So much can be done on the computer these days; what is it they say? You can find information about everything on the Internet but it is important to make sure that you are finding the page you really need.   You can go to Google, or another search engine and type in what you are looking for to get a list of relevant places to find your answer. But there are so many choices.

If you click on one of the alternatives on that list, a new page will come up.  At the top of the page you will find a box with the URL typed in it.  (URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and every Internet page has one that is as unique as a car’s registration number). They nearly all start with ‘http://’ or ‘www.’ but the important, bit comes after that. If you are looking for a particular company or organisation, their name is usually incorporated in that URL very near, or right after, one of the two character progressions mentioned above.

For instance; at the time of writing this article, I decided to take a look at information about the deadline for claiming PPI.  So I have just ‘Googled, ‘ppi information’.  The first website offered linked me to…  

http://www.fasttrackreclaim.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMInp-N0fi11wIVTjwbCh2KfgWnEAAYASAAEgIZDfD_BwE

…while I had to look through another seven listings before finding one of the official government websites:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/ppi/what-is-ppi.html

 and

https://www.fca.org.uk/ppi/

The secret is to take a good look at that URL.   https://www.gov.uk/ usually introduces an official government website where you are more likely to be able to read the official version of the facts.  Clicking into the first site mentioned will take you to a company that will give some information but will offer to do lots of work for you, and invite you to supply your name and email address amongst other information to them.  They may well be able to get you your compensation but are likely to take a large proportion (up to 40% of your settlement amount), as their fee for services that you or a family member could achieve after a direct phone call to the company concerned.

That is just one example.  Please take a really good look at your URL.