To get finance I needed a loan, there was no chance in hell that the banks would give me one without security. I was 26 by this point, had worked from leaving school at 16 till 21, had a decent credit rating and a no debts other than my student loan as a maturish student.
Had to speak to a family relative who owned a flat in London, got 35K lent to me, secured on the family members property- awful thing to ask a loved one, but like you- I wanted it yesterday and was sure I would pay it back. Just about meeting repayments.
I did all my training modular, full time. I distance learned the ATPL exams, as I had studied most of these whilst at Uuni in some shape or from and didnt fancy sitting in a classroom for extended periods of time again, so I studied in the comfort of my own home and showed up for the exams after completing progress tests.
Im not going to go into my commercial history, because that is a different story. I just wanted to show you that modular is considerably cheaper. No one has ever turned their nose up at my method of training. Good luck with whatever you do, but just choose wisely, its all the same bits of paper in the end. Mattress in a house or cardboard box under a bridge? You decide....
One more thing to add, Im currently out of work at the moment, looking for ANY flying job. Cant get a look in because I have not got the minimum requirements, low houred, some multi engine turbine time but still nadda!! Integrated guys are in the same boat as me, hoping they will get plucked out a holding pool sometime soon (tic toc tic toc) times ticking away ratings are expiring- you know the rest.