Stop Marketing Phone Calls To Your Home

Most people have experienced unsolicited phone calls from companies trying to sell you something and if you're anything like me they're at best time-wasting and at worst downright annoying. They feel like such an intrusion, I mean how gave them the right to interrupt your evening trying to sell you stuff you don't want? Sadly the answer is probably, you, but there is a way you can stop them.

Getting Your Number
The companies that are calling you aren't usually the ones that are actually selling the product. often they're just independently run call centres who's business is generating leads and sales for other companies. The model works on the basis that if they phone enough people they can get even a small per-centage who are interested. That small per-centage they can then sell on to the company who's selling the product as 'hot lead'.

They themselves probably get your number by buying them in bulk from other companies. You know sometimes you fill in your details with a company that you're buying stuff from and somewhere underneath there'll be a box that says it's ok for them to pass your details to 'trusted partners' with offers you may be interested in? Well that basically gives them the right to bundle up thousands of numbers and sell them on to anyone who'll pay - usually just for a few pence per number, along with some basic details about you.

They then plug all the numbers into an automated machine called a Dialler that will make thousands of calls a day in the hope of landing a few prospects they can sell.

Stopping them
The good news is that it's relatively easy to stop. There's something called the Telephone Preference Service which is basically a long list of numbers they are not allowed to call. These call centres are required to run their numbers against the list and remove any numbers from their database that appear on the list.

Getting on the list is easy - just visit the Telephone Preference Service and add your details. The service is free so don't pay anybody who says they can get you added if you pay them. That's a whole other rip-off for another day.....

It will take about 28 days for it filter through all the call centres and for them to update their databases. If you get any calls after that, you can report them to your local trading standards but usually just the mention of it will be enough for them to delete you for good.