Phone calls

found_a_bargin

Alernativly tell them you have changed your phone number and that all calls have to go to this number and buy a cheap or use a old sim card in your phone and check everyday for messages.

s1h

its the landline they were calling, my mobile has been cutoff now anyway as i havent been able to pay the bill.

RAS

s1h wrote: »

I did have something lined up so was all set to go on the debt management plan with cccs but then the job fell through so i couldnt do that, im now at the stage where I have missed 2 monthly payments on most of my agreements.

Appointment with the job centre monday to start claiming and get help finding work so fingers crossed something comes of that.

Send the letter above re telephone calls but put a £1 token payment in the letter and advise them that you will be in touch when you have got the employment situation sorted out.

Ask them to hold charges for 2 more months. Then send 31 per month to each creditor.

And best of luck with the job hunt.

s1h

RAS wrote: »

Send the letter above re telephone calls but put a £1 token payment in the letter and advise them that you will be in touch when you have got the employment situation sorted out.

Ask them to hold charges for 2 more months. Then send 31 per month to each creditor.

And best of luck with the job hunt.

How do I send a token payment? Cheque? probably a bit difficult as my bank account with the cheque book is up to its overdraft limit.

RAS

If necessary send a postal order.

Can you get a new basic bank account, so that you do not find your new income or even benefits swallowed up by the old bank off-setting your income against your debt to them.

s1h

RAS wrote: »

If necessary send a postal order.

Can you get a new basic bank account, so that you do not find your new income or even benefits swallowed up by the old bank off-setting your income against your debt to them.

already got one from when i had a bit of financial difficulty a few years back, yorkshire bank with the maestro card.

jopwo_87

Get a Natwest basic bank account. Thats what i did when i started over. And its a solo card too.
If i were you I'd do as someone else has suggested and tell them you've changed your number to (give a mobile number) and to delete the landline one. Theres plenty of free sim offers around here so just order a new pay as you go sim for whatever network your phone is locked to.
Agree with the others about the £1 a month payment too. It WILL keep them off your backs and in the long run when it comes to setting up a payment plan and starting to really tackle these debts, will be in your favour :-)

Merlinexcalibur

What amazes me about all these posts about phone calls is the one obvious suggestion is usually missing - get BT Choose to Refuse! It is THERE to prevent this kind of thing. If you don't want the calls, then I am afraid that is the ONLY way to stop them unless you change your number. But, please, WHY should anyone have to change their number. It also !!!!!!s up any internet connections you have with providers and is also an unncessary inconvenience. Remember, THEY are inconveniencing you by forcing you to do this. I consider these calls as nothing less than harassment and exactly like someone phoning anonymously from a call box to scare you. Nothing else.

Choose to Refuse used to be free, but now you have to pay. They will not stop phoning you, no amount of letter writing is going to stop them. It never, ever does. So, in that case, it is only sensible you take protective steps to protect both your health, stop them harassing you.

I will now tell you what one of my creditors was doing last year in this direction. And it is one that has been fined since by OFT for doing it to other people in debt. They were phoning, but when I never answered, they kept the line open. For up to 20 minutes each time. So, every time I picked the phone up to check or make a call, they were still on the other end of it like some automated machine. They did that several times. Not only is that illegal but coming from one of the world's so called 'prestigious' banking establishments you expect them not to behave like this. But they did. This happened for several days. Without further mucking about because what if I needed to call a doctor, an ambulance or the police in an emergency and these muppets were hijacking my phone like this? But without further mucking about I was straight on to FOS, complained about their behaviour. Nothing came of it just got the circular 'apology' from the credior, no acknowledgement of what they were doing to my phone line. I then read somewhere that they'd been fined for doing it to other debtors. So, I got some satisfaction from that. I had read of it happening elsewhere but you don't really want to believe it until it happens to you because you think to yourself 'they'd never behave like that would they?' Oh, yes, they do! And this wasn't some tinpot DCA down some back street alleyway but a well known, international banking group.

Just thought I'd share that above because far too many debtors suffer in silence like this but also to demonstrate the sheer extremes some of these creditors will go to when phoning. And if you are disabled, ill or not in good health it's a very frightening thing to happen not to mention pure harassment.