Any ideas on who can help???

bram_2

CAN ANYONE HELP? Any ideas where I could go for any advice to try to resolve this debt.
In 1994 I took out a loan with Universal credit with my ex wife to purchase household items, the loan was for £7,500.
We divorced the following year and I took on the loan as part of the agreement.
There followed a period of hardship which included injury and unemployment.
During this time I was in constant contact with the company, and made payments.
In 2000 I joined a debt management company by the name of Baines & Ernst, who let this situation go to a County Court Judgement. I became unhappy with the company (Baines & Ernst) in 2002 and decided to make my own payments and have continued to do so.
Universal Credit has now become Paragon Finance.
To summarise: I borrowed £7,500, I have paid back (to date, Oct.2006) £11,428.74, they say I owe in the region of £50,000.
ANY IDEAS?????
Sorry new to all this!!!

savvykaz

Hi- what on earth is the interest rate you are paying on this loan? :eek: This must have some bearing on the fact that you still owe so much.

sashacat

why not take all of the corresponence and record of payments to the citizens advice bureau...this lot sound like a load of crooks to me...good luck

mummyemma

How much was the CCJ for. I thought and im sorry if i wrong but they dont add interest once a CCJ has been granted. Have you been paying money monthly towards that and have you recpiets for the payments you have made. I think you need to speak to CAB and get them to help. Something seems very wrong if they now think you owe that much money.

Sorry not much help

Emma

KatrinaC_2

bram wrote:

In 2000 I joined a debt management company by the name of Baines & Ernst, who let this situation go to a County Court Judgement. I became unhappy with the company (Baines & Ernst) in 2002 and decided to make my own payments and have continued to do so.
Universal Credit has now become Paragon Finance.
To summarise: I borrowed £7,500, I have paid back (to date, Oct.2006) £11,428.74, they say I owe in the region of £50,000.
ANY IDEAS?????
Sorry new to all this!!!

Wow - that's a belter!

How much did you owe and how much had you paid when you left Baines and Ernst?

I would certainly consult either CCCS or the Citizen's Advice Bureau as soon as possible to find out where you stand on all of this.

That interest rate is probably not illegal but it is definitely immoral...

Kat

Eager_Elephant

I suggest you go along to CAB about this.

Paragon are well known for high interest rates and charges on charges. Then with compound interest before you know it you owes loads more than when you started.

What has happened is that each month as you paid the debt down the interest was slowly going down but when you miss a payment they charge you (this will be in the agreement) and then the following month you get interest on the balance and the charge and then you get charged again - so you see it can build up so quickly.

The couple that were on watchdog a few years ago got their debt written off not because the judge said the interest rate was extortionate but because the agreement was not legally binding as the credit company had made an error. (I'm sure it was Paragon but if not it was a very similar company)

If your agreement is legally binding then your only way out is to go bankrupt and to be honest your monthly payments are never going to be enough to cover interest and capital so it will continue to increase.

HTH

EE

Skint_Entrepreneur

There is a serious issue in society when you can take out a £7,500 loan and have to repay £50,000. What on earth is going on and why as a society do we allow this to continue? The whole issue of secured lending (which I presume this is) needs looking at as does the issue of unsecured lending so people are not exposed to high interest rates way above the Bank of England base rates. This is highly immoral and I wonder how these people sleep at night who run these rackets. Doubtless they talk themselves into accepting it's them on the moral high ground or such similar.

Eager_Elephant

Sorry I was assuming this was an unsecured loan - can the OP please confirm.

EE

KatrinaC_2

Thinking about it now, is there not some rule/legislation that says that minimum payments must exceed the amount of interest added each month? Or is that just credit cards?

Kat

scholt

bram wrote:

CAN ANYONE HELP? Any ideas where I could go for any advice to try to resolve this debt.
In 1994 I took out a loan with Universal credit with my ex wife to purchase household items, the loan was for £7,500.
We divorced the following year and I took on the loan as part of the agreement.
There followed a period of hardship which included injury and unemployment.
During this time I was in constant contact with the company, and made payments.
In 2000 I joined a debt management company by the name of Baines & Ernst, who let this situation go to a County Court Judgement. I became unhappy with the company (Baines & Ernst) in 2002 and decided to make my own payments and have continued to do so.
Universal Credit has now become Paragon Finance.
To summarise: I borrowed £7,500, I have paid back (to date, Oct.2006) £11,428.74, they say I owe in the region of £50,000.
ANY IDEAS?????
Sorry new to all this!!!

:eek: does it have P.P.I?