Asked creditors to only contact us by letter - will it stop them calling??

Mics_chick

I've sent the template letter (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=35023333&postcount=12) to all creditors to ask them to only contact me by letter in the hope it will stop them calling.
Will it really stop them and are they allowed to call me now I've sent them this letter?

scouselad1974

Hi

Some creditors wil take notice and stop calling but in my experience most don't.

When a creditor has refused to remove my telephone number and contact me in writing only, I have always written to their complaints department, quoting The OFT Guidlines etc and usually this has worked.

Halifax were the exception and continued to call me every day for 6 months. In the end I had to take my complaint to The FOS and he to sided with Halifax stating that they had every right to telephone me as I owed them money .
I then replied to him asking why he thought it ok that Halifax could break The OFT Guidlines on debt collection and I also contacted The Information Commissioner who then contacted Halifax on my behalf.

In the end I finally made them see sense by stating that if they continued to call I would excercise my right to not answer any of their security questions and that all telephone calls would be logged and recorded.

I don't mind speaking with my creditors but in the end there is only so much that you can take and explaining the same thing over and over every day for 6 months becomes tiring, especially when you are repaying all you can via a DMP

Mics_chick

We've got a call blocker on our phone line anyway but I'd like to take it off at some point if possible but it's still very early days for us...

bottleofred

Hi Mics_Chick,

If they call you, tell them you only wish to be contacted by writing and hang up. Hopefully if you do this enough you'll get the message, but if you refuse to discuss the debt on the phone there is no point in them calling and hopefully even they'll get the message, although be sure to use small words as most of them fail to understand even the most basic request. You could also write to them and say you'll invoice £12 for every call from them. Someone on the forum did this and refused to go through the security check with them and sent an invoice to the companies in question everytime they called. He never got paid, but the calls stopped eventually!

sofababe

If and when they call simply refuse to answer their security questions. You are within your rights to do so. I got so fed up of it one day that when the guy said "can you confirm your name and date of birth?" I said "I will if you will". Of course he wouldn't so I said neither will I and hung up:rotfl:
A more polite way of putting it would be to simply say that you will not respond to any requests made over the phone and ask them to put it in writing, which is my normal answer. Also send the letter and do so recorded delivery. All correspondence to DCAs should be by recorded delivery. The times I used to hear "we haven't received any letter from you Miss xxxxxx":mad:

sunfleur

Mics_chick wrote: »

I've sent the template letter (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=35023333&postcount=12) to all creditors to ask them to only contact me by letter in the hope it will stop them calling.
Will it really stop them and are they allowed to call me now I've sent them this letter?

We put this in every letter and we have only just started on our DMP. All calls have stopped! However, I don't know if it was because we did this OR if it was because (on a tip from the forum) we went into our accounts online and changed our telephone number to nothing or a non-existent number (not one where they could call someone else)! We also never spoke to anyone on the phone. We have a great answer phone (which you can record calls too but it makes a beep sound every 15 seconds which is soooo annoying - to them) where you can bar calls - once a number is entered you can bar it until you stop it and the calls never come through. What happened when they rang is they would get two rings and then cut them off! You can still see how many times a day they call you but you are not aware of it at all. Caller ID is great too which helps in knowing what number is calling. You can google most numbers and it will tell you who it is a lot of the time. If a number comes up I don't know I don't answer it - if it's a friend they will leave a message on the answerphone and I will answer it or ring back. It was very quiet around here....

magpiecottage

scouselad1974 wrote: »

Hi
In the end I had to take my complaint to The FOS and he to sided with Halifax stating that they had every right to telephone me as I owed them money.
I then replied to him asking why he thought it ok that Halifax could break The OFT Guidlines on debt collection.

This should be allowed to go to an Ombudsman for a decision - just make clear that you are willing to pay your debts but not to be harrassed, that the Ombudsman is required to give consideration to what is fair and reasonable and the Office of FAIR Trading has said it is UNFAIR.

Oh yes - if an adjudicator suggests you are only looking to avoid paying, tell them you want to be passed to the Service Manager immediately because you want to make a complaint against them!

scouselad1974

magpiecottage wrote: »

This should be allowed to go to an Ombudsman for a decision - just make clear that you are willing to pay your debts but not to be harrassed, that the Ombudsman is required to give consideration to what is fair and reasonable and the Office of FAIR Trading has said it is UNFAIR.

Oh yes - if an adjudicator suggests you are only looking to avoid paying, tell them you want to be passed to the Service Manager immediately because you want to make a complaint against them!

Hi

Thank you for your reply, I will use this information should the adjudicator still disagree with me.

Mics_chick

I had a corker of a call from Santander the other day...

When he asked me to complete the security checks I said that I didn't give out any information over the phone and he replied "Well you have before".
That wrong-footed me and I wish I had said I that I didn't now but I didn't
I just said that how did I know who he was and he replied "well how do I know who you are?"
I said "Coz you've called my house!"
Then I said that I'm not discussing anything over the phone because I said I would only correspond by mail and he replied that's what he was calling about???
In the end I got flustered and really wound up and put the phone down on him.
Then he rang about 3 times after that before we turned the phone ringer off for a while to be sure he stopped constantly calling us???
I'm going to send a letter of complaint about it...
I know I owe them money and want to be co-operative but don't want to get wound up over such w**kers!!!