Do I have to attend meetings or can all this be done over the phone ?

While you are welcome to make an appointment to visit in person, if travel is difficult or you live some distance away, in uncomplicated cases, all initial work can be done by correspondence, email, and telephone calls.  Insolvency Practitioners' professional guidelines require that potential IVA clients must have discussed their situation with the practitioner himself or with an appropriately qualified colleague of his, and to have received and confirmed in writing receipt of an advice booklet before any work is undertaken on the case.

Although the IVA process does involve holding a creditors' meeting, these days creditors have seen so many IVAs that they don't actually attend meetings in person, they give their voting instructions by fax just before the meeting, particularly in consumer debt cases.  You won't therefore need to attend the meeting but should be available on the end of a phone on the day of your meeting, as if creditors put forward modifications these will need to be discussed with you before the IVA can be approved.