Career Development Loans
 

Hi

I would like to know if any pilot or student pilots have taken a 'Career Developmet Loan' from a bank to assist in their training.

Is it just for 'integrated training' banks give a Career Developmet Loan? Or could it be taken for odular courses?

And while on that note, I would like to know about pilots or student pilots who have commenenced on to integrated training streight after finishing their A-Levels, please if you don't mind, how did you menage to gather all the money? Is it mostly through Loans or maybe parents Mortages? How much are you contributing to it? And how do you go about paying all those debts back. It would be interesting to know.

Thanks!

Career Development loans can be used for modular training. However, you need to get all the training providers set up at once. At least the ones for which the £8.5k max will be used. The reason for this is that you can only have one CDL on the go at any given time. It’s a bit of a hassle, as the Banks don’t understand the concept of multiple training providers or modules for what is in effect one course. If you persevere you should have no problem.

Now £8.5k only scratches the surface of your training costs. As a result the Bank providing the CDL will want to know where the rest of the money is coming from and may want to see evidence that finance is available for the full course cane be completed, to the point where you are employable and can pay the loan back!

Having said all that the interest rates charged on a CDL are scandalous. From memory they are about 11.5% !!! Yes you do get a holiday on payment but it’s still a very expensive deal. So much for the Government trying to encourage further education. The Bank’s make a fortune on these loans for which the carry no risk as they are underwritten by the Government. On top of the high interest you will find the odd 'account maintenance charge' creeping in as well.

The penalties for early redemption are also onerous. I have one and wish I hadn’t!

Try to find another method of borrowing if you can.

Cheers mate, you cleared a lot of the mess there.. .The first best idea would be to use up your own savings ofcourse and secondly, relatives come in handy! theres no interst, and then the CDL or personal loans.. .Im only sixteen, so I gotta think of these things. And then repay debts after the airline job.

Oh to be that young again!

Get hours wherever you can - get in the ATC, go to Uni, making sure it has a Uni Air Squadron, look out for BA cadet schemes, etc..

Best of all, watch these pages!

CDL's are the cheapest money you're likely to find!. .I think it would be better to use your own money first, but if you don't have £30k in your back pocket, and your parents can only help with part of the astronomical cost of professional pilot training, then I think a CDL is a good option.

I have one with Clydesdale. The interest rate is 6.7%; Which is very low really, considering you don't pay the money back for about 2 years,and it doesn't accrue any interest until you start paying it back, and when you do pay it back, it can be in installments over about 56 months.

If you were able to pay the whole lot back at the end of the 2 years, I think you only repay what you borrowed.

So effectively, you can borrow the money interest free for 2 years.

I think I've got the above figures right, but if you're interested then I can check for certain, and give you the CDL Infomation telephone number.

Oh, and I didn't have to state all the training providers I planned to use- just the first one for the JAR theory module.

All this might have changed, but I only got my CDL about a year ago.

IH

[ 01 February 2002: Message edited by: Island Hopper ]</p>

WANNABAPILOT

if you are about to finnish your A-leves i suggest you go on to university..2 reasons for this;

1) you will have something to fall back on if you dont make it.

2) with my student loan i am saving it all as i have stayed at home and going to a university in my home town. so every year i save 3000 there plus 4000 pounds from working all over summer and part time so it works out to be at the end of my degree i have saved at least 28000 grand now thats good. NOTE this only works if you live at home and limit friday nights out and spend less on junk..its all worth it in the end ..I think

Wannabapilot,

OOOHHHH DEAR ITS BEEN ONE OF THOSE DAYS !!!!

. .Wannabapilot,. . I've just got a 34k proffesional studies loan from the HSBC bank secured on my mum and dad's house , I'm paying it back over 11 years at £360 a month ( you don't have to pay anything back for 18 months ), going to take a year off work and get everything done then go back to work.... hopefully things will start picking up again soon and the minimum hours will drop down again.

Hope this helps , if you need any more info , drop me an e-mail.

:) :) :)

Island Hopper

I'm not sure on which planet a FLAT rate of 6.7% (which a CDL is) represents the 'cheapest money around'!!!!

That’s an APR of nearly 12%. You will get a better rate on a credit card!!!

I'm interested to hear that the Clydesdale did not want to know in advance which approved training providers you were to use as that same bank required signed forms from 3 of mine! Maybe you had a good branch. However, now they are all handled from a central source.

Have you asked about an early redemption??? ....Don't, as you will enter into loan shark territory!!

Yes Tonys done well for the jobseeker (I don't think!!) with his CDL at the very charitable rate of 12.5% APR. You might aswell go to the local loan shark <img src="mad.gif" border="0"> <img src="mad.gif" border="0">

Can someone please point out why the CDL has to be paid straight to the learning organisation. Do they not trust you with the money? This just signifies the 'nanny state' we live in!

Pie, don't understand. How can you possibly save the loan. The very word 'loan' is indicative that you must pay it back. Therefore you can't really SAVE the sum of 28K because its not yours to save-only the interest gained from it!

ILS27R what i mean is that this student loan the rate of interest to pay back on it is in line with 2% per annum approx...(rate of inflation)and we dont have to pay it back till you earn over i think it has gone to 15000 per annum when you have a job after graduation.

now i am putting it in an isa or equivalent so when i have it all at the end of me degree i dont pay anything back as i wont be working ill still be training for my integarted course. only then will i start too pay it back

just for an example my brother took out 3800 last year and he got a letter saying for the year 2000-01 he owes 148 pounds in interest on that 3800.now ill be making a lot more form putting my money in an isa to cover the interest and make a bit more for myself.

i know its a loan but while its in my possesion its MINE. . <img src="eek.gif" border="0"> <img src="eek.gif" border="0"> <img src="eek.gif" border="0">

and it a hell of a lot cheaper than a cdl or any other loan the banks offer

Thanks guyz!. .I really cant add anything more to it.

No, I havent done my A Levels yet.. .Is it not possible to study for a degree while employed with an airline?

think about it....do you really want to do a degree if you are allready where you want to be...a pilot.personally i wouldnt and they say a pilot is always practising, improving techniques, sim checks,learing etc till his career ends so how would you find the time to a degree especially if you were in a different country every other day

There are training providers about that structure the modular course for their students (such as pilot assist), they help you get the CDL in the first place and then use it to pay for your traning as and when you decide.. . The interest on a CDL is payed by the DFEE for the duration of your training so one way of doing it is to use a CDL to get you started then pay it off with the bigger HSBC loan when you can get one.. . Student loans are also a great way to start saving if you go to uni.. . Good Luck.

Ok,. .I've checked the details of my CDL, and I wasn't far off in my earlier post.

Amount of Loan: £8000. .Government pay interest for 2 years . .(you can ask for an extention of up to 17 months, if your course takes longer than expected)

Then:. .APR: 6.9%

59 monthly installments of £175.66. .final installment of £176.06

Total repaid: £10,540

That's £2540 interest, with the final intallment due seven years after they gave me the £8k. .which, clear prop, is the reason I said it was good money.

Last time I checked the maximum was £8k, not £8.5

Oh, and because I only gave them the details of my first training provider, they put the balance of the loan in an account, for me to withdraw as and when I wish!!

They may well have tightened up on all this by now, but that's my deal anyway.

CDL Info Line: 0800 585 505. .8am-10pm Mon-Sun

IH

I just got mine extended for a third year. It was easy - needed a note from the training provider with the new date of the end of the course, and a letter from me with the reason for the extension. I just said that with the present state of the aviation industry it seemed sensible to be as well qualified as possible, and I wanted to do an instructor's course too; they okayed it within a couple of days.

I've never heard anything about being penalised for early redemption, and I asked several people if there were any snags before I got it. I always planned to pay back the lot at the end of the three years. I had the money, but an interest free loan means my money gains interest.

Individual banks may differ, but not according to what I've heard.

Thanks Whirly,

You've just answered the two queries I was about to raise!

IH

Department for Education & Skills CDL website:. .<a href="http://www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/cdl/learn.htm" target="_blank">http://www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/cdl/learn.htm</a>

wannabapilot, . . I got a CDL from Clydesdale. The money went straight to my training provider, no hassle at all, just another 8k in debt!! The rest of the money I scraped from Parents, other loans and little bits and peices here and there.. . I started my training in April 2001 a year after I finished my Highers (Scottish A-Levels), I am in a good situation where I have family business I could jump into if things go wrong, but I have been here for 10 months now and it all seems to be going to plan.. . You can sart your training whenever you want, it just depends on how confident you feel, it would be good to have some qualifications to fall back on if it all goes pear shaped. But in the end it is up to you (or your sponsor!). . Hope I helped, Wingman