Credit card person at door

suffolkb

I have an agreement with my credit card provider that I am only to be collected in writing, so that I have a paper record. But, today, a man came to the door shoving his mobile phone at me and telling me I have to talk to them. I refused, told him about the agreement and closed the door. He then started shouting through my letterbox saying I have to talk about my debt. Only when I said I was calling the police about what I felt was harassment did he lower his voice to a whisper. I called the police. They were not interested of course, but I have a record of the call.
I have written a complaint about this as I do not feel it was justified. I would like to take this further, but should I wait for their response before I do this?
Thanks for any advice.

sourcrates

Its quiet rare for a doorstep collector to call, is it a large debt ? if you have an agreement, write and tell them they are wasting there time and money sending collectors as you will not deal with this matter at your front door, a good tip if they call again, I saw this on utube, get your phone and film them, they don't like it, problem with complaints is they take ages to be dealt with, but you cant take it to the ombudsman till the company concerned has issued there final response.

fevlo

He sounds like a right jobsworth to me.
Shouting through your letter box is very unprofessional and im sure it would be in breach of the OFT's guidlines on debt collection.

If you have to call the police again id just ask them to attend to prevent a breach of peace while you remove a trespasser from your property, they might be a bit more intrested then.
As soon as you mention debt they will probally just think its a civil matter and not have much intrest

suffolkb

Thanks for the quick response. He did keep stressing that he was not a debt collector and was only doing his job in getting me to accept his phone. As if - could have been anyone on the other end. I will wait until the bank comes back with a response.
In comparison with some of the posts on here, it is not a huge debt, but I can only make the token payment I have offered until my situation improves.

fevlo

suffolkb wrote: »

Thanks for the quick response. He did keep stressing that he was not a debt collector and was only doing his job in getting me to accept his phone. As if - could have been anyone on the other end. I will wait until the bank comes back with a response.
In comparison with some of the posts on here, it is not a huge debt, but I can only make the token payment I have offered until my situation improves.

I think it depends who the collector is,
I had a debt being collected by Morecroft and a collector called round, it was only a £700 debt. Wasnt in at the time though

prowla

You could have taken his phone and said thankyouverymuch, and then closed the door on him.

chanz4

thats called theft

prowla

chanz4 wrote: »

thats called theft

Oh really?

Monkeyballs

suffolkb wrote: »

Thanks for the quick response. He did keep stressing that he was not a debt collector and was only doing his job in getting me to accept his phone. As if - could have been anyone on the other end. I will wait until the bank comes back with a response.
In comparison with some of the posts on here, it is not a huge debt, but I can only make the token payment I have offered until my situation improves.

Hiya,

Who is the card provider? And have you had anything in writing from them agreeing to correspond with you in writing?

I only ask because someone on here may have specifically relevant experience of that cc providers tactics? And, if you've not had written agreement is it possible they are unaware of your request?

Also, does the guy who was hovering around outside actually work for them or a 3rd party collection agency? If he's 3rd party then the original creditor may have sold the debt on and he's trying to get you to speak to someone to agree new terms?

I know it's never nice being hounded but sometimes the best thing to do is to open that letter or take that phone call... If it was me I think I would have probably taken the call, listened to what they had to say before replying based on what the call is about...

At the end of the day you can simply say "no thank you please only contact me by post in future" (after noting their name with date and time of call) and then hang up that way you know what is happening, you have done what it takes to get the guy outside to go away

Again, I know what it is like to be hounded but in my opinion it is better to have the full facts and stand your ground

MB

suffolkb

I don`t want to name the bank yet. They have agreed to correspond in writing only - in writing too.
I refused to take the phone as he had dialled the number and I don`t know who to. And I was not going to give any security details under those circumstances. Now, I am not actually certain that he said he was from the bank or was here about the bank, but he did say that it was the bank on the phone.

Monkeyballs

suffolkb wrote: »

I don`t want to name the bank yet. They have agreed to correspond in writing only - in writing too.
I refused to take the phone as he had dialled the number and I don`t know who to. And I was not going to give any security details under those circumstances. Now, I am not actually certain that he said he was from the bank or was here about the bank, but he did say that it was the bank on the phone.

Hi,

Fair enough, if you have it in writing from the bank that they agree to only contact you in writing then I would refuse the call too.

Personally I've never heard of a bank sending someone to a debtors house with a phone which has been "pre-dialled" LOL it really does not sound kosher at all!

I'm assuming that he's still not there several hours on but I think I would take this opportunity to contact the bank directly to ask for an explanation as they may be able to confirm or deny the mans claim and you can also have put on record that you have written agreement from them that all contact will be in writing only.

If he comes tomorrow I'd probably accept the call (take the phone through the letterbox or a window and pass back the same way, don't let him in) and ask for confirmation of who is calling and if they ask for security information then tell take their name and department and tell them you will call the bank and ask to speak to them directly

MB