Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and Mailing Preference Service (MPS)
We signed up to the TPS a few months ago. It’s an online service where you can register your telephone number (landline and/or mobile) to prevent companies from cold calling you trying to sell you stuff. It’s free, it only takes a few minutes to sign up and their website is http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/.
I was reminded of this today as I received a cold call from India - as soon as I said we’d signed up to TPS she was very apologetic and couldn’t get off the phone quickly enough. Previously I would have asked her not to call again and put the phone down, usually resulting in the phone ringing again immediately and me ignoring it while trying not be be too annoyed about the fact that my privacy was being heartily violated. We do still get the odd cold call but no where near as often.
As for junk mail there is also the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) at http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/. This also appears to do the job, although junk mail has never been so much of an issue - you just chuck it in the bin. It doesn’t upset you by getting your hopes up that someone is calling you just to say hello and catch up on old times, it’s simply a waste of trees. Actually, maybe I should be more annoyed about it - most junk mail isn’t even recycleable with all the plastic envelopes and fancy paper finishes.