I am in the money, the drinks are on me. Yes, I have had a successful PPI claim. After literally years of getting those annoying phone calls, texts, and bits of junk mail through the post, I thought I would join in and make a PPI claim.

I have to confess, I did not remember having ever had PPI, but with the high street banks putting aside anything up to £10bn to cover claims, I thought I might as well just make one anyway.

Times are a little tight in the Gosling household – three children, one just finished university, a 12-year old car that is always breaking down – they are all reasons why a little lump sum would come in handy.

How hard could it be, I thought, to make a claim? Those websites that show you how, particularly MoneySavingExpert, run by that nice bloke Martin Lewis, make it all sound so easy. Plus, those nasty banks and insurance companies deserve to pay for tricking us into taking out PPI, don’t they?

A few years ago I had about seven credit cards, so surely I must have had multiple PPI policies? Now, you might ask why I had seven cards. This is a fair question. I actually just did it to see how easy it was to get a new card, and at the time it was very easy. Companies were falling over themselves to offer new cards, and it frankly only took a few minutes to fill in the forms.

Of course, having seven credit cards is about as useful as having seven biros – you can only use one at a time.

Only two of the cards were any use – the one issued through my bank and the other one issued by MBNA on behalf of the British Heart Foundation.

The BHF got a £50 donation from MBNA for everyone who took out a card and used it once. So that’s what I did. I bought petrol, paid off the balance immediately and BHF got its £50.

All the way through this credit card frenzy, I scrupulously ticked the box refusing PPI. The reason was simple – as someone with a pre-existing heart condition, I knew PPI would be unlikely to ever pay out. I had read the small print one day when sitting in a hospital – sad I know, but it beats thinking about blood tests and the like.

As I ponder my own personal PPI scam – because that is what it would have been, as I had never knowingly taken out PPI – what drops through my letterbox? A letter from MBNA telling me I was eligible for PPI compensation. So I filled in the form and vowed to donate the money from my ‘big win’ to charity. The cheque arrived last week, and I am now richer to the tune of £2.33 (after tax).

Lawrence Gosling is the editorial director of Incisive Media. His views are his own, any comments to him at lawrencegosling1@gmail.com