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Debt collectors
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
Does anyone else get a constant stream of angry debt collection agency letters coming through their door? Over the past couple of months we've had dozens, for people of different names and from various different companies (Homebuy and Littlewoods being the last two). I am getting pretty cheesed off having to call up these people and tell them that no one of that name lives here or has lived here in the past decade, is there anything I can do or should I just start binning them?
I find it pretty stressful getting angry letters about other people's finances... my own are bad enough :razz:
How can these people have given our address? It's all very weird, and irritating. It crossed my mind that it could be a scam because of the random nature and the fact that when I do bother to call them up they usually back off very quickly, and that it's a PO Box address (does that have any signifigance though?) - but surely no one seriously thinks that we would pay off someone else's debt just because we got a letter.
GRR :mad:
I find it pretty stressful getting angry letters about other people's finances... my own are bad enough :razz:
How can these people have given our address? It's all very weird, and irritating. It crossed my mind that it could be a scam because of the random nature and the fact that when I do bother to call them up they usually back off very quickly, and that it's a PO Box address (does that have any signifigance though?) - but surely no one seriously thinks that we would pay off someone else's debt just because we got a letter.
GRR :mad:
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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Although i'd check your equifax report to make sure none of the defaulted accounts are in anyway linked to you.
By that i meant, that somebody elses defaulted accounts had been mistakenly linked to you due to the address, NOT that they actually might be yours.
All DCA staff are morons, though, and that's the God honest truth. I'm still proud of making one jumped-up little twat cry though- he thought he'd be smart and harrass me at work, and you could hear him shit himself when I answered the phone with the firm's name. I should frame the apology letter I got from nPower.
I'm pretty sure it's against the law to open mail that isn't addressed to you.
Of course, returning to sender often does absolutely NOTHING at all, and writing "still not at this address" starts to grate after a while doesn't it?
Where I work if we get mail returned 'not at this address' we stop paying the customer's benefit until they call to update their records. Mean, but it works!
Apparently it was linked to my old address where we had moved from (my parents now live in France) and they linked my new BT account to that and someone must have assumed that he lived here too. I was NOT happy. Especially when my dad told me that he'd settled all bills before they left the country anyway.
Are they allowed to just automatically assume that he lived at the same address as me and sent a threatening letter?
Probably not supposed to, but if you believed someone owed you money then I'm sure you would try to track them down and not care who you upset in the process.
Briggi, I work for a DCA (only for the next 3 weeks though!) - best thing to do is just stick them back in the post as 'return to sender'. Or just completely ignore them! The last thing you need to do is worry - they won't affect the credit rating at your address.
:thumb:
Booby - I have sent a lot back "return to sender", I guess that's what I'll continue to do in the future... or bin 'em. Ta, love.
Kermit I would love to make one of them cry. The people I've spoken to have obviously dealt with harsher people than myself though (maybe you :razz:) so I am yet to crack one with my ranting!
Cheers you lot, I usually wouldn't be arsed about this kind of thing but there are definite niggles in the back of my mind about angry bailiffs turning up or bad credit (despite knowing that the whole "bad credit tied to your home" thing is pretty much a myth).
People who work in call centres for big companies are moronic, they really are, especially when they try to hide behind legislation that often doesn't apply in that situation.
I wouldn't worry about bailifs either, since they only come out if there's a CCJ against the person with the debt, and as that isn't you they couldn't do anything even if they DID come to your door.
Yeah, but DCAs tend to be very good at ignoring the law. The amount of people I've heard of who have been told by charming DCA staff that they are "going to prison" for not paying debt is shocking. One person I heard of even went and handed himself in at the police station- needless to say the DCA got a very nasty letter from the police reminding them of the laws against harrassment.
DCAs are not very nice.
They shouldn't even be telling you they hold a phone number for the person because of data protection. They shouldn't be accessing the records of another person to see they have their phone number because they aren't required to in the course of their duties.
I'd just bin them, mate. Don't bother phoning them - it's alright if you get someone like me who's generally quite nice, but some of the people I work with are wankers.
Saying that, 80% of the people that phone us are complete wankers!