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Require contact in writing: stopping the phone calls

You are entitled to insist that creditors deal with you on paper. One letter converts a daily phone barrage into a manageable file.

Written by The My Debt Cleared editorial teamLast reviewed 23 August 2026Jurisdiction United KingdomEditorial policy
You can require creditors and collectors to contact you in writing only. Regulated firms must not contact customers at unreasonable times or with unreasonable frequency, and ignoring a clear written channel preference sits badly against those rules. The letter takes effect from receipt and applies to calls to you, your home and your workplace.

When to use this

Use this when calls are frequent, distressing, reaching your workplace, or simply making the situation harder to manage. It does not pause the debt — it changes the medium, which for most people changes everything about how manageable the situation feels.

The letter

Your name
Your address
[Date]

[Creditor name and address]

Account/reference: [number]

Dear Sir or Madam,

From the date of this letter, I require all contact about this account to be in writing only, by post [or email to: address].

Please stop telephone contact to any number for me, including my workplace. Calls to my workplace risk my employment and I do not consent to them. I am not refusing to deal with this account — I will respond to written correspondence — but repeated telephone contact is causing distress and I am exercising my right to a reasonable channel of communication.

Please confirm in writing that my contact preference has been recorded and will be respected.

Yours faithfully,
[Name]

Before you send it

Log any calls after receipt: date, time, number. Continued calling after a clear written request is complaint material — first to the firm, then to the Financial Ombudsman for regulated creditors. If contact is aggressive or threatening rather than merely frequent, that is a different problem: the creditor threats guide covers it.

Keep a copy of everything you send, send by a method you can evidence, and if your situation involves court deadlines or enforcement, free debt advice before posting anything is the better order of events.

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