Repayments, how do you do it?
Join Date: Feb 2005
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I'm writing just to give you my particular experiences with the loan repayments. However please note that my situation is a particularly unique one. I initially applied for the Professional Studies Loan with HSBC back in May 2008. It was for £50,000 and secured (stupidly) against my parents' property. I did my flight training at Oxford Aviation Academy (I was not tagged) from September 2008 to March 2010. The Global Financial Crisis began hitting hard right at the time we were commencing ground school and, from that moment, job prospects for prospective ab initio First Officers went out of the window. To cut a long story short, I was INCREDIBLY fortunate to have found employment with Flybe within more or less six months from finishing my MCC Course. This owed everything to right place right time and having the right housing qualifications for a job in Jersey (my home). All this is irrelevant information to the loan repayments however it paints the portrait of just how fortunate I was.
Now, loan repayments. As of the 20th November, I have moved onto the third year of pay points within the Flybe Dash FO scale. I now earn a basic of £33,600 (more or less) and together with Flight Pay brings my gross salary per annum to roughly £36,300. Because Jersey is my home I am still (sadly) living at home with parents in order to make ends meet. Jersey tax is on a sliding scale upto a max of 20% so my net salary per month is £2,400. I give my parents £400 a month for rent. The loan is based on an interest rate tracking the base rate plus roughly 2.75% so in total 3.25%. Which means the monthly repayments are £469.29. Not crippling by any means but bear in mind still I did not have to pay up front for a type rating and the loan is "only" £50,000. Bear in mind also that these tracker loans are gold plated because they predate the financial crisis, banks will not be anywhere near as generous these days. Because living with my parents has left me with some spare cash I have ploughed pretty much all of it into the loan as extra repayments. The outstanding amount left on my loan now is roughly £20,000 which I will hopefully have paid off in July 2014, seven years early.
I have gone a bit overboard on the detail here but this is merely to point out that I have been incredibly fortunate in terms of the loan and also gaining employment without type rating costs. I am also fortunate (not socially but still fortunate financially) to be able to live with parents whilst paying back the loan. But the crux of all this information I have given you? I STILL FEEL THE PAIN. I cannot imagine the stresses that must be upon those people who are in the hole for over £100k. I have £20k of debt, a fraction of this amount and yet I still panic over what's going to happen if the worst happens and I lose this job. I should NEVER have used parents property as security, it was a foolish decision. The only thing that saved me is I got lucky. Do you really want to take that gamble? Even the small sum of £469 coming out of your account before you see it is incredibly limiting as I have experienced. And yet people taking out loans now will never have it as good as me in terms of size of repayments.
With paying £1000 a month extra into the loan I have had a taste of what it must be like to have that extra liability to my name. And it is not fun!! When you are counting the pennies EVERY SINGLE MONTH and your friends take the piss out of you for being a tight arse continually and ask you for the umpteenth time why you are not going out at the weekend. And I could stop this at any time and just make the minimum repayment. For the CTC Flexicrew lot THIS IS THE MINIMUM REPAYMENT and you will be doing it for over TEN YEARS. My situation is just a two year taster to get the smaller loan paid off quickly. The stresses of having this situation perpetually for the next ten years is horrific.
This industry is dead as a worthwhile career choice. And it is dead not only because of the current and future price of Oil. It is dead because of the people who make unwise financial decisions and then have to prostitute themselves and live on the breadline in order to save their dream and make ends meet. This will have inevitable detrimental consequences for pay in the left hand seat too. You want my HONEST opinion? Do not do it, the ends are not worth the means. I love the flying but at the end of the day you realise after six months it's just another job, albeit one with a better view than most.
Now, loan repayments. As of the 20th November, I have moved onto the third year of pay points within the Flybe Dash FO scale. I now earn a basic of £33,600 (more or less) and together with Flight Pay brings my gross salary per annum to roughly £36,300. Because Jersey is my home I am still (sadly) living at home with parents in order to make ends meet. Jersey tax is on a sliding scale upto a max of 20% so my net salary per month is £2,400. I give my parents £400 a month for rent. The loan is based on an interest rate tracking the base rate plus roughly 2.75% so in total 3.25%. Which means the monthly repayments are £469.29. Not crippling by any means but bear in mind still I did not have to pay up front for a type rating and the loan is "only" £50,000. Bear in mind also that these tracker loans are gold plated because they predate the financial crisis, banks will not be anywhere near as generous these days. Because living with my parents has left me with some spare cash I have ploughed pretty much all of it into the loan as extra repayments. The outstanding amount left on my loan now is roughly £20,000 which I will hopefully have paid off in July 2014, seven years early.
I have gone a bit overboard on the detail here but this is merely to point out that I have been incredibly fortunate in terms of the loan and also gaining employment without type rating costs. I am also fortunate (not socially but still fortunate financially) to be able to live with parents whilst paying back the loan. But the crux of all this information I have given you? I STILL FEEL THE PAIN. I cannot imagine the stresses that must be upon those people who are in the hole for over £100k. I have £20k of debt, a fraction of this amount and yet I still panic over what's going to happen if the worst happens and I lose this job. I should NEVER have used parents property as security, it was a foolish decision. The only thing that saved me is I got lucky. Do you really want to take that gamble? Even the small sum of £469 coming out of your account before you see it is incredibly limiting as I have experienced. And yet people taking out loans now will never have it as good as me in terms of size of repayments.
With paying £1000 a month extra into the loan I have had a taste of what it must be like to have that extra liability to my name. And it is not fun!! When you are counting the pennies EVERY SINGLE MONTH and your friends take the piss out of you for being a tight arse continually and ask you for the umpteenth time why you are not going out at the weekend. And I could stop this at any time and just make the minimum repayment. For the CTC Flexicrew lot THIS IS THE MINIMUM REPAYMENT and you will be doing it for over TEN YEARS. My situation is just a two year taster to get the smaller loan paid off quickly. The stresses of having this situation perpetually for the next ten years is horrific.
This industry is dead as a worthwhile career choice. And it is dead not only because of the current and future price of Oil. It is dead because of the people who make unwise financial decisions and then have to prostitute themselves and live on the breadline in order to save their dream and make ends meet. This will have inevitable detrimental consequences for pay in the left hand seat too. You want my HONEST opinion? Do not do it, the ends are not worth the means. I love the flying but at the end of the day you realise after six months it's just another job, albeit one with a better view than most.
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McWho
I am sure you will agree that you have had some full and helpful answers from both sides of the spectrum so before this deteriorates into a P2F debate I am closing the thread
HWB
I am sure you will agree that you have had some full and helpful answers from both sides of the spectrum so before this deteriorates into a P2F debate I am closing the thread
HWB
