Hi there
my experience is that the major high street creditors who have a reputation to protect are on the whole reasonable, it is when it is passed to a debt recovery agent - there are loads of them - that things usually become less professional and more aggressive.
some of these folk don't have a lot of training and really just follow a script.
thoughts;-
1. If it gets too much you can advise them that they are harrasing you and that you will be making acomplain under the "section 40 of the administration of justice act 1970"
The Administration of Justice Act 1970.
Section 40 of the act provides that a person commits an offence if, with the object of coercing another person to pay money claimed from the other as a debt due under contract, he or she:
harasses the other with demands for payment which by their frequency, or the manner or occasion of their making, or any accompanying threat or publicity are calculated to subject him or his family or household to alarm, distress or humiliation;
falsely represents, in relation to the money claimed, that criminal proceedings lie for failure to pay it;
falsely represent themselves to be authorised in some official capacity to claim or enforce payment;
utters a document falsely represented by him to have some official character or purporting to have some official character which he knows it has not.
Paragraph (1) above does not apply to anything done by a person which is reasonable (and otherwise legal) for the purpose of:
of securing the discharge of an obligation due, or believed by him to be due, to himself or to persons for whom he acts, or protecting himself or them from future loss; or
of the enforcement of any liability by legal process.
It is also provided that a person may be guilty of an offence under paragraph (1) above if he concerts with others in the taking of such action as is described in that paragraph, notwithstanding that his own course of conduct does not by itself amount to harassment.
There are penalties and fines for companies and individuals and it may mean they loose their consumer credit licence which would cause them a huge problem.
2. It has always amazed me that in a society riddled with identity theft we are all too willing to answer any question from a complete unknown phoning up. i.e a stranger phones up and "for security reasons" asks you for your date of birth, mothers maiden name and other personal info. I think it prudent to follow the banks' advice and not give out personal info on the phone. Ask them to write instead then you will have a document as proof.
3. Finally for data protection reasons if you cannot confirm your identity they are unable to continue the call.
hope it helps
