New Company Helps Finance Vacations

Even for the most budget-conscious travelers, buying a plane ticket or springing for that beachside hotel can be devastating on the wallet.

But there might be a new trend in travel that will help ease the strain, at least temporarily, of buying that expensive plane ticket. Enter Airfordable, a new company that lets you finance your ticket if you can’t pay for it all at once.

According to Tech Crunch, the process for financing a flight goes like this: “Travelers find their preferred flight online (using any travel site they want) and upload a screenshot with their flight details. Once you are approved, the startup calculates a payment plan (up to 3 months) that starts with an upfront deposit and ends sometime before your flight takes off. And after your final payment Airfordable will email you a confirmed e-ticket for the trip.”

The downside, as expected, is there are pretty high fees involved. Fees run between 10 and 20 percent depending on demand, date of travel and ticket price. “Assuming a 3-month repayment period, a 20 percent fee is essentially an insane 80% APR,” says Tech Crunch.

At the same time, the program does not check your credit, so consumers who wouldn’t be able to get financing the traditional way—through a credit card—may benefit.

The company hopes to expand in the future to help finance other parts of trips, like tour packages and hotels.