Harassment

It is not a crime to be in debt!

Many individuals in debt are often subject to unnecessary harassment by lenders. Arguably, it can be justified in some cases whereby the borrower stops paying and fails to inform his/her creditors of the reasons why. However, in a lot of instances creditors work under the rule of “he who shouts the loudest gets paid” and will therefore annoy, badger, disturb, exhaust, harry, jade, perplex, pester, plague, tease, tire, torment, trouble, vex, weary and worry to get paid, in other words to “annoy or trouble constantly”, reference: Collins dictionary.

So what is harassment?

There are many more forms of harassment, but these are the most frequent ones;
  • telephoning at work, creating embarrassment and fear of dismissal.
  • making nuisance visits or telephone calls at inconvenient times.
  • calling or writing to neighbours on purpose knowing they are not the debtor.
  • threats of personal visits, this is sometimes detailed in letters giving the impression that creditors have greater powers than they really have.

So what can you do if you are harassed?

Consider an answerphone so that you can screen incoming calls.

If your telephone number is not known to creditors then dial 141 before making calls to them to withhold your number. Contact your service provider to see if they can bar specific telephone numbers to stop unwanted callers.

Keep a record of all the telephone calls, including the ones you make. Note the date, time, name of the person to whom you spoke with, what was said and the company from which they are calling. Mark down what day it is because it may be reasonable to telephone you on a weekday, but 8.30 in the morning on a Sunday is not acceptable.

If a creditor cannot contact you by telephone then their only recourse is to write to you. Therefore, keep copies of all your correspondence to and from creditors for reference purposes.

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