24 carat

Hi all, been flying for ages myself, now helping a friend out about possibly starting flight training.

Wondering about people’s experiences with Meritize as a loan provider for flight training. At the initial stage right now with them, but all they can supply are the most basic details regarding loan amounts and duration of repayments.

Call me funny, but I would love to have some more information. Yet they say they cannot supply more info until you have a formal agreement and a starting date with a flightschool. Just looking for the answers to the following questions:

· From the few details given, I make the monthly payments substantially higher than those provided. Really need to see a repayment schedule per month, or even per year.

· Is it possible to make overpayments, to refinance? How about dealing with deferment or forbearance?

· How often are interest rates reviewed in case of a variable rate loan?

Why not provide answers? Of course they have this info. The fact that they wait until you are fully committed to a school and rearing to go, before disclosing more details, gives me a funny feeling in my stomach. The kind of feeling that when you get it during flying, you know something somewhere is not right, and you better listen to it.

If someone has dealt with them and I am overeating, great! Would love to hear more about it. Any experiences with them are welcome here. If there are better options out there regarding getting a loan, definitely listening too!

Appreciate your time!

24 carat

Anybody? Feel free to chip in about any experiences, I may have the wrong end of the stick with Meritize, so any great dealings with them, please let us know Can PM me as well.

Experiences with other loan providers are welcome too. Must be a lot of feedback here on this board that could help others - so feel free to share!

Thank you for your time!

24 carat

Ok, ok, I can take a hint. This clearly is a subject people prefer to keep in the shadows about. Shame, because I think many aspiring pilots could learn from the experiences of those who went before them.

I'll leave with some parting points though: isn't it odd that no-one spoke up about Meritize? Even when I specifically asked for positive experiences with them, no-one chipped in - either here or on private messages to me. Why would that be? All of you who are thinking of starting your training, it's a great rewarding career, best of luck. But be careful with financing it - it's easy to get yourself in a lot of trouble.

Over and out.

dckozak

Okay I’ll bite. I’m a former airline pilot. I haven’t bought training in years but have self funded family to get him along in the profession. I have the ability to do so, I understand many don’t. I don’t know who Meritize is and I’m guessing others currently on this board, reading your post, don’t either. Generic advice, don’t borrow money to learn to fly, if you must borrow to learn to fly, read carefully the Details of the terms on the loan. Avoid usery rates for a loan, something like 25%. Some schools offer access to credit, be wary, very wary of their term and what you have signed up for. Best bet if you are pay as you go, especially early on for the first license. Debt has sunk many people. It’s will follow you whether you succeed or fail. Be sure when you invest in yourself that you are heading toward a program that you can pay back your obligations.

MLCCPilot

I looked into them when I started training, their rates we not very good I think around 17% at the time. Additionally they make you pay off one loan before you get another. You take a loan for PPL and then have to completely pay it off before getting another for Instrument. This isn't helpful if you want to get done quickly.

FlightDawg47

I know it's been a while since you posted, but I was going to use Meritize. On the surface they seem pretty good. Once you get in the weeds things get hairy. First off, the rates are pretty ridiculous. When I first started looking at them for flight school the rate they were offering for a 20 year fixed loan was about 8% or so. Granted, that was right as we were coming out of Covid and interest rates were at record lows. Very quickly though that quoted rate went from 8% to 16% even though my credit score had actually gone UP in that time. I eventually took the leap and signed for a loan at 15.95% interest because I got into the Delta Propel Academy and was doing whatever I could to get financing for it. Sallie Mae wouldn't approve me without a cosigner, so Meritize was my only option. I ended up not starting because I was uncomfortable with the loan, so I tried to cancel the loan. Well come to find out, they made the first disbursement more than a month in advance of my start date without my knowledge. I am now over 6 weeks from my school sending them the refund and they still have not credited it to my account. So I have now accumulated over $2,000 in interest on a loan that should've been refunded when I owed less than $500 in interest. Their excuse is that it takes 30-45 days to process a refund (BS), but I'm now past 45 days and still haven't gotten a refund. So like any other loan company, they are absolutely not trustworthy and horrible to deal with and will extort as much money from you as possible.

Now as far as your specific questions, you can make payments in advance with no penalty. You can pay it off early with no penalty. But every loan company lets you do that. Don't know about refinancing with them or how easy it would be to get a deferment or forbearance, although they say you can. You make no payments in school and only have to pay $150/month for up to 2 years while working as a CFI. Once you submit a formal application with them, you will get a document that shows each period of repayment (In School, CFI, Full Repayment) with your monthly payment and how much interest will accrue in that period.

They adjust the variable rates every 3 months. They calculate it on a base rate + the 1 month CME SOFR rate. If I remember correctly, the rate ceiling is 29.99% so that made it an instant no for me. I would only consider a fixed rate loan from them, especially with how much rates have been going up. They'll find a way to get your rate as close to the ceiling as possible.

Bottom line, they have a lot that sounds good, but once you look into it some more it's not as good. No payments in school and $150 monthly payments as a CFI are great, but you will very much pay for that later. I would avoid them if at all possible. Their customer service is terrible, and the people who answer the phones for them know next to nothing. I really don't think those people are trying to hide or withhold anything from you. I truly believe they don't know the answer to what you're asking because the company doesn't want them to know. Sallie Mae or ZuntaFi would both be better options. You'll probably have higher payments while you're working as a CFI, but it'll be a much better long-term decision.