Paragon Personal Finance - I won !!!!

anitap · 21 November 2006 at 1:57PM

I took an unsecured loan out in 1993 for £1500 (at which time the company was Universal Credit) but in 1995 was made redundant and hit financial difficulties so took all my finances to CCCS who arranged payments and for interest to be frozen.

To my horror in 1996, when I was back on my feet a bit, I approached Paragon (who had by then bought Universal Credit) and tried to organise a higher payment from the £3.00 per month I had been paying. They said that as my debt was now £8,000 - that's right £8,000 !!!!!! I stopped her and she explained that the interest hadn't been frozen but I explained that Universal Credit had agreed with CCCS - she reminded me that Universal no longer owned the company and they had no paperwork on my file to support this.

I contacted CCCS and they had destroyed all documents that weren't older than 2 years so they had nothing on file to support it either although they assured me I wasn't the only person in this terrible situation. I pursued Paragon and tried to reach a compromise but they said that they wouldn't accept less than £8k or monthly payments in relation to the debt of £8k. It was impossible for me to make any sort of higher payment within the range of what they wanted. The situation worsened, they would phone me on easter sunday, boxing day, and pretty much from 8am-9pm on any other given day. They were writing to me and charging me for the letters etc and I was completely harrassed.

I contacted a solicitor who wrote them several letters (to my cost) but they weren't moving and it got to a point of paying the £8k or risk loosing £7k+ in a court case. So i decided to carry on paying the £3 a month for the rest of my life if need be as I was never going to make any headway and I certainly couldn't afford or stomach paying the £8k. Whenever they phoned me I couldn't get a word in edgeways and I can honestly say over the 10+ years this went on I never felt like anyone was listening to me.

Then one day out of the blue almost 13 years from the date I took out the loan of £1500, they contacted me and agreed that this had gone on for long enough
They asked me to make an offer and I said £800 off the top of my head which was roughly what I really owed them when the interest should have been frozen, and they accepted !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought it was some kind of wind up and said I wouldn't send a cheque until I had it in writing that they would not make any further claim and that the cheque was in full and final settlement. 2 days later i received this and I posted my cheque which they duly cashed and although the waiting was upsetting and frustrating I am so glad I held out !!!!!