Originally Posted by
Keano752
Hi All,
In November 2018, I was accepted into Atlantic Flight Training Academy in Cork, Ireland and I'm due to start in April 2019.
The Course costs 80,000 Euros. I'm from Belfast and a few days ago, 9 different banks said no to giving me the loan in one afternoon. I'm 21 and work as a delivery driver full-time and my Mum works full time as well. The banks basically said it was down to "affordability" and my Mum and I don't have 80,000 upfront to hand over.
Would anyone know the best bank to try and speak to? Whether it's in Ireland or not, doesn't matter. Although I would like to avoid remortgaging our house.
Thanks!
The issue I think you may have is that you’re 21 and asking for 80,000 Euros unsecured. If you were earning an enormous amount and had been for some time then that might be okay, but the problem is that by definition you going to have any income source cutoff once you start training. You can see why a bank might be uneasy. You’re interest rate would I imagine be very high given your risk and the repayments could literally be thousands a month because of that. It’s quite a niche request as far as a ‘normal’ bank is concerned so they are likely to be cautious.
The annoying thing, same for most people to be fair, is that if you can use a property as collateral and remortgage said house, or take out an additional loan against the property, then all of a sudden it becomes pretty simple. BBVA used to provide a loan this way which had a two year repayment window to allow you to train, they’ve sadly stopped doing them. Optimum Credit do partnerships with some schools UK way but not with AFTA yet. Again, this requires a property but is structured to allow you to train and then repay.
Other options do exist though, pay as you go part time so you can keep earning (modular) or cadet schemes that come with funding (Aer Lingus).
Do you know anyone else due to be starting with you? Can’t hurt to see what they’re doing as there may be some out-of-the box ideas you’ve not considered yet.