How to prevent annoying PPI calls

Have you been left out of pocket due to poor service or sharp practice? Do you have a money problem that won't go away?

It can seem impossible to get a fair result when you are battling a financial issue alone. But never fear! The AOL Money Fixer is here to help.

Dear Fixer,
I am being driven mad by nuisance calls about payment protection insurance (PPI).

I have never taken out a PPI policy and I certainly do not need any help getting compensation for being mis-sold one. But I keep getting calls on my mobile all the same.

How can I stop these companies calling me all the time? Thanks for your help.

N Acton, Manchester

Dear Mr Acton,
You are far from the only person to receive annoying calls. Telecoms regulator Ofcom says that Britons get a billion unwanted marketing calls, silent calls, abandoned calls, spam texts and recorded messages every year.

One way to prevent them is to register with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), which is designed to stop companies with which you have no established relationship calling you.

However, the bad news is that many dodgy PPI compensation companies ignore the TPS, so signing up to it is unlikely to make the unwanted PPI calls stop completely.

Fortunately, there is lots of technology available to prevent nuisance calls.

If, for example, you have an iPhone, you can use the iOS 7 operating system to block any number that calls you.

Android smartphones also offer several effective apps, such as Call Blocker, that allow you to do the same.

If, on the other hand, you do not have a smartphone, try the website Who Called Me. It lists thousands of numbers reported by its users and allows you to identify calls from nuisance numbers and block them individually.

To avoid more nuisance calls in the future, it also makes sense to double check you are not inadvertently giving websites permission to pass your number on to other organisations by failing to "untick" a box.

The Fixer

Whatever your financial problem, write to themoneyfixer@aim.com and The AOL Money Fixer will get on the case.

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