A new report recently revealed that families hard-pressed by the economy and having trouble repaying unsecured short term loans and credit card debt are being harassed more and more by debt collectors.

The new report, published by the Citizens Advice Bureau in Cornwall's campaigning action group, has revealed that the pressures debtors face include a veritable deluge of threatening phone calls and letters from collectors employed by payday loan companies and credit card firms.  CAB Cornwall chief executive, Graham Tierney, remarked that the CAB's research had discovered that some lending firms may be neglecting to follow guidelines issued by the Office of Fair Trading, leading to many having to struggle with anxiety, depression, and crippling stress as they struggled with their debts.

Tactics employed by providers of cash loans and other forms of unsecured credit include making unreasonably oppressive and frequent telephone calls at all times of the day, refusing to act with the CAB and other authorised third parties, and writing frequent threatening letters, Mr Tierney added.  CAB research revealed that nearly 4 out of every 10 individuals aided by the bureau have admitted to feeling as if they had been subject to harassment by more than one bill collector, with the tactic used most often by lenders being sending cajoling text messages and phone calls, with one stating they had been called 10 times in one day, while another reporting four text messages on their movile and eight calls a day.

Some Cornwall CAB clients have reported being subject to long phone conversations where pressure was exerted over them to repay their dets, even though the OFT code considers this behaviour to be oppressive.