..I still do not agree with paying those amounts of money to agencies. It is however not unusual for agencies to ask for a small fee where they SHOULD state what the fee is for (i.e. admin costs), but an agency should take a percentage from what you earn, and not generally ask for that sort of money upfront. From what I have read Harry, this agency seems dodgy and unorganised to say the least, and I think we need to be very careful when approaching agencies asking for large amounts of money upfront.