I see from the posts below that you have learned more about Target since you first posted.(posted 8027 days ago)You wanted to know why they wanted you to ring.... You have to remember that all shortfall chases are about trying to extract as much money from as possible *as cheaply* as possible.
Lenders ensure that they keep their costs down by assessing the cost/benefits of each different way of handling the different collection methods they have available. But to make that assessment they have to have information about you. Like how much you earn, how much you spend, what assets you own. Ie, what you are worth. They can then decide whether it is worth the cost of taking you to court or not.
Income and Expenditure forms are a key part of gathering information about you. By filling it in you help the lender get a better grip on the cost/benefits of chasing you in different ways. That's one of the reasons why this site strongly recommends that people do not fill income & expenditure forms in. It keeps the lender that bit more off-balance, that bit more uanble to decide what to do about you.
Debt collectors and private investigators are two more information gathering tools. People are surprised to hear that lenders employ private eyes for shortfall collection assessment. My SARN on Bradford & Bingley had odd "3/4" numbers in it. Bradford & Bingley's compliance officer told me that these mean three out of four private eyes had been employed on this case. The Council of Mortgage Lenders admitted to Mortgage Introducer magazine that its members used private eyes to gather information on former customers. This was in response to an article I wrote after several contributors noted people sitting in cars outside their houses, being followed and having their bins raked through. Private eyes and debt collectors are often the same thing - as we show elsewhere on this site. The reason? To prepare a detailed pre-litigation report (AKA a prelit report) that establishes whether you are worth the costs (and risks) of suing you or whether other options - debt collectors or more letters - would be more likely to produce a *profitable* result instead.
Target was being honest - it almost certainly does not want to talk to you about the debt. It wants to talk to you about how much you earn, how much you spend, what assets you own. Ie, what you are worth. This is so it can product a prelit report for Halifax.
I received a roughly similar request to telephone Wescot when I told Bradford & Bingley to prove the debt it claims I owe.
You can see that request here: http://www.home-repo.org/reposses/letter8.htm
You can see my response to it here (I strongly recommend you use my response and stick to it): http://www.home- repo.org/reposses/letter9.htm
You can see the two pages Wescot sent to Bradford & Bingley when it received my response here: http://www.home- repo.org/reposses/wespreli.htm and here: http://www.home- repo.org/reposses/wesprel2.htm
And you can see why all this was being done by reading Bradford & Bingley's internal record of the shortfall chase. To get to the material about what Wescot was doing, you need to scroll down to the entry for 27th October 1997 in the document here: http://www.home- repo.org/reposses/mindset.htm
I obtained this internal record by later serving a SARN on Bradford & Bingley. I obtained the copies of what Wescot sent to Bradford & Bingley by serving a SARN on Wescot. I knew to serve a SARN on Wescot because I saw their name in the documents that Bradford & Bingley sent to me in response to the SARN I served on Bradford & Bingley.
Hope this helps
Lee