There is no upfront bonus money at envoy that does not have a commitment clause.

 

That’s an accurate statement for probably almost all employers. Whether it’s outsourced training or signing bonuses. A lot of smaller places especially have training contracts that put you on the hook for some kind of pay back if you leave before a year or two.

 

Yep, I was in the private sector before flying and any signing bonus came with a hook. Work it off or pay it back.

 

Bad advice.

 

How about: “Take the bonus, just budget for the fact that you will need to repay it if you leave”.

Also, I’m not a CPA, but I’m fairly sure that if you repay the bonus, you can write it off on your taxes. You’ll only pay taxes on the portion you keep.

 

Good advice

 

Also good advice.

Listen, for the little money you'd owe its not worth it for them to send someone to find you and serve you papers in the state you live in. It's also not worth them paying the legal fees to recoup what will be a small fraction of the money. They'll send you intimidating letters threatening legal action but it's all smoke. The worst they can do is hit your credit and lets face it, by that time you'll be working at Sun Country and won't be able to afford a new house or car anyways so your credit score is irrelevant.

 

Just FYI, your credit score is NEVER irrelevant. Your credit will be checked anytime you apply for a loan or try to rent a house or apartment. If you have a knock on your score for failure to repay a debt, landlords may choose not to rent to you.

You want a better mortgage rate or loan rate? Have good credit.

Character matters. You aren’t entitled to walk away from a consent agreement without penalty.

If you don’t want to accept the risk, don’t agree.

Don’t be foolish.

 

All true. Take the money and put it somewhere until you hit the end of year one then you can spend half of it and wait until you hit the end of year two and you can spend the rest. Or since you’ve been living without it, leave it where it’s at. But don’t plan to leave without paying it back. Companies spend a lot of money on lawyers and have the connections to easily send your debt out to collection and ruin your credit. And you’d be surprised what bad credit can do. A number of employers check it. Your insurance can be higher because of it.

Just like anything. Do what you think you need to.

 

I was going to say something along these lines. One of the most important things you can do is take care of your credit history. It effects everything. Not just whether you get the mortgage, but the rate you pay. The rate you pay on your credit cards and your auto loans. The premiums you pay for insurance. It effects where you can live. I think some employers look at it too.

As far as whether to take the money or not. Always take the money. The only way you're guaranteed to short yourself money is to not take the bonus. If you don't take the money and you stay for two years, you've lost out on $15,000 (or whatever the going rate is at the time) pe-tax dollars.

If you leave and you have to pay it back, yes, you're going to have to pay back the pre-tax value even though Envoy gave you the after-tax amount. That's because Envoy paid money to the IRS on your behalf in that amount. If you file your taxes correctly, you'll either get a bigger return, or a lesser bill so it will all come out in the wash. You will not 'lose money' on the exchange.

So, the sound is advice is to take the bonus and put it away. Learn to live on your regular wages, meager as they may be as a regional FO. That 4 digit priced Bose headset can wait, the Miata can wait longer.