Hmmmm, cash up front. No, no, no.
A few years back a neighbour of mine was telling me a tale of woe. He'd paid £3000 up front to a flying school (who shall remain nameless) and ,you guessed it, 7 hours into his flying the school went tits up. Further into the conversation he mentioned how large his credit card bill now was.
"Did you pay via credit card then?" said I.
"Errr yes" said he.
"No problem then, ring your credit card peeps & explain your situation. They've effectively lost their money to the flying school, not yours - you should get virtualy all your money back"
"Well b**gger me" he said. I declined.
He did get the balance of his £3000 back within a couple of weeks less an £80 admin fee and was an extremely relieved and grateful man.
Golden rule? Whatever you're buying, be it £3000's worth of flying lessons or a new sofa from from DFS, use the credit card!