paying in advance

[Pilot16]

Hi,

I know paying large amount of money has always been discouraged, and at one occasion I was told not to pay no more than £1000.

The flying school i am attending (stapleford) is offering 5% discount for 20 hours if payed in advance and 10% discount for 45 hours. I am planning to pay for 20 hours for the 5% discount,
i save about £250. So does anyone disapprove of that?

awaiting replies,
thanks in advance!

[sennadog]

I would go for 10 hours at a time and put it on a Visa card for protection just in case.

[Holdposition]

just an idea but you could put your cash in a high interest account without withdrawal penalties (plenty about if you look) and get about 5% rate there, so if by any chance the school did fold!!!!!

[notice]

Nobody reputable offers 5% interest net of tax (but do post the details if I'm wrong) and, even if you could, that would be for a year !
Most people would want to have their course or hours in a month or two, so any interest would be almost nothing.

A cheap package price or a large discount off pay-as-you-go prices is a good way of saving a lot of money BUT make sure you are using a school which has been in the same ownership for long time. Also, make sure you are paying the course provider or hirer not an agent or the instructor.

[Holdposition]

Notice:

Hi agree with the year bit but you can get 4.85% net on monthly basis with Abbey National, immediate access via atm and branch, have been doing this for the last 14 months. Mind you with all their top brass leaving weekly not sure how long it will last:)

[niknak]

Two ways to crack the nut:

1 - If you have sufficiant savings to cover the cost of all the hours you want to block buy, pay by credit card, then pay the full amount on the cc statement each month.

2 - If you haven't got the cash, get a bank loan, (some are giving them at rates as low as 7% at the moment), stuff it in an interest bearing cheque account , and pay off the full amount on the credit card statement each month.
You'll still end up paying interest on the money owed on the loan, but it'll be a lot less than the credit card interest.

Never, ever, pay a flying club up front in cash.

[IRRenewal]

Alternatively, you could drive to a place like Andrewsfield (15% cheaper than SF without paying anything up front).

Lets see: 45 times 20 equals ....

[Pilot16]

Thanks for the advise.
Andrewsfield?
do they have a website I can visit?

[distaff_beancounter]

The reasons for a flying school, or indeed any other business, giving a discount for bulk purchases, has more to do with the marketing & work planning, than with the prevailing rate of interest, per annum, on savings accounts.

For instance, "lock out" applies when your local supermarket has just sold you 10 packets of cornflakes for the price of 8. You are now "locked out" of the cornflake buying market, for the next 10 weeks, so will not buy from a competitor.

The same applies for a flying school. If you have just purchased the next 20 hours, at a discount, you are unlikely to go elsewhere. The school has you as a guaranteed customer, for the next few weeks, & if the school does a decent job, you will stay with it, for your following batch of hours.

It is also easier for a school to plan the requirements of aircraft & intructors, when it knows how many lessons have been presold.

BTW a 5% discount for 20 hours, cannot be directly equated to an interest rate of 5% per annum. It will depend whether you take 1 month or 12 months to fly it off. So those who intend to do a lot of flying in a very short time, can do a good deal on prepayments.

As ever, unless you have thoroughly checked the financial status of a flying school, the advice should by to ONLY make large prepayments via your credit card.

[knobbygb]

Pilot16 - just check your figures on that discount. a 5% discount for 20 hours equates to one free hours lesson, so £250 is a bit over the mark. Did you mean £125?

No experience of block booking for discounts - all I would add is that, as distaff says, you get a better deal if you plan to do the 20 hours in a short time (because they don't have you money much longer than they would anyway), and it's less risky as they're less likely to fold in, say, a few weeks as apposed to a few months.

Whatever you do a credit card is a MUST.

[Goldenchild]

I have just taken the plunge by purchasing 35 hours with 2 hours thrown in for free. This is on top of my 10 hours already logged (which I was doing it to see if I liked it first). I paid entirely by Credit Card (for protection - lots of similiar posts here give the same advice) and timed it right to ensure I enjoyed the 56 days interest free period on my CC before my payment date.

[LPL]

My advice to anyone paying for anything upfront is NEVER pay more than you are WILLING to lose, especially flying schools, many are here today gone tommorow,

I was once a member of a ( Very ) well established flying school were i did all my training. Eleven years later it went ' Tits up ' overnight ?

BEWARE