You don't have to pay, There is a free accelerator you can use which is viabtc and most helpers who charges bucks are probably just using free accelerators like that one.
Here's the link:https://pool.viabtc.com/tools/txaccelerator but it has a 100 transaction limit per hour so you should submit your Transaction ID at exactly XX:00:00.
I'll try submitting your TXID in the next hour. Successfully added to their queue, expect a confirmation in the next block they mine
https://pool.viabtc.com/pool/BTC/state
And about the Bitcoin Cash thing, I'm not sure but it can just be another bug on their side again because lately a lot of users has been reporting unknown bugs which have also existed in the past (I found similar threads last year) which probably means that blockchain.info haven't fixed it until now
Anyways, You can most likely access all your BCH if you import it into another wallet like
Electron CashNote that you must have your backup phrase for this.
Since it's a fork version of electrum, It should have the same process so you can use the below tutorial: