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no sponsor
17th Sep 2002, 09:26
I've been reading through the Oxford material, and came across the payment due dates at the beginning and during the end of the course. I've noticed a number of things that cause a concern to me: The entire course costs must be paid by the six month since the commencement of training. This invloves a small deposit un front (fair enough), and three subsequent tranches of money of around £16K before the six month mark.

My concern is that by six months, the only bit of flying is the fair weather stuff (some 85 hours in a warrior) and the ground studies. In effect, there is a substantial amount of money which is essentially a deposit. The real cost of the flying (complex, IR and MCC and twin) takes place in the second six months of training. I feel very uncomfortable about giving all the course costs prior to the stage where the expensive training kicks in, purely as a mitigation against unforseen company issues.

Does anyone have experience in negotiating different payment terms with schools than those publicised. Are schools approachable for such discussions?

I have heard of paying by credit card, but still, I do not feel this sufficiently covers my concerns.

abracadabra
17th Sep 2002, 15:28
This seems to be a common way of doing it. I wouldn't worry other than to make sure it says something about refunds, if you fail to complete the entire course, in your contract.

Schools are usually approachable about different payment terms. Remember that with such a lot of money involved almost everyone has to have some sort of string pulling happen somewhere just to get on the course. Not many self sponsored students can front all up in one go. However, it may cost you more if you pay in installments or make non-standard arrangements. I suppose this is to cover their lost interest since the money isn't with them for as long.

I don't have any personal experience with Oxford, but I wouldn't worry about voicing your concerns to them. I'm sure they deal with things like this all the time.

cheers,
-abracadabra

Alex Whittingham
17th Sep 2002, 16:43
Agreed, ask them straight. They are reasonable people and they should be able to arrange an escrow account so your money is not at risk.