I don’t know if I paid PPI, how do I check if I’m entitled to a payout?

Countless numbers of people have unwittingly signed up for PPI and have forgotten all about it. If you think you’re one of those people, you might not know where to start.

If it’s a case of not knowing whether you’re entitled to reclaiming mis-sold PPI, then we can help. Hundreds of thousands of consumers have successfully clawed back money they spent unknowingly on PPI, plus interest. So you have a good chance of success.

I don’t know if I paid PPI or not

If you’ve been super organised and managed to file all your credit records, mortgage agreements and loan paperwork, look for any mention of an insurance fee or cover through redundancy or ill health. Some lenders used the terms ‘payment cover’, ‘protection plan’, ‘ASU’, ‘loan protection’, ‘retail payment protection’, ‘loan care’ or similar.

If you’re not as organised as this, don’t worry, not everyone keeps archives of paperwork at home. Sometimes, if you took out a credit card ten years ago, and ended up paying it off, it’s easy to forget who it was with. The next step is to go online and check your credit history. This has every card, loan, mortgage and direct debit taken out and paid by you over the past six years. This is a very handy resource to jog the memory.

I know who my lenders were but have no paperwork to back up my claim.

Don’t worry. Lenders are inundated with requests. While as much paperwork as possible helps speed up the process, if you cannot trace a single document, just pick up the phone and ring them up.

Some lenders request a £1 payment to provide a copy of the agreement you originally signed. If your account is closed, they might charge a little more to do a thorough search.

The PPI reclaim departments of all these major institutions are now highly developed to handle claims so they more than likely have all the information to hand.

If you cannot call on the phone, some lenders have online forms. In our experience, writing a letter works just as well too.