difficult situation. On the one hand, I wouldn't want to be contributing to the industry wide problem that is self funded type ratings. It's a slippery slope to paying for line training, security checks, medicals, where does it end?

On the other hand, if it's the only offer that's on the table, and there is a secure job behind it with decent terms and conditions, I would jump at it, as you never know where the next offer is coming from. It would be better to be getting use out of the £50,000+ that you've paid up to now, however someone could easily argue the throwing good money after bad.

So really it depends on what terms are on offer. If it's Ryanair style, I'd be running a mile, but if it really is a solid job offer I'd have to say I'd try and find the money somehow.

[Bealzebub]

I have just received my first job offer!

Not really. What you have received is your first conditional job offer. The condition being that you first obtain the necessary qualification to fulfil the contract on offer. That qualification being an endorsed type rating at your own expense. A contract condition that some of the respondents have overlooked in their replies.

Funding up to £25,000 is within the normal upper limit for unsecured borrowing. Why are the banks or normal lenders not interested? With your existing low levels of unsecured borrowing and a well paid job you would seem on the face of it to be a reasonable candidate for a personal loan at promotional rates of interest. Of course there may be any number of reasons why, but it would seem a fairly normal route. Five year money via this route would typically amortize at around £500 per month.

As others have mentioned, credit cards with promotional no/low interest offers may be of some use. However, unless you already have the facility it is unlikely you would qualify for limits high enough to provide the facility you would be looking for. You would also need to be aware of the reversion rates and other penalty criteria once the promotional period ended or if you failed to fully comply with the conditions of the transfer.

The risk (of course) is that there is no tangible asset. If you were buying a car or a boat, the purchase would have a residual value. Here there is only an abstract value and if things don't work out for any reason, you have nothing to redeem but are still stuck with the commitment.

[RTN11]

When you say the banks don't seem interested, what have you actually been doing? Walking in to random banks you've never been a customer with, I've found they really don't want to give you an unsecured loan. If you go to your bank, who I would assume you've banked with for a number of years, they may be more helpful as they have your history right there.

Failing that, there are plenty of online lenders, with good rates, but some have a £15k limit for unsecured loans, so you will have to shop around.

[G-F0RC3]

RTN11; the tone of your last post suggests you are surprised that banks aren't interested? You think the OP has been walking into local branches naked asking for a 25k loan to get his body covered in racist tattoos or something? Seriously, it's not hard to believe that he's struggling to find a bank interested in lending that amount unsecured. As I've said before, £27k might as well be £100k if you can't lay your hands on it.

[RTN11]

Sorry if that's how you perceived my tone.

I'm not surprised at all. I needed a loan for my IR, and shopping around there were some great rates at some decent banks, but they wouldn't even think of loaning to you unless you'd banked with them for at least 6 months, even with pay slips to prove an income.

That's why I questioned the OP on what he meant by "the banks" as if he has history with a decent bank like barclays or HSBC, there's usually no problem in getting a loan, last loan I was quoted offering £25k, which is almost there for the £27k he's looking to raise.

If you look hard enough, you may well find an unsecured loan for £25k or even more, but the rate will likely be around 12%.

[flyboy1818]

Thanks everyone for the useful suggestions! I've managed to secure the funding, it was a case of shopping around in the end!

Unfortunately SSTR is now the norm. I would only do this with a job offer, it's a big risk, but one which has paid off for lots of my friends.

[buzzc152]

What type rating costs £27,000 ?! (Are we talking gbp here ?). Is this normal ? Seems very expensive to me. Good luck though.

[206Fan]

27K for a TR? Christ. What aircraft is it? Good luck though!

[appfo09]

probably Nasa's Space Shuttle!!:hmm:

[bingofuel]

Probably some business jet as their type ratings can be silly money. If it is, I hope the owner or company has a long term future!

[206Fan]

Indeed, silly money. Here's an old thread listing TR Costs. It's in dollars but gives an idea of the costs. Falcon 900 seems to be the most expensive!

http://www.pprune.org/biz-jets-ag-flying-ga-etc/231360-list-type-rating-costs-us-faa.html