Hi all, I would like some advice for a secured loan that was taken out by my ex-husband before coincidentally divorcing me a few months later. The loan was taken out in October 2007 and now over 10 years later i have been paying and the balance has only reduced by £200! I am extremely struggling with this and need to get this debt resolved as soon as possible can anyone please offer me some advice and guidance i have attached the enclosed paperwork. Information: My ex-husband never made a payment on the loan and was never on the mortgage or house documents, the house is in my sole name bought before marriage, i have told paragon to find him for payments however they are not interested and keep threatening to reposess should i not pay them £233 per month. Doc3.pdf

Hi Peeps can anyone confirm if they actually buy the debts or just attempt collecting ? For credit cards on following :- Lloyd’s HBOS I should’ve asked before sending CCA’s yesterday - schoolboy error ( still learning ) Thanks

Please can some one help, we had a paragon loan in 2003 for 60k, we repaid it early 2004, but were charged 11k ppi. Paragon have told us as they were not regulated then they will not be giving us anything back, please can someone advise?

Hi, Wonder if someone can point me in the right direction. Back in December 2004 (Paragon have quoted Feb incorrect below copy of their letter) my wife and I took out a £20k loan, and this loan had the mandatory PPI of £7k on the paperwork. With news of the Plevin judgement I approached Paragon and they have said the are unable to uphold my complaint and if unsatisfied to approach the Ombudsman. Is there anything I can do? can I even ask for the commission rate of the PPI? any help much appreciated Many thanks, Dusty Our investiqation ln the case of Plevin v Paragon Personal Finance [2014], the Supreme Court indicated that commission in some circumstances could result in an unfair relationship between the lender and the consumer, under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (Act). However, for the unfair relationship provision of the Act to apply, the Credit Agreement had to have been taken out on or after 6 April 20A7 or, for an agreement taken out before 6 April 2007 and be ongoing as at 6 April 2008. As your loan was taken out on 13 February 2004 and was redeemed on 23 January 2006, your complaint is considered ineligible under the Plevin judgement. Our decision. Based on the above information. I am unable to uphold your complaint. Whilst I appreciate this may not be the response you had hoped for, under the terms of our complaints procedure this is our final response. You may have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge - but you must do so within six months of the date of this letter. Paragon PPI letter 250118.pdf

I posted a while ago that I had written to Paragon about PPI I had taken out in 1989 with my National Home Loans mortgage, to be fobbed off and told I should take it up with the financial broker. "We realise this may be a disappointment to you". The financial adviser happened to be a friend of a friend at the time, and I've found him on Facebook. He seems to be doing very well ("one of the UK’s best-known bankers" ) so I wouldn't feel bad if the PPI was to come out of his pocket, although I doubt that would be the case? Would any of you kind and knowledgeable folk have any advice as to how I should proceed? Thanks

I won't go into details, but 10 years ago i was in financial straits and ended up with a ccj for a personal loan. i offered, and the court accepted a payment of £10.00 per month. as i began to get straight i voluntarily increased this to £20.00. hoping to clear it quicker. the loan company( universal credit) was then taken over by paragon finance who continued to accept the £20.00. I have received a letter from them saying it had been passed on to another company. the letter they sent me showed a balance owing of nearly £6,000. as the original ccj was for only £3,000 and i have always paid every month, i can only assume they have been charging me interest, without informing me. Are they within their rights to do this? is there anything i can do about it? by the way, the new company want me to take out a secured loan to pay them off.

Good evening. Summary I have recently paid off a secured loan with Paragon Finance and this contained PPI; the loan was brokered by Click Financial Limited. After reading many threads I opted to complete a claim back using the forms provided on this site, this I did in January. Paragon have replied recently to say they do not wish to handle the claim as it is before 14Jan05. They have also indicated the business who handled my application, one Click Financial Limited, is no longer trading. I have been advised to direct my enquiry to the CAB, after two sessions of over 20mins on hold I have given up and opted to try for some advice on here. I have checked Duedil etc and it appears Click Finance are dissolved, an associated business with same directors to this was wound up in January 2013. Can you tell me if I can progress this claim in any way? Surely Paragon have a responsibility for their intermediaries / introducers activities (ie ensuring they do not miss sell).. My letter from Paragon states it will be their last correspondence on the matter. Any assistance on next steps to recover the PPI would be greatly appreciated. The secured loan was repaid in Aug2012, this was ten years early and the PPI (£4k) was a lump sum added to the loan for the duration. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks, Area51

Hi all I'm after some urgent help please. My ex partner and I took out a secured loan with Paragon a few years ago to cover some debts we had. Then we split up and I took over the loan so that I could keep the house. Everything was going fine, even when I lost my job in 2011 as I walked straight into another one so could keep up the monthly repayments. Then in Feb 2012 I lost my job and couldn't make the payments, so I was making token payments each month of £10 or £20 depending on savings against the monthly due of £156. I applied for help from DWP with my mortgage and my loan and at first they said no to to the loan but then agreed to make payments to the loan but only of about £11 a week. I have been suffering from depression for about 2 years and battled alcoholism on and off for nearly 10 years. I've also been receiving bereavement counselling following the death of my mum in Nov 2011. At first I used to talk to Paragon on the phone and I regularly completed their income/expenditure forms and they seemed ok but acknowledged that my debt was increasing. Unfortunatley recently I've buried my head in the sand over it and ignored their calls as I got more and more depressed about applying for lots of jobs and not getting an interview or getting to the interview stage feeling pretty confident but then getting turned down. Last week they sent me a letter saying that they may pass my account to a their field agent to call from Excel Counselling Services.. .I know that this is just a posh word for a bailiff! Today he knocked at my door whilst I was out getting electric put on my key card and he put a note through the door. The letter doesn't mentioned the amount that is outstanding but I think it's around £2k. His note is all friendly about we need to talk about it or he'll have to tell Paragon he's not talked to me and I could risk losing my home. Can I send him the following letter? Dear Sirs, Re: Account reference Paragon Personal Finance Ltd................ I refer to your visit dated 18th February 2013 informing me that your company has been instructed by Paragon Personal Finance Ltd to visit me, in respect of arrears on the above mentioned account. The purpose of this letter is to advise your company that I believe that my circumstances fall within the category as contained within the National Standards for Enforcement Agents of “vulnerable situations”. The reason for this is that not only am I a person who has suffered a bereavement in the family with the death of my mother in November 2011, for which I am receiving counselling for. I am also currently unemployed having lost my job and am in receipt of benefits. I am also receiving treatment from my GP for depression and alcohol dependency. Accordingly, I would like to request that you do not visit my property again as this would cause undue stress and anxiety. Instead, I would like to request that you return this case back to Paragon Personal Finance Ltd. I would be grateful if your office could confirm safe receipt of this letter, and confirmation that the case has been returned to Paragon Personal Finance Ltd. I am copying this letter to Paragon Personal Finance Ltd. Yours Faithfully I was also going to send the letter to Paragon, along with another income and expenditure form and a cheque for about £20 with an offer to keep paying £10 a month by dd. Is that ok? Should I be doing something else? He says in his letter he's going to come back so I was hoping to get the letter in the post to him today to stop him calling again as my Dad is coming to see me tomorrow and I really dont want him to get dragged into this and I've recently started seeing someone who I really like and I'd be really embarrassed if he turned up whilst he was here. Please help, I'm now sat in tears as I'm scared that I fought my ex really hard to get the house and stop him taking it over with the woman he left me for, and now i'm scared I'm going to end up homeless. I hope this all makes sense. thanks Mary

Hi all hope you can help. I took out a paragon finance secured loan in 2006 for 63k I still owe around 43k after 10years of paying £737 pound per month. I am now struggling to pay BUT have not yet missed a payment throughout the term of the loan. Can anyone please give me some advise as this loan is killing me and putting a holt on my life. The loan was originally taken out with myself and my ex wife. She left in 2007 and has never paid a penny towards the loan. I want to stop paying the loan as I have paid circa 88k over the last 10 years way over paying loan. Any help really really really appreciated.

Paragon_CCA.pdfHi, Was wondering if anyone could take a look at the attached CCA to see if it is legal, I've had this loan for three years now and it's crippling me... Paragon_CCA.pdf Any help greatly appreciated. Best. Eoghan Paragon_TsandCs.pdf

Last year we had a successful claim for the PPI on this account, the story is in my thread at http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?324408-PPI-Paragon-and-eLoan(Twopart-Ltd)-***-SUCCESS-*** OK, quick explanation. In early 2006 we took out a consolidation loan, paying back several old debts and having a small sum to ourselves to have some urgent work done in the bathroom, everything in there was broken! The company who brokered the deal went bust, hence claiming the PPI via FSCS last year. Paragon have been a pain in the rear as they started repossession proceedings last year because we were in arrears. We borrowed some money to bail ourselves out of that and when we got the PPI we paid them another lump sum, as well as paying the family member back we'd borrowed from to take the case out of court. The PPI only ever covered the first 5 years of a 10 year term, and only ever covered my wife's employment, never myself. Even if we had not reclaimed this, it would have been useless by now anyway. I had gone through several periods of having to work without pay, or only part time, for a few years. This was to set up a community project which eventually went full-time in late 2009 and I actually got full time pay for a year too. But, that ended in September 2011 when the funding ran out again. I found myself unemployed and falling into serious ill health. I'm now in receipt of ESA and DLA and classed as disabled, I have COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), which means it's not curable, I'll be stuck with it for the rest of my life. My chances of employment are slim as I can hardly get out of the house. Paragon have been made aware of this and have had I&E details, but have again taken the court route for repossession. I had to attend a hearing earlier this month. Thanks to being out in the cold air I was then struck with pleurisy, which has limited me for the last three weeks as the antibiotics and steroids do their stuff. The hearing was adjourned as they had failed to serve some paper or other. It's been rescheduled in April. So, Paragon annoyed me enough that I started to look at their paperwork. I also consulted an old thread - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?171037-Multiple-agreements-falling-within-section-18-CCA-1974 (WARNING: 107 pages !). I realised that their 'unregulated' agreement was actually wrong, under the CCA it should have been multiple agreements. Added to which was the PPI and a selection of unlawful charges they've thrown into the pot over the years. Paragon have not submitted a copy of the agreement as part of their court case so I've taken the view that I should ask why they are taking action against me. The agreement is unenforceable and flawed. How can they impose 'arrears', 'balance' and other terms ? I realise that there is a danger of taking this route. Judges have been know to ask the simple question' did you have the money' and I would answer yes, we did. However, we are not looking at debt evasion here. The loan we had was £25,500, we've paid them over £34,000 to day, that's over 133% return they've had and I object to giving them any more, now that I am aware of the dodgy agreement. So, I've written to the solicitors acting for Paragon and told them how I see it inviting them to withdraw the case and send me a letter to say they've closed the account. Nothing like making it simple for them to understand what I'd like them to do. A previous SAR brought only limited information, no copies of letters Paragon claimed they had sent, no information about why they made two doorstep visits they charged me for, no information on the broker used or their fees either. I told them at the time that I considered the SAR insufficient, but (as usual) I never got a reply. From what I've read on S18, we had a mixture of restricted use and unrestricted use. Indeed a list was drawn up by Paragon for the cheques to be raised and issued by them. As neither exceeded £25,000 I have declared the 'unregulated agreement' to be at fault. Paragon have tried to tell me that they will take away the home I have lived in for the last 17 years. My wife and her daughter have lived here for 30 years. I cannot help my medical condition, it has been verified by doctors and even ATOS. We have struggled to survive since I lost my income. They have been calling and leaving message daily, despite being told that we will not discuss anything by telephone, we want it all in writing so there's no trying to make out we said anything we didn't. Too right I'm going to stand up to them ! In February 2011 Paragon took a much higher DD than normal, which prevented other bills being paid from the bank account. A letter arrived afterwards, thanking us for agreeing to the new amount. We never agreed to anything, so we clawed the payment back via the bank and cancelled the DD. We paid the amount we normally paid at the time and lodged a complaint with Paragon. Despite reminders they have failed to respond to the complaint and I put the account into dispute pending this being resolved. It never has been. Thanks to having some time on my hands to do a lot of reading, I'm convinced that Paragon don't actually have a valid agreement on which to claim anything. They've taken court action when there is a dispute pending, as well as being ignorant of many letters sent to them. I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts on potential brick walls I may hit here? I am only following what I believe to be correct and I am quite prepared to explain this to a judge if the case is not withdrawn. Remember, we have already reclaimed the PPI on this account successfully. Had it not been for the negative side of unenforceable agreements being well documented here, I had even thought of suggesting that Paragon may like to pay back the £34,000 they've had off us so far...

I have a loan with this company and don't receive payments. Ive made payments for 15 years at least how do I get a statement. Can someone help

We have a Paragon secured loan and were told we couldnt have it without PPI. I wrote to them about it and was told I would have to contact my PPI company direct. This was news to me because I thought all my dealings were done direct with Paragon and I certainly did not employ my own company. I have no idea what to do now. Can anyone help please. It was a very large loan and the PPI adds up to about ten grand not to mention any interest on it as it was all front loaded. I dread the interest rates going up. Help !

Hi, I am having to repost this as I cannot seem to find my last post on this To cut a long story short I have had a debt with Paragon (Universal Credit) which started approximately 18 year ago. It was for £5000 over 84 months. The debt is now over £17,000 which is something I could never pay back. I am still paying this off today as I lost my job back then & also divorced (this was a joint debt). I have recently decided to get this debt sorted once and for all due to them calling me saying my payment are late even thought its been on the same date for over 6 years and they are now charging me for calls and letters. I am paying £30pm + what every my ex is paying (if she is indeed still paying) I have been told on here to stop paying as this would not make it to court, but I am a little apprehensive in doing so before I am 100% sure on where I stand. I have sent a SAR which was posted 8 working days ago and they have had this letter 7 working day now. Attached is my credit agreement which I managed to get off them a few years back. This was a singled sided photo copy. Thanks

phew, started at about 10.00pm and finally got here to post after reading through all the threads. I took out a secured loan with Paragon that was signed off by a Paragon underwriter on 17/01/05 and was to consolidate credit debt that my wife and I had stacked up across a few years and due to a variety of reasons. The principle loan was £35k gbp and the ppi was £8.7k gbp and being of the front loaded type where the policy was valid for the first five years. I had initially made enquiries via a search engine the previous year, round about October 2004. I responded to a marketing call by Loanline who said that they could get me a loan and after taking details came back with an offer from Paragon round about mid December. I completed a loanline application form (07/12/04) but this was not a credit agreement and was where we could provide income and expenditure details. A subsequent Paragon credit application was completed and returned just before Xmas 04 however the loan was declined as it was actually insufficient to clear our credit debts. A second application was submitted 12/01/05 and this was followed by a call from Paragon on the 17/01/05 and the loan was agreed and signed off on this date. Last year I became aware of the PPI issue and wrote to Paragon who denied liability for the PPI element and referred me to Loanline. I found out from FOS that Loanline had ceased trading and was redirected to FSCS. Forms were duly completed and submitted to the FSCS via Deloitte in September 2012 who verified and agreed that we met all eligibility including the effective date of 17/01/05. The FSCS cover for this type of PPI came into effect on 14/01/05 so two days after I signed my application form but three days before the credit agreement came into effect. The FSCS rejected the claim citing the date of advice as being effective from the 07/12/04 when the Loanline application form was completed. My argument is that the effective date should be 17/01/05 as this is when Paragon completed the credit application as is effectively incomplete until they counter signed. I have one opportunity to appeal and I want to ensure that I get this right and protest correctly. I have anonymously contacted the FSCS by phone and e-mail and been advised that the credit agreement date would be the effective date for the claim and that this would be the date that the credit agreement came into effect. I wonder if anyone else out there has had this kind of rejection and successfuly appealed the first decision or otherwise? Having also read the many threads about Paragon, wonder whether I should in fact be pursuing Paragon still? Currently there is a balance of £12k gbp including about £3.5k gbp arrears and Paragon have a suspended possession order as second mortgagee on the house. there should be 24 payments left to make. Circumstances are such that I need to get this resolved sooner rather than later as the last couple of payments have been withheld out of principle and Paragon are chasing hard for a new payment arrangement. Apologies this is so long but any help would be greatly appreciated. If I knew then what I know now I would not have taken out the loan as the last eight years have been purgatory and casued so much hardship and distress. yours humbly, Reklaw. :-x

I have a Gaget Insurance Policy for the iPhone in our household - this policy was offered by when taking out my household insurance, I asked at time what did it cover, having two older teens wanted to make sure they were included. Situation - just over a week ago my daughter discovered during the day that her phone was missing, she travels on London transport train and underground, she did the "find my phone" but no response. It is not known whether she was pickpocketed (it was in her side jacket pocket with slanted openings) or whether it was lost, if being the latter she would have heard it drop. I contacted the service provider to cancel the phone and then the next day went to local community police station, two older gentlemen on duty, very helpful though one was showing the other one the ropes, explained about phone and they completed the form, I repeatedly mentioned not known if pick pocketed. Send information to insurance company with proof of purchase, proof of bill, proof of police report and completed form. I called later that evening to ask if I get replacement and they reimburse or do they supply. I was told that my claim had been rejected due to the fact that I am not covered for Accidental Loss, I immediately emailed my response that this was not known whether Loss or Theft but the fact is I have cover for Accidental Loss and Theft. I was told that I do not. I have made a complaint to the insurance broker who are "looking into it", I have again received a letter telling me that my appeal is rejected due to the fact that the phone was lost! and that I do not have cover for this and if I believe I have been misadvised by Paragon then take it up with them. Paragon are looking into it - and in the mean time no phone! My Terms & Conditions clearly state both Accidental Loss and Theft.

Hi I had an unsecured loan with Paragon that I got into repayment problems with - it eventually ran from 1999 to 2009. I recently sent them a SAR in order to see exactly what I had paid and see whether I could reclaim any of it. I sent them two seperate claim spreadsheets. The first was a claim for PPI payments I had made. They have sent me a final response saying that as the PPI was taken out pre-2005, the industry was not regulated so there is no claim to be made. They have also said that as my loan was submitted to them by a broker (Personal Loan Centre Limited), they were not part to any conversations about insurance. They have said they would usually refer me back to the broker, but they are no longer trading. The second spreadsheet I sent them was a list of charges for telephone calls and letters that I asked them to pay back. Their final response to this says that the charges were debited to my account in accordance with the fee tariff at the time and they cannot reverse those fees. Do I have any additional options open to me now? Is it worth raising my payment fees claim with the fos and if so how do I go about this? As ever, thanks in advance for your help

Spent a long time getting this to the FOS complaint stage. Wrote to Paragon till I got their fob off letter then wrote to their broker till I got their fob off letter. Payments still being made to Paragon. However, now its with the FOS I have left it 6 months from the final fob off letter to getting it with the FOS and they want to know why there was a delay. I was intimidated by having to deal with 2 companies who have, after a long time, each said go away. I have also had alot of distraction from my mum who had a 3rd cancer scare which, after 2 large surgical procedures over the end of last year, Christmas and New Year, she has, thankgod, been given the all clear. Is this too weak an excuse to give the FOS for reasons for the delay?

Brief outline: I did an SAR on Paragon in January and have gone through it again today. I have noticed several amounts added for 'Admin Charge' ?, 'Cost's '? , Arrear Letter Fee, etc. I have added these up and although only around £120, i did a calculation on the interest at their rate (28.9%)at the time ( 1995) and the total comes to around £3k. Any advice on how to put a claim in for these charges and interest? thanks in advance DGS

Hello all, wondered if i could get some advice please? My parents took out an endowment mortgage with National Home Loans (now Paragon) back in 1985, they changed mortgage company some years later. They dont have any documents any more but i said to mum it might be worth seeing if there is any claim she could make on mortgage exit fees. They struggling financially at the time and she cant remember what fees etc they paid. I wrote on her behalf, no account number or anything just gave her name, address and year of mortgage and asked for exit fees refund. I thought it was a bit of a long shot but to my surprise got a letter today with a cheque for £40, which is fab! The reason im asking for advice is that they have written this covering letter: Thank you for your recent letter, regarding your request for a refund of fees incurred during the redemption of your loan has been reviewed in light of the recent statement made by the FSA. The statement made by the FSA however relates only to loans regulated by the FSA. Unfortunately your loan does not fall under the jurisdiction of the FSA and therefore there is no obligation to refund the amount requested. We regularly review the fee tariffs and the level of fees reflects the administrative and operational costs involved in servicing mortgage accounts. However as a gesture of goodwill we will refund the amount of £40 which equates to the amount charged at redemption of your loan. I'm just wondering why they would pay out a goodwill gesture if they didn't have to? Are they just being genuinely nice and she should think herself very lucky and take the cheque? Is it worth SAR-ing them to see if theres anything dodgy on the account? I dont know what exactly, just being a bit suspicious i guess Thank you

Hi, I have a secured loan with paragon and a mortgage with Nram totalling £161K. I owe Northern Rock £118K and I owe paragon £43K. I am struggling to pay them both every month. I am basically paying two mortgages and I can't cope anymore. I have already paid Paragon £38K over the last 7 years and still have a balance of £43K so £35K of that is interest alone. Our monthly income has dropped and we have accumulated arrears in gas, Electric, Council tax and water as well as other debts. We can't keep up repayments for much longer so I have had the house valued in the hope I could sell up, pay off Nram and Paragon and then rent somewhere to make life a little easier for us to cope financially but my house was only valued at £145K maximum. Has it ever been known for Paragon to accept a settlement? If I sold and paid back mortgage there would be about £20K left for paragon. I have already paid £38k so they would have more than recovered what we borrowed (£46K 7 years ago) I really need to find a way out before things get worse and if we get repossessed they could end up with less. Our unsecured debts total £39K so it's likely we will be made bankrupt which we want to avoid. I don't see any way out. I am at my wits end. My wife is frightenely depressesd with the strain of so much debt and I think she is close to a breakdown (seriously). can anyone offer any advice please. Thank you.

I recently via a SAR received a full statement of an account held with Universal Credit/Paragon Finance starting in 1993; the statements clearly show PPI payments every month from 1993 -2003. I put in a claim for the PPI being mis-sold on the grounds that I haad employer sickness cover, the true cost of the insurance was not explained, I was never asked if I had alternative insurance or that is was available elsewhere. The reply, which they state clearly is their final response, says "The sale of general insurance (including PPI) was not regulated by the FSA untill 14th January 2005. As the policy was taken out in 1993 it therefore falls in a non-regulated environment. This means the concept of an advised sale did not exist and such products were ofered on an information only basis ie the customer would be offered the product and would make the decision whether to take it or not. When you applied for the loan, the information relating to the insurance would have been provided in written form. There was no regulatory requirement to verbally discuss the details of the insurance at that time; the final decision to take out the insurance or not would have been your decision. We would also stress that the insurance was not a condition of the loan." They go on to suggest I refer to the Finance and Leasing Association is I am not satisfied with this reponse. The CCA agreement (from 1996, when the amount of the loan was increased, not the original 1993 one) sent in response to the SAR contains the amount of the monthy premium for the PPI, and an acknowledgement that the customer understsood the T7C's of the agreement,a nd this has my signiature. Is this a fob off, or are they right? Any suggetions about the next step?

Original Loan with Universal credit now paragon in 1990 CCJ was just under £5000 but with costs just bumped it over the £5000 and it states on the CCJ that contractual interest if over the £5000. Does the £5000 rule apply as the judgment states i should pay them £4900. I have been paying a small amount for 11 years as per the CCJ and never missed a payment, they have started hassling me again with letters showing a higher balance by about £5000 more than i owe and are requesting for me to ring them, i responded by sending a CCA and an SAR thanks to reading this forum. They have replied by sending an income and expendure form to fill out. Really need to know about the expenses which bumped it over the £5000 and what i should do now. Regards

Hi CAG, After too many years of letting this rumble on, I have finally resolved to sort out my account with Paragon. I took out a loan initially in 1993 for £5k, and a further £4k in 1996, which was made into one loan with a balance of £8500 in 1996. I had some trouble with repayments off and on between 1997 and 1999, and in 1999 entered into a Debt managemnt agreement (I can't recall the name of the company I used however), and maintained the agreed payments until 2003. On receiving a letter from Paragon in 2003, I was shocked to see that in spite of being 80% of the way through the repayment plan, the balance owed to Paragon was still £9k. In 2004 I had a home visit from them, and in that visit a repayment plan was arranged that would "cover the interest", and I have been maintaining those payments (£160pm) since. Not having the original documents, I submitted a SAR to Paragon, and this returned a copy of the 1996 loan agreement, and a full statement of my account since 1993. There was no mention of the home visit, or a copy of the form I remember signing then, nor was there any mention of the agreement with the debt management company; in their response to the SAR, Paragon state that anything that is held on "paper file or microfiche that is not a relevant filing system for the purposes of the (Data protection) Act" will not be included. The statement showed a current balance of £10800, so I need to know where to go from here. By my calculations the sum owed on a loan of 8500 at their APR (23%) over 5 years (the original terms) is about £14500; according to the statement I have paid them around £31k, with a balance of £10800. I appreciate I had a couple of problematic periods, and I am not trying to wriggle out of paying my dues, but the sums paid so far and the amount claimed to be outstanding are outrageous. While I have no written record of the home visit agreement, I distinctly remember the agent saying the payment of £160 would cover the interest and a small bit of the captial. However, the first interest charge form 2004 immediately following the visit was £190, so this agreement was, in their full knowledge, never going to do anything but accumulate the debt, which it did, leading to a balance of £14700 in 2010, when Paragon froze the interest on their own initiative, and in the 2 years since the balance has of course fallen to its current level - but only from the position that their lack of transparency allowed it to reach in the first place. There has also been PPI payed on the loan, all the way from 1993 to 2003. So: What do (can) I do about the balance outstanding? Is there any recompense for the amount I have overpaid to them? Is their withholding of information in response to the SAR justified? Do I have a chance of reclaiming the PPI? Many thanks! D

Hi Thanks for taking a look. Back in 1994 I took out a loan with my then partner for £5000 over 84 months with Universal Credit. A few years later I was made unemployed and also got divorced and as a result fell behind with the loan. From what I can remember both myself and my X made separate agreements to pay this back at a reduced amount. I also remember that interest would be frozen. Years passed then all of a sudden I get a letter and to my shock the debt is now over £17,000 I have always been making reduced payments on this account and I have written to them asking for a copy of the agreement and also a break down of all payments made to the account since it started. I have included any payment for this information so not sure if they will reply to me. I do have a one sided photocopy of the Flexiloan (no sure where I got this from) and have attached this (personal info has been removed) There is a Paycare insurance box which has my name in it. Is this PPI ? I am waiting for the break down on payments to I can work out how much has been repaid and will post that when I get it back. How long can Paragon keep chasing this debt ? can what I do to reduce this ridiculous amount as this is now a loan I would never be able to pay back. Are there ways to have this debt sorted so I am paying back a sensible amount with reflect the original loan amount. This debt is 18 years now and I would like to resolve it Many thanks for looking and any advice you can offer. J