Interest frozen and then added back later?

As you'll see from Paragon's letter above, they claim Universal Credit had a policy of suspending interest only to add it back later! I have never heard of this before and fail to see how that is of any help to anyone. CAB negotiated the interest free terms on the debt when I run into difficulty, they also arranged the same terms for a debt with Barclays. Barclays never added the interest back later, and I managed to clear the Barclays debt within a few years.

Paragon also seem to be forgetting that they purchased Universal Credit in March 1998 (it even says so in their letter above), I didn't run into difficulty until the end of January 1999 and it was Paragon who CAB negotiated with, not Universal Credit. It was Paragon who in fact charged interest from the start on the reduced payments.

Paragon go on to say they reapplied the suspended interest in November 1999, at which time I was still in great difficulty meeting the payments due on my various debts. I was paying Paragon £5 a month and they charged me £96.24 in interest without telling me. They happily accepted my £5 token payment and never once mentioned the interest had been reapplied.

Paragon Finance, finally it's over

I haven't posted for a while, I have a major update as Paragon Personal Finance have closed my account and written off the balance they claim was owed from the Universal Credit loan they took over.

I'll add some more details very shortly.

Paragon personal finance, Honest? Open? They say so!

http://www.paragon-group.co.uk/

About us / Our values.

"Integrity, To be ruthlessly honest and open in everything we do".

So Paragon, How do you explain hiding how much interest you charge

people who, through no fault of their own, fell behind with payments?

Is this a joke Paragon?

Today I was sorting through all the various letters I have received from Paragon over the past 10 years or so. I noticed every single letter is signed by Smith, Brown or Browne.

Is this a Joke? Or does everyone who works for Paragon have the surname Smith or Brown?

I expect it's more likely they do not reveal the true identity of staff working at Paragon. Which brings me onto another point. I recently received an email from someone who had been working for a company Paragon took over. After 12 months every single person left the company and I'm told a confidentiality agreement was signed, meaning my informant can't give me the reason why.

Another letter from Paragon.

Paragon are very persistent, I'll give them that much. For those that are unfamiliar with events so far, Paragon are collecting a Universal Credit debt which had a balance of £4200 some 10 years ago. I have paid back over £15,000 and they claim I still owe somewhere in the region of £12k. I say somewhere in the region because they are not very good at telling you how much you owe, if you ask they say they can't tell you. To date they haven't managed to provide a true copy of the consumer credit agreement, only a made up copy. As such the debt isn't legally enforceable, but that doesn't stop them chasing it by constant phone calls and letters.

22nd June 2009

Dear XXXXXX

I have been attempting to contact you to discuss your account (really? You have spoken to me on the phone on a daily basis).

Upon receipt of this letter would you please telephone this office on the above direct line telephone number, quoting your account number.

In accordance with the company fee tariff, a charge of £10 has been added to your account for this letter. A charge of £10 will be added for every additional letter issues if contact is not made and a charge of £20 will be added if we contact you by telephone.

I look forward to hearing from you

Nadine Smith

collections officer.

The thing is, I don't know what they want to discuss, I have told them this is in dispute and will remain so until they produce a true copy of the CCA. Every time I speak to them on the phone we go over the same thing - They ask for payment, I ask for a CCA, they say they sent one, I say it's a made up copy which isn't worth the paper it's written on, they say they don't have the original, I say take me to court then, they say they won't do that. End of call.

Please tell me about your Paragon/Universal Credit debt

There are many, many stories on the internet about Paragon adding massive amounts of interest to Universal Credit debts. BBC Watchdog also featured a handful of cases a few years back.

Please let me know about your experiences with Paragon, especially if they agreed to freeze your interest and then secretly added it back.

Over the next few weeks I'll be writing to the money pages of national newspapers with the shocking way Paragon have treated my account.

Paragon slip up

This might be of interest to some of you with old Universal Credit agreements. On the 15th February 2000, A standard automated letter was sent to all UC/Paragon customers behind with payments. The letter offered to consolidate arrears and report the account as up to date with Credit agencies in return for a standing order mandate and two post dated cheques.

I have heard of two cases where this document has been produced in court and resulted in Paragon settling for reduced figures. I have the case notes from one of the cases which took place in Northampton County Court. The argument is that the letter was a variation to the Consumer Credit Agreement and if it was "consideration" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consideration_under_English_law).

In this case Paragon had won judgement but then appealed for interest on top. Paragon dropped the appeal after this document was introduced and agreed to settle for the original amount.

"Paragon originally claimed over £18,107 but the district judge gave them judgment for £5,457 because that was what they had told us throughout was the balance, only asking for £18,107 when they issued proceedings. They (paragon) immediately asked for permission to appeal. The District Judge refused; they asked again at the appeal court.

After permission to appeal was given by the Court of Appeal they put forward a somewhat insulting offer to accept £18,107 in settlement and write off the interest and costs incurred in the meantime.

About one month before the scheduled Court of Appeal hearing date, they improved the offer to £5,457".

In the above case the argument against Paragon was the letter sent in February 2000 was consideration. As Paragon settled for the reduced figure the case for consideration wasn't tried, but it's interesting that Paragon backed down after the document was produced.

In the second case it was argued that the letter dated 15th February 2000 was a variation of the Consumer Credit Agreement and didn't comply with technical aspects of the 1974 Consumer Credit Act. Once again Paragon backed down.