Paragon Personal Finance - Desperately need advice

Lisa2710

Hi, I am new to the forum and ready to tear my hair out with a problem.


We (hubby and I) have a personal loan (secured) with Paragon Personal Finance. In the last year due to one thing or another we got behind on our payments and once we got ourselves right with money again we telephoned Paragon up and asked how much we need to pay to bring our account back up to date.... yippee no more nasty letters and phone calls.


I cannot tell you what this company is like, 3 years ago when we re-mortgaged Lloyds bank tried to pay the loan off as part of our remortgage but Paragon refused to accept the payment. so to cut a long story short we were now under the impression everything was up to date and we were counting down the days to April 2016 when our last payment is due.


That is until we received a statement with over £900 which was interest on arrears!!!!! telephoned them up immediately and paid it off. Two days later we received a letter thanking us for agreeing a new monthly payment of £450 (usually £369)... called them back explained it was to pay off interest on arrears, apologised and said it would be rectified.


Since then I have received 2 further letters where they have taken the £900 off the loan balance leaving the interest building up even though I have telephoned 4 times explaining this and informing them that they are deliberately trying to keep us in debt whereby I was informed by a "senior manager" that they do not have to inform us of interest on arrears until the end of the loan which we estimate would then be around £3500.... so not the happy day of final payment we would have expected.


please please advise me as other than screaming down the phone at them to "do as we ask" again I don't know who I can complain to. I did drop hints that I would be contacting the Financial Conduct Authority who they are regulated by and was greeted with a sigh!!!!!


sooooo annoying


Lisa x

[Deleted User]

I'm confused. Whatever part of the balance they allocate your payment to is surely irrelevant, as it will all be attracting interest?

Tixy

please please advise me as other than screaming down the phone at them to "do as we ask" again

That seems unlikely to work. And hasn't appeared to have done so far.

If you want to make a complaint then do so in writing (paper and ink not email). If they don't resolve your complaint to your satisfaction or are if you still feel that you are being treated unfairly or the balance incorrectly calculated then make a complaint to the FCA.

Lisa2710

Thank you for the replies.


ZX81 - We are already paying a huge interest rate on the actual loan. this other interest is treated as a completely separate interest and although we have brought our payments upto date and have no arrears they are still charging us every month (interest on the interest) if that makes sense. We were informed they were not obliged to tell us about this until we make our final loan payment and they are not obligated to chase for this money. It is a very sneaky way of making more money out of you. I have heard of this before with this company.

Lisa2710

Tixy wrote: »

That seems unlikely to work. And hasn't appeared to have done so far.

If you want to make a complaint then do so in writing (paper and ink not email). If they don't resolve your complaint to your satisfaction or are if you still feel that you are being treated unfairly or the balance incorrectly calculated then make a complaint to the FCA.

Thank you Tixy, I am writing a letter as we speak.

[Deleted User]

So what interest rate are they charging you on a) the loan and b) the interest arising from the arrears?

Ballywee

I have a problem with them as well. Took out a secured loan 2008 1 which was in joint names with my fianc!e at the time. The loan was secured against the house which was solely mine with a mortgage in my name only. 1 year later we split up i have a nasty accident and get into arrears as unable to work. I have struggled to pay it ever since and they continue to chase him at £25 a letter which they still send to our old address even though i have told them millions of times we are not together i don't know where he is and if they do find him i would love to know!!
So was it miss sold to me how can a joint loan be jointly secured on a house he didn't own as obviously he has just walked away with no consequence!! and how can they continue to chase him at my expense when ive been making payments on my own for 6 years???

Clive_Woody

Ballywee wrote: »

I have a problem with them as well. Took out a secured loan 2008 1 which was in joint names with my fianc!e at the time. The loan was secured against the house which was solely mine with a mortgage in my name only. 1 year later we split up i have a nasty accident and get into arrears as unable to work. I have struggled to pay it ever since and they continue to chase him at £25 a letter which they still send to our old address even though i have told them millions of times we are not together i don't know where he is and if they do find him i would love to know!!
So was it miss sold to me how can a joint loan be jointly secured on a house he didn't own as obviously he has just walked away with no consequence!! and how can they continue to chase him at my expense when ive been making payments on my own for 6 years???

You were aware that the house was owned by just you when you signed up for this as a joint loan so I don't think you will get much joy trying to claim that this miss sold. You secured a joint loan using your house.

If you are not repaying the loan then they are within their rights to chase the other party named on the loan for overdue amounts, although repeatedly sending letters to the same address and charging each time is probably a step too far. Have you written to them informing them that he does not live there and to stop sending letters (not email, phone or text but a proper letter)?

fermi

limbangmogul wrote: »

Hi all
I am having trouble with Paragon also

Moved to a separate thread -->http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5170662