Just as your family sits down to dinner, the telephone rings. It's a telemarketer, with a once-in-a-lifetime offer for an interest-free, perk-filled titanium credit card.

YOU SAY: "I know you're just doing your job, but I'm not interested in what you're trying to sell me. Please take me off your list." Then hang up.
WHY: "Please take me off your list' is the key phrase here," says Ellen Phillips, author of Shocked, Appalled, and Dismayed: How to Write Letters of Complaint That Get Results, www.amazon.com. "Once you've asked them to do so, it's illegal for them to call you back — ever." And don't give them a chance to keep you on the phone. Telemarketers actually appreciate the chance to end their spiel. "An experienced telemarketer will know to utilize that energy on another caller," says Ken McCauley of Omni Telemarketing.

WHAT ALSO WORKS: Faux anguish. I wish that I could help you, but I desperately need your help! I have just declared bankruptcy, my husband just lost his job.... If you could just give me $25. ("Not only have I had fun, but the number of repeat calls has dropped considerably," says Phillips.)

NOTE: Solicitors who come knocking are even harder to put off. Say "Unfortunately, I decided at the beginning of the year which causes I'm donating to, and yours isn't one of them. Sorry."