Statement 2004

By 2004 I had sorted out my financial problems and started to pay the original amount each month. I still had no idea interest had been added to my account as Paragon never told me. Since they had agreed to freeze the interest I had no reason to doubt this. Notice the balance was over £13,000 by now. I was being charged up to £240 a month in interest which meant my payments of £145 were swallowed up and didn't reduce the debt. I carried on paying £145 a month for a number of years, thinking I was paying off the debt. In fact the balance never reduced.

Letter from Paragon Finance (Universal Credit)

These are scans of the letter I received from Paragon Personal finance regarding a complaint I made about the way my account had been handled. (click to view them bigger).

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.