Can I Stop Creditors From Contacting Me?

Facing a barrage of letters and phone calls from angry creditors can be a daunting scenario but it’s important for you to understand the rights of both parties in order to ascertain what is deemed ‘harassment’ and what your creditors are legally entitled to do before and after you have sought professional debt help.

Firstly, whether you’re currently in a debt repayment programme or not, there are certain types of creditor behaviour that would give you legal reasoning for complaint, such as:

• contacting you several times a day, or early in the morning or late at night
• pursuing you on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook
• putting pressure on you to sell your home or take out more credit
• using paperwork or business logos that appear to be official when they’re not, for example sending you letters that look like court forms
• putting pressure on you to pay all the money off, or in larger instalments when you can't afford to
• threatening you physically or verbally
• ignoring you if you say you don't owe the money
• implying that legal action can be taken when it can't. For example, implying that your home can be taken from you without a court order
• giving the impression that court action has been taken against you when it hasn't
• giving the impression that not paying the debt is a criminal offence. For most debts, it is not a criminal offence if you don't pay them.
• If you are not part of a debt repayment programme – such as a trust deed, sequestration or a debt arrangement scheme (DAS) – but you are struggling to repay your debts to one or more creditors, we can discuss your situation with you and give you breathing space from creditors.

Outside of these arrangements, creditors are legally entitled to:

• send reminders and demands for payment
• phone you to ask for payment
• call at your home, as long as this is at a reasonable time of the day
• take court action

However, we may be able to put one of these three arrangements in place, depending on your circumstances, which will allow our team to take care of all communication with your creditors on your behalf. That means no more dreaded phone calls, no more debt collector visits to your home, and no more threatening letters through the letterbox.