I just talked to BOA today regarding the AOPA flight training fund deal and it was a joke. I have a bit of debt from my PPL and a car loan and the best they can do is 17.99% for 8 years.
They said if I got rid of the CC debt I could go as low as 10.99%
I am still considering it, if I can get a rate below 8%. I know many people on here will say pay as you go, pay as you go. However, with todays rates it costs 1,000 for 6 hours with an instructor. That is 4 weeks of training if you fly one time for 1.5 hours and have zero ground time. I dont know about most people on here but I dont have 1200 or so dollars I can just pay to the flight school every month. On top of that, since I am working on the IR rating I need to build time. The 35 hours I need in XC time will run 3500 minimum, more like 4000 though.
At that rate, it will take 3 years to finish up my Comm and who knows where prices will be for an instructor and renting at that point. I would rather take a loan out, pay as much as I can every month to paying it down while flying as much as I can at night. Keep working my day job, do any flying I can for hire on weekends and nights, if that is even possible and pay down my debt at todays rates, not tomorrows.
When the industry rights itself, I should have most of the debt if not all of it paid off. I can then get my CFI and do that until I have the hours.