Paragon Finanace

Alanakiya

I took out an unsecured loan for £15,000 with Universal credit, (now Paragon Finance) in October 1996. Despite paying the full amount off, albeit over a longer period than agreed due to a relationship breakdown, plus £2000 over the amount of the loan, Paragon are still insisting that I owe them £15,827.00 This is after 19 years. They are continually harassing me with letters ( which they charge me £10 each letter) asking for payments and expenditure sheets.I have contacted the trading standards who didn't have much of an answer to my problem. Has anybody else had this problem with Paragon Finanace? Any advice or help of how to resolve this debt problem would be much appreciated.

[Deleted User]

What were the terms of the original agreement?

glentoran99

Alanakiya wrote: »

I took out an unsecured loan for £15,000 with Universal credit, (now Paragon Finance) in October 1996. Despite paying the full amount off, albeit over a longer period than agreed due to a relationship breakdown, plus £2000 over the amount of the loan, Paragon are still insisting that I owe them £15,827.00 This is after 19 years. They are continually harassing me with letters ( which they charge me £10 each letter) asking for payments and expenditure sheets.I have contacted the trading standards who didn't have much of an answer to my problem. Has anybody else had this problem with Paragon Finanace? Any advice or help of how to resolve this debt problem would be much appreciated.

so a 19 year loan with only 2000 interest?


at 3% interest the interest alone could be 11000 over that space of time, What was the interest rate and how much were you paying monthly

Tiddlywinks

Look / speak to these organisations:

https://www.nationaldebtline.org

http://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou/Debtadvice.aspx

rizla_king

How long since you last made any payment to them?

Alanakiya

They agreed to me paying £10 month for 3 months earlier this year which I did, they then wrote to me and said I had broken my agreement to pay the £10 month as an ongoing payment.

glentoran99

Alanakiya wrote: »

They agreed to me paying £10 month for 3 months earlier this year which I did, they then wrote to me and said I had broken my agreement to pay the £10 month as an ongoing payment.

How much were you paying per month before that? What was the interest rate and what were the original terms


It could also be worth CCA'ing them for a loan that old


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/8240473#Comment_8240473

poppasmurf_bewdley

Borrowing £15,000 over 19 years (you haven't told us the APR%), from a company like this, I would have expected to have paid back AT LEAST £30,000, and probably more. And that's without charges for letters, late payment fees, etc, being added on (and also collecting interest).

From your opening statement, you seem to think paying back the principal plus £2000 is ample reward to the company.

The statement of almost £16,000 still owing seems about right.

Alanakiya

I started off by paying £273 month but got into difficulty with payments so paid £ 85 for a number of years then it fell to a few pounds a month. The interest rate was 18.33 per annum.

poppasmurf_bewdley

Alanakiya wrote: »

I started off by paying £273 month but got into difficulty with payments so paid £ 85 for a number of years then it fell to a few pounds a month. The interest rate was 18.33 per annum.

£15,000 borrowed over 20 years at £273 per month at 18.33% means you should have paid back - wait for it - £56,475.15, according to my calculation. You have paid back about £17,000.

Alanakiya

They agreed verbally,( didn't put anything in writing) to stop the interest and allow me to only pay the loan when I hit difficult times. Once the loan was paid off they started harassing me for the interest and all charges for letters etc. They have done this to many other people. There are lots of cases relating to Paragon and their broken verbal promises on the web and in the press.