We applied to Churchwood Financial and they want us to pay £395 when we send our forms back is this normal. They also told us to stop paying all our creditors is this correct.
A lot of IP firms ask their clients to send the first payment with the IVA documents, and so long as this is refundable to you if the IVA is not accepted it appears to be in order.
I think that they ought to have explained to you that you could stop your payments to creditors, but also continue to make small token payments as well if that suited you better. I do not feel it is right for an IP to specifically instruct payments to creditors to stop.
I'm constantly being bombarded with calls and texts from Churchwood - personally I wouldn't go with them - surely a reputable company wouldn't keep hassling for business. I'm with Payplan and they have provided a great service so far and no fees were required upfront.
