Tigerair is now offering financing for your flight
Up to 12 months interest-free for some fares.
Yes, it's an odd move for an airline that's famed for sub-$30 sale fares, but Tigerair is now offering the option of interest-free financing to pay off more expensive flights.
If your flight costs more than $250, you can get up to 6 months interest-free to pay off that fare through Latitude Financial Services. If you spend more than $500, the interest-free period extends to 12 months. The fare total can include baggage, seating choices and on-board meals as well as the flight itself. Latitude's Gem Visa, GO MasterCard, CreditLine and Buyer's Edge products are eligible for the offer.
Choosing the "interest-free" option does incur a $10 surcharge from Tigerair at the time of booking. Tigerair's launch release suggests that this might be a cheaper option than paying credit card surcharges, but that's only true if the flights are particularly expensive, or if you're booking for a large number of people at once.
Under Tigerair's recently updated credit card surcharge structure, what you pay depends on which card you use. Using a Visa credit card, which attracts a 1.33% surcharge, any flight under $753 will have a surcharge that's less than $10. Of course, you'll also incur interest on that charge if you don't pay it off straight away, unless your card has a 0% interest offer. (Tigerair also offers PayPal, but that incurs a $4 surcharge so it's often not the cheapest option either.)
Picture: Angus Kidman
