written by Golden144 on 10/04/2020
I had been working with Charita Abrams though my personal Realtor. She was always rude but I ignored it.. until today. I would not recommend her to anyone. I had asked her a question and her respond was please stop asking just do. After that I replied it is my right to ask questions and she responded with then don’t ask. I still have the text messages saved and contacted her boss. Incase anyone would like proof id be happy to share! Don’t let this happen to you! You have the right to ask questions especially when in buying a home process! I’m not here to bash the company!!!. I am pleased that the boss contacted me back and is getting me in touch with a new loan officer.
written by julierumble on 19/10/2015
Even though we have found a house with a tenant who is willing to pay rent for 2 more years and have a £100k deposit we still have had a survey saying house need modernised. PARAGON say the house is un rentable? This is our second survey with this bunch of bandits on a property please avoid like the plague. Both times saying property needs modernised. I wish I had looked them up before embarking on a mortgage application with them. I have tried to find some good reviews but there are none. Even cross that I have given them 1 star it should be minus 10 stars.
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written by on 17/10/2013
I have PPI with Paragon. When I was made Redundant in November of last year, I requested the claim Forms so my payments could be made. The form did not arrive, even though I was requesting them at least once a month,they kept on saying that the forms had been sent. I was lucky that my redundant payment managed to pay for these payments over this period. I managed to get a temporary job in February, which was for 6 months, but am again unemployed, and am finding myself in the same situation, requesting the forms which do not arrive. When I asked for the Complaints dept telephone number, I was told that I could not have it as I needed to speak to the team manager, and he would call me back in 48 hours. I have requested the PPI forms and a breakdown of all charges they have applied to my account, and yes I am still waiting for them. Dealing with Paragon is like banging your head against a brick wall.
written by on 02/10/2013
Absolutely do not deal with this company or Charita Abrams. Awful service, make you pay for the appraisal after they tell you that you are approved then all of a sudden your not approved but yet out $400 dollars! After I switched to a different lender we found out Charita had added points to my loan adding an additional $30,000 to the total loan. What a joke of a company and a horrible person. I am not the only person that she has done this too as I have spoke with several other people trying to purchase homes that had the same issue.
written by Galveston on 01/07/2013
We have been strung along now for 2 months "Oh everything looks great" "Oh by the way we need these documents overnighted" you pull everything, copy & overnight them. A week later "Oh now we need ththese forms filled out & yup overnight them". Two weeks later NOW the stuff you sent oh we need it signed & here's some things you need to pull again. If you want a loan save yourself the PAIN go somewhere else unless you want to br homeless for a while.
written by on 08/05/2013
I have a terrible experience with Paragon Financials.I lost over usd 21.000 doing business with them. They will look like helpful and friendly when you will know them but once you are in they will just end you if they can.They have no business ethics.A lot of promises but you will definitly loose your money if not your business.
written by on 16/10/2012
....you thought this company might have improved,don't.It's now several years on from some of the earlier views yet i can atest to the fact that this is without doubt the worst company i have ever dealt with. Customer service is non-existent and anyone you get on the phone is either rude/offensive or both.My account with them has been running for six years i have never missed or been late for a single payment yet they are regularily n the phone for any number of spurious reasons,and guess what? They charge you for the privelege..and if your account is a joint one they will even charge you twice,complain and your wasting your breath,statements never arrive and when you send them a written request,even recorded delivery they mysteriously dissapear.My fist ever review but if it saves one poor sod getting tied in to this bunch of cowboys it's time well spent.To say they are cheats and liars may seem strong but please please think twice and then once more these people do not discriminate between good and bad payers they are equally bad to both.
written by TheMarsh on 02/09/2012
After reading numerous reviews on this forum, I thought I would share my experience of dealing with Paragon. Here is my story. I believe there are numerous reasons for the level of arrears that I find myself in. I think back to 1989 when I was sold a mortgage that was not explained properly. I do believe that I was mis sold this mortgage, simply based on the figures involved. I originally borrowed £49,124 in December 1989 and by April 2006, after paying approximately £60,000 in mortgage payments, I was still £130,000 in arrears. The reason being, that my expected payments should have been £186,125. The interest rate between these two dates never fell below 11%, whereas the average interest rate at these times was 5% lower. Also, 6 months into the mortgage, I was made redundant and was unable to find employment for 3 years. I had mortgage protection, but this only lasted for a period of 1 year. From the inception of the mortgage until 2003 I was the sole wage earner, as my wife brought up our two children. After 2003, my wife entered into full time employment which allowed me to increase my payment amount, but still the arrears increased dramatically. In 2004, I was again made redundant, though I managed to maintain my agreed payments, even though I was unemployed for 3 months. Paragon obtained a suspended repossession order in 1991, but also allowed me to pay reduced payments. These ranged from £325 to £800, but I still accumulated arrears of £201,657. For the past 20 years I have paid approximately £100,000 in mortgage payments, but still if I wanted to pay my mortgage off today, I would need £260,833. I contacted Hinckley and Bosworth Council concerning the Government Mortgage Rescue Scheme, but fell well short of the criteria required. The Council were astounded at the level of arrears, and also why I had not been repossessed before I had reached this huge amount of debt. They put me in touch with Shelter who represented me and obtained the full accounts of my mortgage from day one. Shelter came to the conclusion that I needed a forensic accountant to go through the accounts and find out how the charges had risen to this level. During this time Paragon approached me to pay the full amount of my monthly payment which stood at £1269, as well as paying something off the arrears. I could not understand that after 20 years of an acceptable payment all round, they suddenly decided to ask me to pay an amount that I could not possibly afford. I am not an accountant, but looking through the mortgage history, there are numerous miscellaneous charges which I cannot explain. An example was a letter from ‘Excel Collection and Enquiry Services Limited’ asking me to telephone them, which I did, and explained the situation regarding my mortgage with Paragon. They then reported back to Paragon and for this I was charged £64.80, which was then added to the capital debt. Paragon employed Excel Collection and Enquiry Services Limited three times which meant I was charged a total of £194.40, which was again added to the capital debt. This is why I am now at this point, and why they are trying to repossess me. I have not been able to afford a forensic accountant as their fees are astronomical. I have been in touch with various organisations who help with debt and there is always one constant; and that is the arrears total, which they all find astounding and cannot understand why I have not been repossessed earlier. Paragon say they have shown forbearance, but it seems that because it is near the end of the term, they have developed an ulterior motive. I contacted them 2 months ago and they asked me how much my house was currently worth. I informed them that the value was approximately £150,000. They told me that if I handed them the keys to the house, they would not pursue me for the remaining total of £100,000. This also raised suspicion in my mind of an ulterior motive, seeing as though they were willing to forgo £100,000. I found legal representation through Legal Aid to be non-existent concerning repossessions. I have been to court, as of August 13th 2012, and have managed to get an adjournment until September 18th 2012. In the interim, I will be trying to compile a defence case against Paragon. Any advice would be appreciated. Best wishes, Jim
written by on 12/04/2012
Don't touch with a barge pole! If you are that desperate for a loan, go bankrupt before touching this company. Don't touch Idem they are one of the same!
written by on 16/07/2011
I took out a loan with Paragon for £15,000 over ten years at £272 per month, this included PPi of £1900. Firstly when I went to apply for the PPI after I had an accident they refused it as they said it only covered the first five years, which is stupid as the loan is for ten. Secondly, my loan clears off this month, ten years on, but I got a statement with another £2600 added on meaning another 10 months of payments. I am not behind with my payments, infact I was ahead and they reduced two months payments to bring me back in line with the contract. I have reported it to the Ombudsman so hopefully they might be able to help.
written by on 31/01/2011
Dreadful people, I call them 'Parasites' as it is more descriptive. Took out a small loan (£3.5k) with Universal Credit back in the early 1990s, a good company who always send statements. I got sick and lost my job after about 2 years, the insurance paid out for a year and Universal Credit were sympathetic and helpful when I could not work for several years, and accepted token payments of £1 pcm and stopped charging interest. Then the bombshell - out of the blue, a letter from Paragon telling me they'd taken over my loan but not to worry as everything remained unchanged, payments the same etc. I then asked for a statement, and they sent a messy print out which showed they had added £10,000 (yes, you are reading that correctly) to the loan as they reckoned this would have been added on anyway by UC (mindreaders, obviously). I disputed it and they got very nasty, threatening calls and letters etc. In desperation I went to BBC's Watchdog, they took my massive correspondence file and I was featured on the show some time around 1998/9. Paragon refused to go on the show but I received a letter shortly afterwards reluctantly withdrawing the £10,000 interest and telling me I could pay back at £1 pcm until the loan (about £1000 by now) was finished.
All went well until last year when I started getting letters once more, again adding masses of 'interest' and threatening me. I chose to ignore the letters, as they were addressed to me in my maiden name (they had my married name but for some reason won't use it) and have continued to pay the £1 pcm. They refuse to acknowledge my letters requesting payment slips, though they cash the cheques quickly enough.
I fear the spectre of Paragon will hang over me for some time to come, but am determined to pay back the money I borrowed from Universal Credit some day even though I am still not working.
I would add that I am very disappointed they are still being allowed to trade - they are, in my view, simply criminals.
Moral of the story? NEVER, ever be tempted by Paragon, no matter how bad things seem. I can guarantee you that things will qet worse fast if you borrow off them.
Written on: 24/04/2012
Im so with you, in exactly same situation. took out a joint loan with Universal in 92 my partner and I split he didnt pay so they pilled on the charges, today I still owe them more than I ever borrowed. Paying them back £10pm forever and a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A WARNING TO ALL DO NOT TOUCH UNIVERSAL CREDIT OR PARAGON FINANCE
Written on: 14/10/2017
Totally agree. I took out a £10k loan with Paragon in 2004, and they quickly upped the interest, added charges. I lost my job for 6 months, during which time they hassled Me, and sent someone round to discuss the debt. When back in work, they were always asking for more payments, and sloth I was paying £300 a month, they wanted £600, and added interest if I didn't pay what they wanted.
I went through a repossession hearing, & won, as I was paying something, the Judge threw the case out! Still they added an attendance fee to my account for taking me to court!
After 8 years of hell. I went bankrupt to rid myself of them, as the debt was now £50k. Even after the hearing, I got a letter asking me to re-acknowledge the debt, to get around the bankruptcy order! I passed this to the official receiver, who took action by halving their dividend from my payments.
Now I'm discharged, and it's great to be properly free of them. DO NOT TOUCH PARAGON!!
written by on 13/08/2010
please,please,please listen to these reviews. I borrowed 50k with a good interest rate. the following 4 months I had an increase in rates although at the time the economy was in a good state. so my great interest rate was now the worst. when i phoned them to query it was basically tough. with the economy crises my interest rates went up again. although when they went down Paragon refused to lower mine. for example I was payong appx 220.00 a month and within 4 months this came to 375.00 a month. Luckily I came into a situation where I could pay off the loan and after paying all the monies in repayments I still had to pay off more than I borrowed. If I hadnt had the funds to pay off this loan I WOULD HAVE LOST MY HOME. They should be investigated for what they do STAY CLEAR.
written by on 19/05/2010
Please think very carefully before you commit yourself to
doing business with Paragon. My advice would be to contact
the consumer credit counselling service for advice before
taking out a personal loan with this company.These companies
prey on the vulnerable. We were unable to get credit due to a
unfortunate bad credit rating. Not suprisingly we were offered a substantial
loan from Paragon of 50,000pounds to clear business debts that I had. It was
quite a good rate and a reasonable repayment. However before long the interest rate
went 'through the roof' relative to the current BofE base rate. We have been servicing this loan for 6 years paying approximately 500pounds a month. I recently asked what the settlement amount would be and was told it was 52,000 pounds. Due to redundancy I asked Paragon if they would relax the amount we paid per month until I was back in employment. They said yes but warned us that our credit rating would be affected. As it will be 6 past since I had a credit problem it is about to expire on my credit history and therefore we are keen not to break the contract with Paragon. Thus we have continued to struggle each month for the past year to pay Paragon 500pounds a month even though I am unemployed. As soon as we can get finance from another company we will have to borrow as much as it takes to pay Paragon (looks like at least 52,000 pounds) even though we have paid about 30,000pounds over the last 6 years. I write this as a warning to anyone out there in financial difficulty to be careful. It seems to us that we will never pay this loan off as the interest rate will be adjusted so that we continue to pay interest and never reduce the amount we borrowed. Thus the only solution we can see is to refinance when my credit rating is resored (which has taken 6 years). One thing I forgot to mention but very important Paragon lent us the amount based on the security of our family home!!!
This should not be legal.
Do not do business with Paragon!!!
written by on 20/02/2010
WE took out a loan with paragon in 2004 for 40K we didn't miss any payments until the recession started.
We informed them of our circumstances after paying over 20k and asked for a statement. Found out we were now owing £51,000. The interest rate seems to go up at an astronomical rate. They claim that they do not follow the Bank of Englang rate and now charge £20 per letter and £10 per call. It is never ending.
If we had known about paragon before then, we never would have gone with them. They are crippling us and we now have bad credit which we never had before. Loan sharks cannot compare to them
written by on 16/12/2009
i have had nothing but problems with this company they are big rip offs £20 tele phone calls £10 for letter even when your paying them regular these charges are attached to your balance ppi they ripped me off £1200 when i had cancer and tried to claim they told me i was no longer covered ive been charged over £2000 by this company on top of the loan my experiance their loan sharks or as bad as
written by on 09/06/2009
I borrowed 15,000 from Paragon Loans in 2000, asked for a settlement figure, only to find out i still owe 9, 874.00!! after paying 245.00 per month for the last 9 years& 5months, i have paid up to date, £ 27,600.00!!!!!
when will this debt ever end!!!!!
Written on: 16/12/2009
I found this review very helpful because... it relates to my experience with this company paragon personal finance every body needs to make a profit to survive but ripping folk off is not the right way to go about it paragon constantly phone you or write letters to you charging to your account between £10-£20 this adds up over time increasing your debt with interest
<br/>even when your paying them regular i have been charged over £2000 plus misold ppi £1200 thats over £3,000 how can they be allowed to do this surely theres something we can do about it
written by Oldson26 on 24/04/2008
We took out a loan with these guys a couple of years ago to help concilidate some debts we had racked up. This last year alone the interest charges went up 5 times and now the rate has come down they tell me they are not linked to the B of E so thats just tough. Also when I asked for a settlement figure I'm told they have to post it to me so that was yet another problem. On top of that in the last 2 months we have had a dozen letters and phonecalls trying to persuade us to borrow yet more money!! - really these guys are a joke, we have now moved our debt to a building society and we know exactly where we stand now, my advice really is dont use these guys, they give a professional image at the front end but once they have you they dont let go.
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Guest's Comment
Written on: 27/06/2012
Hello to all , I also have had issues with Paragon. They are refuting mis-selling of PPI as it was sold via a broker - they are disputing the paying the £10K at end of the loan.
Has anyone been to the Financial Ombudsman?