Re paying up front with credit cards in case it all goes belly up. Good advice in the UK, but if you use a UK credit card to buy anything overseas (including flight training) then you may well have some real problems getting anything out of the credit card companies. Something about some interpretation of whichever law it is that covers this stuff that the banks say means UK only, and everyone else says means anywhere.
No idea about any of this with non-UK cards.
And Richard, I'm not having a pop at your advice, all your posts I've seen have all been straight good advice - just something you might not be aware of.