IS there any point in 'checking whether I ever had PPI? And how?

[Miljah]

A bit of a casual thought on my part.

I certainly took out loans in my 20s, but for smallish sums, like £200 in 1981 but I'm pretty sure my dad went guarantor.

Is the process a hassle, can you DIY, and do companies who do it for you taken most 'winnings' are fees?

Anyone done it?

Hello, I worked at one of the awful PPI cold calling centres so know loads about PPI.
Definitely DO NOT go to a company. They charge around 25% when you can do it yourself for free. They say that they have more access to data and better relationship with the banks, don't need account numbers etc, this is all a load of shit.
Ring up the lenders you dealt with and ask them how you can check, they will be really helpful. Also there's loads of tools on money saving expert around this topic and how to do it yourself.
From working in PPI it is surprising how many people swear blind they didn't have it but did, so I would say go for it- nothing to lose and maybe something to gain. Just don't pay a company to do it, do it yourself!

Do it yourself, all the banks etc have pages on their website that you fill in.

We had tried through A PPI company and they said we had none but we were 95% sure DH had had it on his first mortgage in the mid 90’s. We filled in the form on the bank website then they sent a longer more detailed form to fill in, then they phoned DH and went through the form with him, asked a couple more questions. One week later, cheque for £6k, for about 1 hours work in total on our part. So well worth a try!

I wasn't sure if I had ppi so when a company cold called I just said yes,fine go ahead check. Send out paperwork. Took 30 mins to fill in with details of bank I had a loan with years ago. A couple of month later I received a letter asking me to go to a local branch with i.d. A month or so later was awarded £2k. Company took £800 but it's money I wouldn't have had if I hadn't said yes.
My friend tried the DIY method to check. She ate, lived and breathed PPI for Monday months until she gave up and went with a company.

I was seduced by a ppi company. I am a lazy git and I thought it would be easy to get someone else to have a look, especially as I wasn't sure if there was anything owed to me. After doing their 'research' they came back to me with a loan I'd allegedly taken out (which I knew nothing about) with a company I'd never heard of about 30 years ago. I was flummoxed by this, decided they were incompetent, and may get round to having a look for myself...or not.

Monday?sorry

@kindofnewtothis I definitely had PPI on at a number of different small loans in my early 20's (so 1992-1998 ish) - BUT I went bankrupt in 2001.

Some of the loans with PPI were paid off by the time I went bankrupt, but am I right in thinking that I won't be able to make a claim because of it? I was fully discharged in 2007.

Oh and what if one of the loans was with a bank/BS that no longer exists...would I have to track down the current incarnation of that bank? Now who merged with Alliance and Leicester...

Never mind...I found the CAB page on it, I can't claim. That's, what I thought, I knew I'd read it somewhere before. It makes sense, the money wouldn't be mine!!

I remember at the company that I worked at, we couldn't process claims for people that had been bankrupt because there's a chance that the money just goes back to the bank anyway but I have a feeling that some companies did specialise in seeing whether you could. Maybe it's on a case by case basis, sorry I couldn't be any more help!

Although...the firms I had PPI with were not my ultimate creditors, I didn't owe them anything.

With alliance and Leicester you would go to santander

That's ok thanks for replying - I was 99% sure I couldn't claim, I definitely read it somewhere before!

Santander, of course it is - it was Abbey National that absorbed A&L I think.

I did use a claim finder, certain that I’d never taken out PPI but it was a claim finder that only wrote so no junk emails or calls. After an extensive search they confirmed nothing on the past 3 decades, but they found an old M and S account I’d opened back in the mid 80s just as I’d graduated, and closed a few years later. I was more than happy to pay them 25% of the £900 they uncovered.

The hardest part for me was working out the various addresses I’d lived at during that time! Flat shares etc