Secured Paragon Loan

Liz65

Hi,

I am new here and would like seek advice about a secured loan my husband and I have with Paragon. We took the loan out in 2008. We did get a PPI payout a few years ago after they contacted us. My issue is that when I contacted them a few weeks ago to ask if they lower the interest rate from 6.68% they said couldn't do it because of the sort of loan that we have with them.
Orignally the loan was for £28,000.00 with interest £36,017.65 and we have many years left.
Can I get them to reduce the rate of interest or switch to a fixed rate? Don't pretend to understand how it works. Help please..

foxy-stoat

I would hope you pumped whatever PPI refund you got back into the loan to help clear it quicker.

You cannot ask them to reduce the interest, why would they, you are in contract to pay back X capital at X% interest over X number of years.

All you can do to help you reduce the interest is to overpay as much as you can or get a few credit cards with a money transfer and balance transfer options, get as much as money transferred out as you can out and do the 0% or low interest rate shuffle for a few years. Folk say turning unsecured debt into secured debt isnt a good idea, but secured into unsecured is a good one, if you can make it work for you.

How much is left on the loan?

bigisi

Why do you want them to and why do you think they should if you agreed to their terms when you took the loan out?

antrobus

Liz65 wrote: »

...
Can I get them to reduce the rate of interest or switch to a fixed rate? Don't pretend to understand how it works. Help please..

Reduce? Unlikely.

Paragon do offer fixed rate deals. Rates available from 4.08% to 7.30% on second charges.
https://www.paragonbank.co.uk/personal/second-charge-loans

Brock_and_Roll

Can I get them to reduce the rate of interest? No


Or switch to a fixed rate? Yes possibly


I note from their website that they offer fixed rates from 4.08% to 7.30% for 2 to 5 year fixes.




Clearly they are going to get their 3.5% lending margin (reflecting the higher risks in this type of lending) whichever way you slice it so as previous posters have said, the bet way to reduce interest costs is to overpay as much as possible/allowed under the terms.

foxy-stoat

You wont get a cheaper rate as the purpose of the loan is to pay existing debt - one that unfortunately rarely attracts the lowest rate.

dresdendave

foxy-stoat wrote: »

You cannot ask them to reduce the interest, why would they, you are in contract to pay back X capital at X% interest over X number of years.

Being pedantic, you can ask them to reduce interest, but it would be pointless as they obviously won't.

foxy-stoat

Ok you can ask them, but they will say no - end result its the same.

[Deleted User]

OP you took out a loan over a long period at 6.68% it was always going to cost a fortune in interest
Have you asked them how much you now owe?