BRITAIN’S HOME’S PLAGUED BY OVERSEAS CALLERS

ALMOST 33% of all nuisance and sales calls made to British households each year originate from call centres based overseas, according to a recent survey. The Call Prevention Registry has revealed that 31% of the 1.5 billion unwanted calls made to the UK originate from foreign-based companies targeting British households to sell their products and services.

Unwanted sales and nuisance calls have been at the forefront of consumer consciousness for a number of years, with many of us being on the receiving end of a sale’s call by someone trying to sell us a new kitchen or mobile phone package, for example, which promises to save us money and then some. While these have traditionally been the biggest bug bear for British phone owners, they pale into insignificance when compared to calls received from overseas companies.

According to the survey by the Call Prevention Registry, the UK’s leading anti-nuisance calls service provider, more than 465 million unwanted sales calls are made to UK consumers every year. And the problem seems to be getting worse.

“With so many UK companies increasingly outsourcing elements of their business overseas notably to India, it comes as no surprise that the majority of nuisance calls received by British consumers should come from different countries. The UK continues to be a prime target market for many companies both in the UK and elsewhere. And as the trend for outsourcing continues to rise we anticipate that the volume of foreign-based calls will also rise for the foreseeable future,” says Paul MacKenzie-Cummins, head of public relations for the Call Prevention Registry. 

Call Prevention Registry has the highest success rate in blocking nuisance and unwanted sales calls than any other service provider in the UK and is the only organisation that can block calls from sales companies based overseas as well as the UK.

British pensioners regret not having had more romance

MANY British pensioners would change their love lives and would have had less children if they could turn the clock back, according to a new poll by Intune, the financial products and services provider owned by Age Concern and Help the Aged.

When quizzed on the things they would have done differently if they could start all over again, people aged 60+, revealed that 21% would have had more romance and 11% would have gone a step further and married someone different with the benefit of hindsight. Women are more likely to be fed up with their husbands, with 16% wishing they had married somebody else. In addition, 6% would have also had fewer children.

Furthermore, it appears they are disillusioned with the UK and wished they had put down roots elsewhere, with 19% saying they would have moved abroad if the could have their time again and 41% saying they wished they had travelled more.  Many also wish they had stayed longer in education (34%) or chosen a different career (20%). Only 14% were completely content with all of their key life decisions.

According to Mark Gettinby, Director of Financial Services at Intune:- “Many people have regrets about the past. But it’s important to remember that it’s never too late to make changes. Reaching retirement doesn’t mean life has to slow down and many of our customers think that it is when all the fun starts. They travel more than ever and set off on new adventures.  Intune ensures that older people are not restricted in the things they want to do such as making sure our travel insurance doesn’t have an upper age limit, unlike 97% of travel insurance policies. And as for romance, it is heartening to hear that most married people over the age of 60 wouldn’t have chosen someone different.”

For further information on Intune, visit www.intunegroup.co.uk.