Think too many marriages end up in divorce to say “I do?” Not everyone has given up on an everlasting marriage.
One startup company is willing to say “I do” in a huge way to couples about to take their vows by giving loans of up to $10,000 to put toward the wedding of their dreams. The catch? If they don’t get a divorce, the couples won’t have to pay back the loans.
The startup company, SwanLuv, believes “everlasting marriage should be rewarded.” According to UPI , the Seattle company will reward the couples with a free loan if they stay married to each other, but if the couples divorce, they must pay back the loan with full interest.
This type of loan is sort of like gambling on a marriage, but the company is sure it will see some numbers of divorce after so long to make some sort of a profit.
Right now, SwanLuv is taking applicationsfrom couples planning on marrying and not planning on divorce, according to Business Insider. SwanLuv takes the applications and makes decisions about the risks of each marriage based on an algorithm using online data. The company will then decide whether it wants to take a risk on the marriage and for how much. Couples may get a loan of up to $10,000.
Interestingly, the spouses who have ended their relationships in divorce and had to pay back the loans will end up funding new loans in new marriages.
“It comes back to statistics. We’ll have the right odds, so we’ll be OK. But they won’t be so crazy that no one wants to do it,” said SwanLuv CEO Scott Avy.
However, it’s not like SwanLuv wants couples to get a divorce. They want the each couple to avoid divorce, so they offer free marriage counseling to each couple who participates in the loan program.
Avy is planning on starting the loan program in February, just in time for wedding season next year. Right now, the company has to rely on outside sources to fund the new marriage loans.
The CEO wants future spouses to take a good look at their relationships before they take the plunge into a marriage.
He said, “It really depends on where you are in your relationship.I’m betting on my relationship I’ve established with my soulmate. It’s going to be a no-brainer for the ones it makes sense for.”
Of course, not all of the debt falls on both partners if certain things like abuse occur in the relationship which would end in a divorce. Geek Wire reports that there will be certain clauses to assist with special circumstances. If you plan to sign up for a shot at this particular loan, make sure you read the fine print just as you would for any other type of loan.
Avy has said, so far, there hasn’t been much criticism on his plans to gamble on a personal aspect of his client’s lives. He says that no one is forced to sign up and people are choosing to do it on their own; he’s only had positive responses so far.
According to statistics, at least some couples will divorce and the company will see profit because of the divorce rate, but it may take the company years to see any profit at all. Until then, the company is willing to wait it out and see how things go.
[Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images]