Telephone Harassment Letters Respected.

[42man]

I don't even have a problem with paying them BUT it's just that if I make a payment to them it will get swallowed up in the mire of excessive charges and bottomless pit of an overdraft !!! If they refunded the charges it would be ok !!!

[JOSH_IOU]

Office of Fair Trading debt collection guidance

 

 

Creditors are warned by the Office of Fair Trading under the Debt Collection Guidance that the following practices are "considered unfair":

 

IT IS UNFAIR TO COMMUNICATE, IN WHATEVER FORM, WITH CONSUMERS IN AN UNCLEAR, INACCURATE OR MISLEADING MANNER.

 

This includes:

 

Letters that look like court claims Not making it clear who the company is or what their role is Unhelpful legal language Not giving balance statements about the debt when asked Contacting you at unreasonable times even when asked not to Asking you to contact them on premium rate phone numbers.

 

THOSE CONTACTING DEBTORS MUST NOT BE DECEITFUL BY MISREPRESENTING THEIR AUTHORITY AND/OR THE CORRECT LEGAL POSITION.

 

This includes:

 

Claiming to work for the court or be a bailiff Implying action can be taken that is not legally possible such as implying they could take your property Using a business name or logo that implies they are a government body Implying that court action has been taken against you when it hasn’t Implying not paying your debt is a criminal offence Threatening to take court action in England if you live in Scotland or the other way round.

 

PUTTING PRESSURE ON DEBTORS OR THIRD PARTIES IS CONSIDERED TO BE OPPRESSIVE

 

This includes:

 

 

Contacting you too frequently

Pressurising you to sell property or take out more debt

Using more than one collection company at the same time or not telling you when your debt has been passed to another company

Pressurizing you to pay in full or in large installments you cannot afford Making threatening gestures or statements

Ignoring disputes about whether you owe the money

Trying to embarrass you in public or threatening to tell a third party about your debts such as a neighbour or your family.

 

DEALINGS WITH DEBTORS ARE NOT TO BE DECEITFUL AND/OR UNFAIR

 

Examples include:

 

Sending letters addressed to “the occupier” or discussing the debt with someone without knowing if they are you

Refusing to deal with an adviser acting on your behalf

Not accepting reasonable offers or passing on payments you make

Refusing to freeze action if you dispute the debt.

 

CHARGES SHOULD NOT BE LEVIED UNFAIRLY

 

Examples include:

 

 

Claiming collection costs when the original credit agreement didn’t allow this to happen and making you think you are legally liable for the costs

Not putting the specific amounts that can be added for collection costs in the original credit agreement

Adding unreasonable charges.

 

THOSE VISITING DEBTORS MUST NOT ACT IN AN UNCLEAR OR THREATENING MANNER

 

Collectors should explain the reason for any visit and give you notice of the time and date they will call

They shouldn’t visit if they know you are ill or vulnerable and if they find you are unwell or distressed they should leave

They should not come in if you do not want them to and should leave when you ask them to

They shouldn’t visit you at work or somewhere like a hospital.

[42man]

lol thanks Josh, my bedtime reading is the OFT's guidance on debt collection !!

[tomterm8]

Yeah, but until a few months time, the court simply hasn't got the powers to enforce the guidelines. they are not binding.

[JOSH_IOU]

lol thanks Josh, my bedtime reading is the OFT's guidance on debt collection !!

 

Hey 42 man.

 

Thats just a start ( a summary) if you want some bedtime reading here goes.

 

But unless the account is in default they don't apply.

 

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf

[JOSH_IOU]

this may interest you

 

Bank customer wins 'harassment' fight | This is Money

[prpro760]

triton Credit services stop calling me but they kept sending letter asking me to call them which is beside the point lol

[JOSH_IOU]

Tell them in writing you will only communicate in writing and only on the subject of the penalty charges I assume have been added to your account.

[renegotiation]

And I thought this thread had grown because of all those respected letters since i've been away! :o :o :o

[JOSH_IOU]

lol wha?

[loyalbrummie]

Im gutted sent one off to RW so i could get onto phase 2 of my little plan , the buggers are only doing what i asked and havent called since .

Might start ringing them now .

[bmw1]

hi all cabot have respected harassment letter at the min :grin: :grin:

[kcasey]

I sent a warning letter to Nationwide Debt Recovery NDR (part of Littlewoods Group), and they stopped contacting me by telephone.

 

I also sent a warning letter to Mercers Debt Collections (part of Barclays/Barclaycard), they have also stopped, but they seriously messed up whilst investigating by the response coming from Barclaycard, as the Formal Complaint was made against Mercers Debt Collections Ltd.

 

Regards

Kieran

[Helios]

Triton credit services stated they respected my telephone harassment letter and won't call again

[JOSH_IOU]

;)wait till they send letters then move onto the adminstration of justice act 1970 section 40

[Misterzeus]

Only two of Mr Z's creditors had our landline number:

 

LLoyds TSB - They were ringing only once a day - but that was once too much in our book, they eventually complied, took a couple of letters though!

 

First Direct - They ignored first letter so wrote to their data controller quoting the Data Protection Act 1998 demanding removal and telling them they were not to pass it on to any DCA. They complied.

 

The other Creditors only had a mob number which we quickly got rid of!! :grin:

[JOSH_IOU]

Remind them of the Administration of Justice Act 1970 Section 40.

 

Due to the nature of the calls and the frequency of the calls they would apear to be in breach of this section of the act.

 

An argument could be made in the banks favour that they were saving money phoneing you. Which they were but because of the frequency of the calls they are in breach of this section of the act.

 

Have they sent you any letters yet?

[Misterzeus]

Hi JOSH_IOU,

 

Re the telephone calls from Lloyds TSB, compared to some people who receive several calls, once a day didn’t seem that bigger deal!

 

Strangely enough, I got all the harassing letters mainly BLS and the phone calls seemed to be for me. Mr Z got letters too but not as many. Perhaps they thought they could intimidate a woman more!

 

Lloyds TSB got a couple of complaint letters from me with all the acts I could muster (thanks to this site) and a couple of months ago they agreed to a payment plan for 12 months. Mr Z still pays his token payment but has not received any more letters from Lloyds TSB or BLS and what’s more, no payment plan was agreed for him. So not sure what’s going on there!

 

First Direct only phoned the once and the answer machine took care of that call. :grin:

[JOSH_IOU]

big deal or no deal if they are calling you and acting unlawfull you have the right to complain.

 

If they phone once and dont return the calls then this isnt effectively harrasment as the matter must have existsed twice. (ie you must have been called more than twice.)

 

One thing to look at is If the manner of the call was the same as the previous call you may have grounds to launch harrasment proceedings. Normally police will only intervene if you are being harrased on the door step or there is an immediate danger to life. In which case the dca will be long gone b4 he gets here.

 

You have to talk to the police like banks to be honest You have to quote the law. But you may be better aproaching Trading Standards than the police. unless they threten you at the door of course because trading standards will laugh and say this is a criminal matter. (ie they want ya to go to the police.)

 

Like i said if they called just the once then stopped. Bibs ya uncle cus that all you want them to do.

[Muffintop]

How bout this

Cancer patient sues the Halifax for harassment after 762 calls about loan

 

the times newspaper

 

Solicitor in Plymouth took it on and also another lady who sued Halifax. details of solicitor not hard to find on net

[Bilgeman]

Debitas are going for the throat! Despite writing to them and Capital One (both twice) they are still phoning me - last night's second call was at 8.40 pm. Told them I was watching Watchdog because I'd written to them about a scabby company called Debitas who believe they are above the Law (haven't - yet) and the phone went dead

[Blondmusic]

I sent the letter off to Buchanan, Clark and Wells. I verbally requested that they remove my phone number twice but they only did so after the letter. When they did phone me i kept asking the monkey where they had got my number from (which is private and i do not give it out) but they kept asking me to go through security (i refused) and they never told me were they got my number from.

 

Roxburghe called me and i told them not to call me and to put everything in writing which they did. Again i asked the monkey where he had got my number from and he said their client (HFO). They have returned the alleged debt to HFO after i asked for proof and asked how they had got my telephone number.

 

What the DCA's don't know is my phone has the facility to record calls and store them on the memory card till i can put them on the pc. I feel sorry for the next one that calls me.

[moonlandings]

i sent the letter to a company called A.R.C. Europe and the calls stopped straight away, but they have passed the debt onto 'scotcall'

[maybelline]

telephone harrassment by CAPQUEST pretending to have an important telegram and talking to members of staff not the person they called!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

sounds like a right [problem], will be sending the COMPLAINT asap

 

also pretending not to be able to hear the complaint

 

so cross with this bunch!!!!111

[Fed up With Vanquis]

Vanquis , Sent letter template in May still harrassing me with phone calls in particular to my workplace , I make my payments every month