Some banks will still provide professional studies loans to pilots. I was in Bournemouth doing the ATPL theory a couple months back and I know of one person who got a loan and another who was in the process of applying. Both fixed wing admittedly - the girl who got it had to do a lot of paperwork filling out forms, writing business plans etc, but I understand she got quite a bit. Enough to pay for a fair chunk of the course from PPL to fATPL.
I rememeber her mentioning something about how disorganised the banks seemed. One branch would tell her one thing, then another would tell her something completely different. Think the one she got it with was HSBC. Hope that helps!