Paragon Finance

[jamaicagirl]

Has anyone experience of dealing with Paragon Finance?

They took me to court when I defaulted on a personal loan.

Paying off reduced payments under a suspended attachment of earnings which has about 5-6 years to go. I have asked them to provide me with an early settlement figure. They have told me that what's outstanding under the judgement is separate to what is outstanding under the contract. So, to cut a long story short, at the moment they require about £30k to settle under the contract, plus of course what's under the judgement. Thing is, I don't know where they are getting this figure from under the contract. It appears to be increasing at the rate of between £750 - £1000 a month. By the time I pay off the money unde the judgement, the amount owing under the contract could be in excess of £100k. Incredible. I feel well and truly backed into a corner. Any help/advice?

[Rob S]

What was the amount that you borrowed and over how long a period did you take the loan out?

[jamaicagirl]

I borrowed £10k back in around 97.

It was originally with Unversal Credit but they got take over by PF.

I initially had the loan with UC for 5 years,but couldn't afford the repayment and asked them to extend the period to 10 years.

Am I in a mess?

[sequenci]

Some credit agreements allow a creditor to add contractual interest on to the amount of the county court judgment.

 

This has been confirmed as legally binding following a court of appeal case taken by the Office of Fair Trading against First National Bank. This means that, while you are paying the county court judgment, contractual interest may be charged on the amount that you still owe on the judgment. This may not be made clear to you by the creditor.

 

If this is the case, when you have paid the original balance owed on the judgment, you will find that you have an extra amount that you may still owe the creditor, even though the judgment has been paid in full. To force you to pay this, the creditor would have to take you to court again.

 

You can try to stop any contractual interest being added by asking the county court to make a 'time order'. If the court agrees to make the time order, it can revise the rate of payment and alter the rate of interest, from that which is written in the agreement to that which it thinks is just and fair.

 

The creditor may be a member of a trade association that has a code of practice. You may be able to use this to negotiate an agreed settlement on the interest. This might take the form of a complaint about unfair behaviour by the creditor. You might be able to use the OFT debt collection guidance too.

 

My advice would be to CCA the creditor and get someone in the legal profession to give the agreement the once over.

 

Paragon are notorious for doing this.

 

To my knowledge I don't think a creditor has ever gone to court over the the second amount owing.

[borisbeaver]

Watch out for these guys. If they agree to accept token payments, your interest won't be frozen, so a couple of years down the line, your loan will have doubled - at least.

[jamaicagirl]

This is what has happened. I'm of the opinion (and you can say it's burying my head in the sand) to carry on with the monthly payments for the next umpty-tump years and then see what happens. Personally I can't see how they could possibly hope to get any more money from me - you can't get blood from a stone. I just don't have this amount of money and I would not live long enough for them to get it as well!!

[sequenci]

check you PMs, i've sent you something to help you a little bit