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[Wolfhead]

Hi,

 

I wonder if anybody can give some advice on this matter:

 

We've just discovered that our loan company never had a copy of the original agreement. We've successfully got the loan shut down but we'd like to take it further. Does anybody know what we can claim for? e.g. can we claim back any interest or penalty charges or anything at all?

 

Thanks.

[cerberusalert]

How long is a piece of string?

 

Obviously if you've had your 'loan shut down', you're not going to have the joy of DCA's beating a track to your door!

 

What you have to take into consideration is..How much was the loan for, how much you've paid & how much was owing?

 

Is it worth opening a can of worms?

[hisholinessthepope]

Wolfhead - unlike bank charges this is very new ground to tread.

 

Several people are looking at the possibility of claiming it all back or in the alternative the interest charges.

 

Myself I have been researching it all for several months and I think its possible but will be another couple of months before I might be ready to give it a go.

[Wolfhead]

HI,

 

Thanks both for your replies. Don't get us wrong we were really happy that our loan has been closed down.

 

The original loan was for £10,000 which we took out with Universal Credit we paid PPI on this as well. Due to redundancy & later maternity leave UC kindly suspended the interest on the account and credited the account with £5650. Universal credit were then bought by Paragon Finance in 1998 they automatically added this "suspended interest" back to the account in 1999 without informing us or anything. For this £10,000 loan we have paid a total of £27,000 (due to their ridiculous interest rates on our reduced payments) and before we challenged them they were asking for another £10,000.

 

So now you can see why we are still bitter and want to do something about it! I think for the amount we have paid them we deserve some of that back, even if it's only the Suspended interest and further charges.

 

This is what Head of Customer Relations said when they decided to close the account.

 

"Unfortunately, we have been unable to locate the loan agreement for your account. It would appear that your loan agreement was not transferred to Paragon when we purchased your loan from Universal Credit in 1998.

 

In the circumstances, and having regard for your payment record, I have decided to close your loan down. "

 

Any advice? If we stop here with just the loan closure they are the winners really considering the amount we have paid them.

 

Thanks.

[pt2537]

Hi,

i think you may need to read this thread by tomterm8 http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/112860-will-you-get-payments.html

 

it may answer your questions, or some of them atleast

 

 

regards

paul

[hisholinessthepope]

Wolfhead only you can decide what if any further action you wish to take. Certainly reading the threads of people in a similar position will help. The main thing is time is on your side, you don't have to start it all off now or next week, etc.

 

Why not make a start with a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act for all the information they have on you. Will only cost you £10 and the information they send, you will need later anyway. Plus its nice to know exactly what they do and do not have! Also as they have 40 days to reply you get plenty of time to start research and considering what if anything your going to do.

[Wolfhead]

Hi again,

 

We actually complained to Trading Standards about Paragon and I think it's because the TS person in Solihull (where Paragon are based) contacted Paragon with our complaint and this made Paragon realise they were in the wrong and so decided it best to close the account.

 

We are going to put all our complaints down in writing to TS and maybe they can help us decide if we have a case or not.

 

We do have a statement from February this year but we've made more payments into the account since then so I will send them a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) too.

 

Thanks

[shane5408]

Restitution is a tricky field, especially when applying unjust enrichment principles. I would definitely recommend reading Tomterms post if you haven't already, gives a synopsis of what you can realistically expect. If it was a case of they have an agreement which is imporperly executed or lacking precribed terms then it's a different story. In this case though they have admitted that no agreement exists. First thing to do is send a SAR, find out all the info the hold on you, then we can look at getting some of the interest paid back possibly.

 

regards,

shane

[Wolfhead]

Hi there,

 

Following on with this post. We actually complained to Paragon about their dealings with our account (where £5000+ suspended interest was added back onto our account). Now they are offering us £1000 as a gesture of goodwill (they also closed the account a few months back).

 

I guess this is the best we're going to get out of them - do you think we should accept or try and get more?

 

Thanks

[hisholinessthepope]

Hmm most interesting! There is only one reason they are offering £1,000 and have closed the account. They want you to go away.

 

Only you can decide if this is tempting to you. The "rewards" could be much greater if you go after them but that is new ground and has risks and I would guess will take a long time.

 

If you decide that the £1,000 now is for you - have they made the offer in writing? Is there a timetable for them to pay? Have you requested that any defaults and credit reference records are removed?

[Wolfhead]

The offer was made over the phone but my husband has asked that we have it in writing and also that we require confirmation that any default notices or adverse comments Paragon has recorded on our credit reference file will be removed.

 

The chap at Paragon did say that if we could prove that Universal Credit agreed to suspend interest forever then they would consider giving us more back but we never did get it in writing - it was 8 years ago that this happened and we don't have any record of anything.

 

Paragon are really horrible people to deal with and don't usually budge so I think we should consider ourselves lucky to have managed to close the account and get £1000 compensation even though we have paid them an extortionate amount of money.

 

I really don't know whether to pursue this further or not.