Coping with debt Harassment

scudpower

This advice is for anyone receiving harassing calls from any debt colection company/credit card company. My current issue is with Capital One, but i feel this frame work would work for any situation. This advice is aimed at people in the UK however im sure it would apply rather well world wide.

--

Firstly if you are having financial difficulty it is very important to make any company you owe money to aware immediately. Most companies will be willing to assist you get over any issues by freezing the account or interest or giving leighway for payments.

Provided you have offered an acceptable monthly repayment until such time that you can afford to get things back on track i believe that no company has the right to call every day demanding monies as for those of us in situations that have changed and cannot afford to make immediate payments it only causes stress and illness (While Capital One were not directly responsible for my recent 17 hours in hospital after i exhibited cardiac distress and had to call 999 it was a contributing factor to my current stress and situation).

--

My advice is simple, when a company calls do the following:

- Remain polite and calm, no matter how they behave we can always be better.
- Keep them talking for as long as possible, in my current situation this is sparked by immediately being asked to "clear security" from a caller who cannot prove they actually work for the company they claim to.
- Ask plenty of questions, provided it isnt offensive ask them anything you wish.
- Take a deep breath and answer the phone ignoring it simply means they win.
- If you are willing to answer security questions my friend Mr Williams gave me this wonderful gem "as a regulated business of the FSA they are required by law, when asked, to fully explain the terms and conditions of any finiancial agreement they have with you and to give full and frank details of illistrated representatives." (Not sure if there is a similar organisation i the US or other countries)

--

If it costs these companies more than the money they are trying to harrass and nag back from you from calling you in staff and call costs, they will soon drop this method of contact. We all need to keep these people on the phone for as long as possible (Provided your not at work or very busy just when possible) and the more people who do this the less people that department can contact in a working day.

--

If you have debt you have no intention of paying back it will deeply affect your credit rating and you could eventually face court action being taken against you with bailiffs or high court sherrifs coming to your home. Be upfront and clear about what you can pay back and if you show reasonable intent and make good on those payments this should not happen.

scudpower

Just in case anyone was wondering my motivation behind this post:

I have spoken with a rep from the collections department of Capital One and committed to paying £40pcm (I think this to be overly fair) on both my cards until the outstanding over the limit amount is cleared, this is the first time in 5 years that i have had a problem with making a payment and have missed last months payment on both cards and now have 2 defaults on my credit record as a result. however having offered this amount of repayment the company still finds it paramount to call me 2-5 times a day. this behavior has now been going on for over a month and until the first of august i cannot make a payment. these tactics are wrong and pointless and until recently i found my self avoiding my mobile when it rings, but then i decided i wasn't going to fear my mobile any longer and have started taking the calls and refusing to answer any question that could lead to identity theft, the last call i kept the member of staff on the line for 22 min pointing out a number of times it was my intention to waste their time. i have done everything reasonable in my power to avert this situation and Capital One have made it clear they do not wish to help me. I am sure that others are in the same boat and i truly hope the above post is found useful by most.

teffers

My experience with Capital One is: I tried for months to get them to accept I was having difficulties in 2007 (recorded letters). They ignored me each time. Eventually I defaulted as I had little option.

Oh and it's worth noting that they don't actually pay per call/length - they have commercial bulk voip telephony agreements so it's really only our own time we're wasting.

The best advice for anyone having difficulties is, know the law, and make the debtor stick to it (as we have to). Harrassment isn't allowed - remind them of this and the steps you will take if they continue.

Do not get stressed if possible as they are just a company trying to get their money - it's business.

scudpower

It is sad that they use voip, however wasting the staff time is still a goal as they have to pay them to work and if this tactic affects the statistics for that department to the stage it isnt a viable option if each member of staff can only deal with 16 customers in a working day its game on!

DVardysShadow

teffers wrote: »

..... Oh and it's worth noting that they don't actually pay per call/length - they have commercial bulk voip telephony agreements so it's really only our own time we're wasting.

The point is not so much to waste their telephony costs, it is to waste their time. If you have the stomach for it and the time to spare, I say go for it - although on the whole I don't advise dealing with DCA's on the phone - and certainly not to agree anything.

scudpower

I agree shadow, however if you have the time to spare you do not need to do anything more than keeping them on the phone as it makes constant phone harassment a very expensive medium of contact in staffing costs alone.

After my last 22 min call i have not received any calls for two days now (if this changes i will update), i made it implicitly clear that i will never answer security questions over the phone when i have been contacted and not visa versa but i also made my intentions to make it my mission to keep the operators on the line as long as i can to waste their time i also sent emails to:

michael.woodburn@capitalone.co.uk
lisa.jackson@capitalone.com
rich.fairbank@capitalone.com

this is the email i sent:

"For just over a month now I have been receiving calls for having missed a payment. I have spoken to a member of the collections department offering £40 PCM for each card until the outstanding was cleared. This has been ignored and I still receive on average 3 calls a day. Now I have decided I no longer wish to have dealings with a company that is willing to harass me after I have managed my accounts so well. My number is 07*** ******. My email address is also associated with both my accounts. These persistent useless calls need to stop. I deliberately kept the member of the collections team and that individuals manager on the phone for 22 min yesterday and until the calls stop I will continue to waste the callers time for as long as possible. I have explained I cannot make a payment until the 1st of August and I'm not willing to call back again to explain this again. Please get my number off the list for the auto-dialler otherwise my simple mission will be to keep every caller on the phone long enough for my £40 payments to be muted by the staff costing and call costs for calls I should not be receiving on average 2-3 times a day. I would appreciate email or written contact only from this date onwards. And once able to do so I will cancel both my accounts.

Many Thanks"

I really hope this tactic will help others who are being stressed out and harassed unfairly.