Paragon Personal Finance

[sismile]

Anyone have any dealings with these?

 

In 1995 I took out a Universal Credit loan for £6000 with 60 payments of £145. I paid for a couple of years and run into problems. At this point the balance was £4000. I went to Cab who arranged for the interest to be frozen and payments of £10pm to be made. I kept up with these and was contacted by Paragon (who took over Universal Credit) who said if I paid £15 a month they would clear my credit file and not take any action against me. I kept these payments up for a year (plus the year at £10). I then discovered after paying £25 for my balance that I now owed £12,000 as they had been adding £200 interest a month and taking £15 from me.

 

I cut back on some other payments to pay more to Paragon, £147 a month. They said the interest would be cut to 12 percent, this still took up most of my monthly payments. I carried on paying at this rate until January 2007 when they offered a 6 percent interest rate if I paid £176 a month. To date I have paid £14,600.

 

Paragon have now contacted me again asking for more money otherwise they will increase the interest. They seem very unkeen on telling me how much I actually owe and have sent a form for me to accept my liability to them (they left the amount blank).

 

I feel I have been treated very poorly by them, they have lied many times about the interest rates and keep me in the dark about what I owe. I have already been paying this for 12 years and have paid back £8600 over what I borrowed and still owe goodness knows how many thousands or even tens of thousands.

 

I'm considering seeking legal help on this and would appreciate any advice.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Having_A_Knightmare]

firstly you need to send a CCA request to see if they are legally allowed to collect the debt.

THey have 12+2 days to produce one then the account goes into default. you can then stop payments and intrest has to stop.

 

This will give you some time to gather more info on the intrest.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/20758-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html

 

The letter you require is Letter N

 

Send the CCA letter to the DCA recorded delievery with a £1 postal order. Make sure you keep the receipt.

Do not sign the letter, sign it with a computer signature.

 

 

[PriorityOne]

Anyone have any dealings with these?

 

In 1995 I took out a Universal Credit loan for £6000 with 60 payments of £145. I paid for a couple of years and run into problems. At this point the balance was £4000. I went to Cab who arranged for the interest to be frozen and payments of £10pm to be made. I kept up with these and was contacted by Paragon (who took over Universal Credit) who said if I paid £15 a month they would clear my credit file and not take any action against me. By 'phone, by any chance ?... I kept these payments up for a year (plus the year at £10). I then discovered after paying £25 for my balance that I now owed £12,000 as they had been adding £200 interest a month and taking £15 from me.

 

I cut back on some other payments to pay more to Paragon, £147 a month. They said the interest would be cut to 12 percent, this still took up most of my monthly payments. I carried on paying at this rate until January 2007 when they offered a 6 percent interest rate if I paid £176 a month. To date I have paid £14,600.

 

Paragon have now contacted me again asking for more money otherwise they will increase the interest. 'Phone or letter ?They seem very unkeen on telling me how much I actually owe and have sent a form for me to accept my liability to them (they left the amount blank). DO NOT SIGN OR FILL THIS IN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES !

 

 

CCA request as advised.... by rec. delivery... encl. a PO for the £1 fee.... keep the receipt.... and don't sign it. Print a sig. in block caps. or something....

[PriorityOne]

After giving your thread a quick re-read, it seems that Paragon are trying to get you to sign an Agreement with them now. Your original Agreement was not with them however... it was with Universal Credit. This is the one that they will need to locate in order to legally chase you for payment.

 

If they don't have it.... then it's bye bye Paragon.

 

[sismile]

Paragon called me on Sunday (yes, Sunday) and no doubt charged me £20 for it.

 

They are saying that they will only accept payments of £212 a month as a "reduced" payment. My original credit agreement was for £145, so it's hardy reduced. And they expect an increase every 6 months.

 

I'm writing to ask for my credit agreement and will await the results of that. I do recall that the original Universal Credit agreements state any changes to the interest rate will be given in writing one month in advance. Paragon changed mine from zero percent to 28 percent and applied the interest back over 2 years without ever telling me.

 

They also state they don't have the balance available.

[PriorityOne]

Sismile... you need to stop getting roped into chatting on the 'phone ! This is what they want ! Everything must be in writing from now on. If they 'phone you any more, just hang up, put the receiver down and walk off until they get bored with the silence, or just say "In writing only please" and hang up. The choice is yours.

 

If they have no CCA, then they can make as many demands as they want.... it won't get the account re-enforced and they can't legally demand payments from you. The account will remain in dispute until they can come up with it....

 

As for saying that they don't have the balance available .... how do they know how much you owe then ?

 

Send the CCA (the link in post #2 above)... by rec. delivery... and keep the receipt, as advised. Do not sign anything that they send you and do not sign the CCA request with your normal sig.... just in case they decide to play dirty with it.

[NitrousOxide]

What's going on there with the interest,

As far as I know they can only charge what would be in your original agreement. If they can't find it that would be a big fat zero as you could dispute the interest rate if court action happened.

[WILKINSS208]

when they send the CCA back, does it have to show your signature?

they sent me one in my SAR however, the signature box is blank. everything else is filled in.

what should i do here?

[PriorityOne]

when they send the CCA back, does it have to show your signature?

they sent me one in my S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) however, the signature box is blank. everything else is filled in.

what should i do here?

 

Unless it's signed, then anyone can type up a CCA for anyone and claim they are owed money. The signature is what makes it binding. It might be best if you start your own thread though, so we know the background of your situation, etc.

 

[WILKINSS208]

i do have my own thread, http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/other-institutions/66584-universal-credit-paragon-please-3.html

 

just thought i would ask on here as thread was interesting and has been useful

[PriorityOne]

i do have my own thread, http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/other-institutions/66584-universal-credit-paragon-please-3.html

 

just thought i would ask on here as thread was interesting and has been useful

 

Oh ok... sorry... ... was just trying to avoid any confusion.

[WILKINSS208]

would they cover my signature up for any reason?

[PriorityOne]

Can't see why.... as it was being sent to you; the person who allegedly took the Agreement out in the first place.

[WILKINSS208]

yes thats what i thought. do you think this looks good for me?

could i get my agreement cancelled and get my CCJ removed or am I been OTT lol

[oneofakind]

What happened to your CAB agreement here? Presumably Paragon told you that because the agreement was with Universal, that it was no longer valid?

Maybe you should explain what's happened to CAB, and get them back on your case.

 

As PriorityOne said above, it's VITAL that you avoid speaking to Paragon on the phone. You MUST get everything in writing. And remember, if you don't get a reply to your CCA in good time, then THEY CANNOT ENFORCE THE DEBT. It sounds to me like they're just squeezing more and more out of you because you agree to it! You must STOP THIS NOW!!

 

 

DEFINITION

(Cambridge Online Dictionary)

paragon

noun [C]

a person or thing that is perfect or has an unusually large amount of a particular good characteristic:

 

[WILKINSS208]

but i have a CCJ and obviously the court have agreed it all. If I fail to pay, I could go to prison...yes?

[PriorityOne]

As you have a CCJ... you would need to have good grounds to have it set aside. Someone else is best to advise you on this though.

[vandermerwe]

No you can't go to jail for a civil debt.

 

As soon as you read this response please, please phone 0808 808-4000.

 

That's the National Debtline. It's a charity, makes no charges and above all is staffed by qualified debt advisers.

 

It's also instantaneous advice (unless their lines are busy) unlike the CAB where there's an element of chance about the advice your receive and when.

 

Please keep us posted on developments, beacuse in my opinion you are being ripped off.

 

Good luck.

 

Vandermerwe

[WILKINSS208]

thank you. i am going camping tomorrow but will call them on tuesday once i get home and post the results.

thank you so much!

[vandermerwe]

Don't forget to camp on high ground and chill out for the weekend.

 

Remember the National Debtline's phone lines could be quite busy on Tuesday.

 

Hope you get good weather.

 

Regards.

 

Van

[WILKINSS208]

how long should you give them to answe a CCA request if dont answer, then what?

[djdave]

Counting date of receipt as day zero, they've got 12 working days before they are in default. A further month on they commit an offence.

[WILKINSS208]

well their 12 day is today????

[vandermerwe]

Hi Folks. Did you read the full page article about Paragon in Sunday's "Financial Mail" (part of the "Mail on Sunday").

 

Not very complimentary!!

 

Seems they have also recently sold a bunch of their debt to Arrow.

 

Good articles, and well worth reading. They should be available on line and if anyone wishes I'll go through the old papers and post the details.

 

Good luck.

 

Vandermerwe.

[cerberusalert]

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