Good evening,

I am hoping someone may be able to advise me on what is becoming a very difficult situation.

I apologise in advance for the long post but I need to explain the background for it to make sense.

I have always wanted to be a pilot and following many years of hard work,

I was offered a conditional job as a private jet pilot with NetJets Europe in 2008 on their cadet pilot programme.

The condition was that i successfully completed the pilot training course at Oxford Aviation Academy.

I would then be taken on full-time within 3 months of finishing the course on a salary of around £50k.

At the time, the only bank offering budding pilots a loan to do this course was HSBC

and they worked closely with the flying school to ensure that all the successful applicants

(who were not fortunate enough to have a spare £68,000)

- were directed through their doors in order to take out a loan.

There were two products offered by HSBC- self sponsored and sponsored.

If you applied to the flying school with no job offer and with the intention of finishing the course

and then sending out your CV you were classed as self-sponsored

and you could borrow £50,000 over 10 years with no payments until 3 months after finishing the training.

If you had a job offer from NetJets like I did then you were classed as sponsored and they tailored a product specifically for this.

You could borrow £60,000 but only over 6 years as the salary was high in comparison to the mainstream pilot jobs with RyanAir for example.

So £60,000 over 6 years it was and my business plan was submitted.

This business plan contained three outcomes....

1) I complete the course successfully, get the job and repay the loan.

2) I suffer a medical condition out of my control and lose my medical - Insurance was in place to cover this.

3) I fail the course and cannot take the job -

I would return to the world of sales until I could afford to successfully finish the failed sections and apply for a mainstream pilot job.

What actually happened could not have been planned for...

Half way through our training course in May 2009 (and after the recession hit),

we were told that NetJets could not honour their initial commitment of taking us on within 3 months of finishing the course as business had dipped.

Instead they would give us two options,

leave with small lump sum and continue the training course as a "self-sponsored" student

or they would put us on a long term leave contract where we would be paid a stepped down salary

and we would be taken on within 3 years.

During this time we did not have to keep our flying licenses current as they would provide re-training

and we had to seek written permission to work elsewhere in another flying job.

I opted for long term leave and immediately contacted HSBC to notify them.

Despite telling me (at the time they were selling me the loan) that they had a good understanding of the aviation market

and could be flexible to accommodate unforeseen circumstances,

they said it was far too early to do anything about it

and to contact them 1-month prior to payments starting!!

Payments were due to start in June 2010 at £979 per month

and my first contact was made in May 2009 to notify them of what was happening.

Not wanting to leave it until the last minute, I contacted them again in November 2009

and February 2010 to be told the same - wait until 1 month prior.

I had requested that they stretch the terms of the loan from 6 years to 10 years like the self sponsored students

which would make the payments manageable and was told this should be fine but couldn't be looked at until 1 month prior.

When I contacted them in May 2010 as requested, they decided they needed time to look into it

and suggested that I defer my payments for a further 6 months to start in December 2010!

- it was again mentioned that extending the terms shouldn't be an issue.

despite agreeing to defer for another 6 months, they tried to take the first payment in June

and then admitted an error followed by a refund which left a yellow mark on my credit file that remains to this day.

I then heard nothing until October when a lady called to check I was ready to start making payments at £979 in December.

I told her that I was awaiting them to look into extending the terms and no,

I wouldn't be in a position to start payments as my salary was only a fraction of what it was meant to be had I been working full-time.

She advised me that there was no way the bank could extend terms, it would never have been an option

and the bank have helped as much as they can by agreeing to defer payments for a further 6 months!!!

- This was their request not mine!

The debate went on for several months, I

started payments at the full amount but continued to explain

that I would end up in financial hardship should they not help me.

In the end I was advised by the bank to fall into arrears by 1 month in order for collections team to get involved

as they had more power to assist me.

This seemed ridiculous so I contacted the Ombudsman.

They agreed with the bank and advised me to do the same..

. fall behind 1 month and let the collections team help me.

Collections agreed to freeze my arrears and let me pay a reduced amount for 12 months

but this didn't help as my reduced salary would be for up to 3 years.

This was the most they could do apparently.

I was now a month in arrears, two yellow marks on my credit file

and facing the prospect of payments returning to £979 at a time when my salary was being stepped down.

In the following months I was fortunate enough to receive a small amount of inheritance from a family member which enabled me to pay the arrears and get back on track as I was now in my final year and would return to work in June 2013 on full salary.

Then in June, days before I should have returned to work, I was made redundant.

Leaving me with £35,000 left to pay HSBC, lapsed licences which would cost at least another £5,000 to resurrect

and therefore no chance of finding another flying job.

I have struggled over the last 12 months and managed to keep my payments going by starting my own business

but growing a new business with no money is extremely difficult therefore I have slowly drifted back into the realms of financial hardship

with nothing left in my overdrafts.

Having got nowhere with the bank the first time round and even less joy from the financial ombudsman,

I wondered if anyone could suggest anything else to try?

The loan is secured on my parents house so you can imagine the stress and worry I have at the moment.

Sorry for the long winded post but without the background, it wouldn't make any sense.

Kind regards

Richard

Good morning Richard, welcome to CAG.

A complicated situation, the main worry being the fact this loan is secured on your parents property.

I think you will have to attempt another " negotiation" with the bank, perhaps trying to talk to a more

senior bank officer.

It does seem as though the bank has gone back on a number of its original promises.

Was the loan described as a "personal" loan or a business loan?

I'm sure others here will have some more suggestions.

Have an income & expenditure calculation ready for any meeting, so you know exactly how much you can reasonably afford to pay each month

My loan account used to be looked after by the underwriting department but I have noticed that this particular team has been disbanded and my loan sort code has reverted back to the Oxford branch where I initially signed for it.

I'm not sure who I would need to speak to regarding this matter, the branch bank manager? my local branch manager? someone senior in the underwriting department?

I'm not willing to go through all of this again at a low level where i'm going to get fobbed off with someone who doesn't understand the situation, nor has the capacity to help me. I understand that modern banking is all done by computer systems but there has go to be a human being somewhere in the chain who has the authority to look at this on an individual basis and realise that they are making life very difficult through no fault of my own.

If they extend the terms, we both win. They make more in interest over the term and I have manageable payments. It just doesn't make sense.