To think there is no way to completely stop nuisance calls?

[JessicaRebeccaRabbit]

We got a landline a while ago, after seven years of just having a mobile. I have yet to give the number to anyone except my Mum, yet already I am getting calls about life assurance, PPI etc. We selected to be ex directory, and are on the telephone preference service. I know my in-laws get several nuisance calls a day and they have always had the pref service too. Is there anything I can do? Thanks!

There is, you need BT Call guardian phones.

In a nutshell, you input the phone numbers of your family and friends. The phone remembers these. Calls from outside the UK will automatically reject. Calls on your VIP list will ring as normal. Calls from numbers that aren't on your VIP list will be answered by the handset which will ask who they are and prompt them to say the name, your phone will then ring and it will say 'x is calling'. You then get the option to reject the call, answer it or send it straight to answer machine.
You find these PPI types don't bother and just put the phone down.

All you need is a call guardian handset and a caller ID subscription.

This probably explains it better:

home.bt.com/news/btlife/putting-the-block-on-nuisance-calls-11363934197581

I have 3 handsets and paid £65 for the 8500 set a few months back. You can just buy a single handset from £25-£30.

We have BT Call Guardian also. It's very good. We have not had a single unwanted call since it was installed.

You could try barring callers who don't declare their number. We do this and it has helped, but we still get some nuisance calls.
The BT Call Guardian sounds like a more comprehensive option.

I bought a little box called CPR call blocker. It has really helped cut down the number of annoying calls I get. Probably one a week now instead of 3-4 a day.

I stupidly gave out my details to some telephone marketing woman who promised she wouldn't pass them on. She couldn't get my name right so in the end I just went with what she said to shut her up (think Parker/Porter). A year later and i was getting 3-4 calls a day, all using the wrong surname so I knew they'd all originated from this one naive moment when I'd trusted her not to pass on my number!

The call blocker is a tiny box that plugs in behind your phone and lets you choose to block international, private/withheld, certain area codes, and then if someone does manage to get through you can block the last number that called so they can't get through next time.

I think it was about £40 but well worth it. Those BT phones piss me off - I resent giving more money to the very company who could easily allow us all to block numbers for free, as its their bloody service these arseholes are misusing.

Any thing that will let me keep international calls? But otherwise send unknown numbers to the handler?

With this little box addicted, you could just choose not to add the code for international numbers.

Any thing that will let me keep international calls? But otherwise send unknown numbers to the handler?

yes, Guardian can do that as well. You either add the number to VIP or allow international calls in general.

My DM paid for the telephone preference service a couple of years ago, due to nuisance calls and cold callers. She found it didn't make a lot of difference and so decided not to renew the subscription and told them so.

Since then she's had the telephone preference service ringing her up more than once asking her if she's sure she wont renew!! Arrggh.

TPS is free, I think she's paid for something else there.

We are looking into blockers at the moment. Unfortunately, we are on VirginMedia so have to pay extra to get caller display! I don't think it will work very well for us as we have family abroad, family who hide their number AND most of our nuisance calls are because we have a reused landline number and they are ringing up for someone completely different (even a different address).

The worst for passing numbers on are the online insurance quotes IME.

TPS is free and you can register both home phones and mobile here:

www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html

I've found it to work quite well on my home phone. I registered my mobile a few weeks ago and calls have decreased on that too, though I tend to block calls as soon as I get them.

We don't get any (well, the odd illegal one every 6 months or so). We're registered with the TPS (free!), ex-directory and we're not on the edited electoral register. So that combo seems to work OK.

The TPS can only block uk numbers so all the automated calls from abroad will still come through. I just unplugged the phone, we only use the landline for broadband.

What I wish is that people who call on a private number had some way of showing where they were calling from. Eg it would say High Street Doctor Surgery or The County Hospital. I don't need to know their number but it would help me decide whether to answer!

My elderly parents are deluged with calls, usually from overseas. I signed them up to the TPS (yes, it is free btw) and it still hasn't stopped some UK junk calls. Very interesting about that BT call guardian thingy, I'm tempted to look into that.

OP:
Look into this device, which a number of MN users have:
www.truecall.co.uk/home.aspx

Halsall:
The Truecall device has a special version for elderly and disabled people. You can even control and monitor it remotely.

PS. I'm not connected with Truecall except as a very satisfied user.

Truecall is what is built in to the BT handsets I believe.

We have a BT call guardian phone. It's brilliant. We were ex directory and registered with the TPS. Made little difference. Now I don't get any of these calls. I look at the phone and frequently see that someone has tried to phone, they never give their name though. One did (windows company we had to do a quote a while ago and told them we weren't interested) and I just sent it to answerphone so I didn't have to speakwith them, they just hung up.

You can choose whether to accept or reject international calls and withheld numbers. When a call does come through you can also choose whether to always accept for that number or bar in from your phone. I've had a few spam numbers on the phone that I have added to my barred list so they can't phone me anymore.

It's been brilliant since we got this phone. I'd highly recommend it to everyone. I'm trying to get my nan to get one but she won't at the moment but the she doesn't engage with them anyway.

If you want to keep international numbers Truecall lets you give callers a PIN to get straight through.
I can't believe BT charge extra for Caller ID. Robbers!

We are TPS and ex-directory and get very few of actual people, just the pre-recorded PPI etc ones. We have a Panasonic call blocking phone, so I block them one by one, it also speaks the number so I ignore anything that starts with 0843 or international, all in all it works pretty well. We can't ditch the landline because mobile reception is very poor in our house.

Thanks for those suggestions! I need to be able to get international calls too, so between you seems like everything is covered ????

Despite tps, the majority of my phone calls are nuisance so I've stopped answering the phone really, I let all calls go to answerphone & pick up if a voice I recognise starts talking. Felt a bit strange at first but I'm used to it now.

We're on TPS and also pay a small amount for Caller ID. We can now ignore any International calls and those which are clearly tele-marketing numbers (they use the same few so we recognise them now.)

Since we've stopped picking up for these calls they've reduced from approx. three a day to a couple per week, so hopefully we're on their 'don't bother' list.

we have got the call guardian, and we get zero unwanted calls. we had to get a new phone anyway, and it was included In the price (not overly expensive) from Maplins.

I never get them. I've no idea why we've managed to get lucky. We're ex-directory and on the TPS, and we simply never give the number out (I use a fake one when online shopping, and any other time I'm asked for it, I don't. I do for sensible things, like the doctor - I figure they're not going to sell it - but never shops and businesses.)

Another thumbs up for call guardian phones from me! Absolutely no unwanted calls and new numbers have to announce themselves so you can choose how to handle them.