What Is Premium Credit Ltd on My Bank Statement?
Premium Credit Limited finances insurance premiums. If you pay your car, home, pet or business insurance monthly, this is usually the company collecting it — not your insurer and not your broker.
The part that surprises people: paying insurance monthly is borrowing. Premium Credit pays your insurer the full annual premium up front, and you repay Premium Credit in instalments with interest. It is a regulated credit agreement, and you signed one when you chose monthly payments.
At a glance
- Company
- Premium Credit Limited
- What it does
- Finances annual insurance premiums
- Regulated by
- Financial Conduct Authority
- What it is
- A credit agreement, with interest
- Notice of changes
- 5 working days
- Also appears as
- PCL, PCL/insurer name, PC/CLEARINSMGMT
Who they are
Premium Credit Limited is one of the UK's largest insurance premium finance providers, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. It works with insurance brokers and providers to collect monthly instalments on their behalf.
You almost certainly never chose them. Your broker or insurer did, and their name reaches your bank because they are the one taking the direct debit.
The descriptor variants
Depending on your bank and the arrangement, the same payment can appear as:
PREMIUM CREDIT LTDPREMIUM CREDIT LIMITEDPCLPCL/[insurer or broker name]PC/CLEARINSMGMT
The ones carrying an insurer or broker name are the most useful, because they tell you which policy the payment belongs to when you hold more than one.
Why the charge exists
Work backwards from the amount and the date. It will map to a policy:
- Car insurance paid monthly
- Home, buildings or contents insurance
- Pet insurance
- Business insurance — commercial, liability, fleet
- Professional subscriptions and some membership fees, which use the same finance model
If you took out or renewed a policy in the last year and chose to pay monthly, this is it.
The thing worth knowing: it costs more
This is the reason to read past the identification.
Paying monthly is a loan, so it carries interest — the APR is set out in your credit agreement, and on insurance premium finance it is often considerably higher than people assume. Spreading a £600 policy over twelve months can cost meaningfully more than paying the £600 in one go.
Two practical consequences:
Check the APR on your renewal. It is disclosed, but it sits in the finance documentation rather than the headline price. Comparing the annual price against the total of twelve instalments shows the real cost in one line.
It appears on your credit file. It is a credit agreement, so it is reported like one. That is neutral if you pay on time — and damaging if you miss payments.
Missing a payment matters more than you would expect
If an instalment fails, two things can follow. The finance agreement goes into arrears, which affects your credit file. And the insurer may cancel the policy, because the premium is no longer being funded.
Driving on cancelled motor insurance is an offence, and a cancellation is something you must declare on future insurance applications, which pushes premiums up for years.
So a bounced Premium Credit direct debit is not a small admin problem. If money is tight, contact them before the payment fails rather than after.
Is it a scam?
No. Premium Credit Limited is a long-established, FCA-regulated finance provider, and the descriptor is legitimate.
If you hold no insurance policies at all and this is collecting from your account, that is a different matter — a credit agreement in your name is exactly the kind of thing worth checking properly.
- All four agencies: in one report: Experian, Equifax, TransUnion & Crediva
- Spot the errors: and old debts that quietly get applications declined
- It's a soft search: so checking never leaves a mark on your file
- See what lenders see: the same information banks pull when they assess you
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How to check or change it
Find the policy. Your broker or insurer can tell you which policy the finance agreement relates to, and Premium Credit can confirm the agreement details.
Do not simply cancel the direct debit. Cancelling the payment does not cancel the loan or the policy — it puts the agreement into arrears and risks the insurance being cancelled with it. Speak to them first.
If a payment was taken in error — wrong amount, wrong date, or after the agreement ended — the Direct Debit Guarantee entitles you to an immediate full refund from your bank. You are also entitled to five working days' notice of any change to the amount or date.
At renewal, ask for the annual price. If you can pay in one go, you avoid the interest entirely. If you cannot, a 0% credit card paid off within its promotional window sometimes costs less than premium finance — but only if you will genuinely clear it in time.
🛡️ Build your recovery plan
Tick what applies to you. The order below is deliberate: most of these organisations will ask for your Action Fraud reference number, so doing it in this sequence saves you making the same call twice.
Nothing ticked yet: the steps below are the ones that apply to everyone. Tick a box above to add the rest.
- 1
Report it to Action Fraud and get your crime reference number
Action Fraud: the national reporting centre for fraud
- Onlinereportfraud.police.uk
- Phone0300 123 2040
Do this second, and do it before you contact anyone else. Almost every organisation in this list (lenders, credit reference agencies, debt collectors) will ask for the crime reference number Action Fraud gives you, and without it you end up making the same call twice. It also creates the official record you'll rely on if you have to dispute anything later. Expect an update within 28 working days, though that's about the investigation, not about clearing your name; that part is on you and starts now.
Have ready: What happened and roughly when · Any account or reference numbers involved
- 2
Get all three credit reports and read every line
Experian, Equifax and TransUnion
- Experian0800 013 8888
- Equifax0800 014 2955
- TransUnion0330 024 7574
All three, not one. Lenders report to different agencies, so a fraudulent account can sit on one file and be invisible on the others: checking a single report is the most common way people miss the second and third account. You're looking for accounts you didn't open, searches you didn't authorise, and addresses linked to your name that you've never lived at. That last one matters more than it sounds: a linked address you don't recognise is often how the fraud was set up in the first place.
Have ready: Your addresses for the last six years
- 3
Add a CIFAS protective registration
CIFAS: the UK fraud prevention service
- Onlinecifas.org.uk
- Phone0330 460 9601
This puts a warning flag against your name in the National Fraud Database, so member organisations run extra identity checks before granting credit in your name. It costs £30 and lasts two years. It does not affect your credit score, and it doesn't touch accounts you already hold, but it will make your own applications slower, which is the trade-off. If someone has your details, that's usually a trade worth making. Note that not every application is checked against the database, so treat it as a strong deterrent rather than a lock.
- 4
Check you're on the electoral register at the right address
Your local council
A quick one that's worth doing while you're here. The electoral roll is one of the main ways lenders confirm you live where you say you do, and being missing from it both weakens your own applications and makes it easier for someone to claim your identity elsewhere.
- 5
Escalate if you get nowhere
Financial Ombudsman Service, or the ICO
- Financial Ombudsman0800 023 4567
- ICOico.org.uk
If a bank refuses to refund you, or a lender won't remove an entry it has accepted is fraudulent, complain to the firm first and give it eight weeks. After that, or as soon as you get a final response, take it to the Financial Ombudsman. It's free and its decisions bind the firm. Where the argument is specifically about inaccurate data staying on your credit file, the Information Commissioner's Office can also look at it. Both routes cost you nothing.
- 6
Close the door behind you
You
Change passwords on your email account first, not your banking: email is the master key, because it's where password resets land. Turn on two-factor authentication wherever it's offered. If documents were lost or stolen, report the passport or driving licence to the issuing body so it can be flagged. And set a reminder to re-check your credit reports in three months: fraudulent applications sometimes surface long after the original breach.
Contact details and process reflect Action Fraud, CIFAS, the credit reference agencies and National Debtline guidance for England and Wales. Scotland reports fraud through Police Scotland on 101 rather than Action Fraud; the rest of the process is the same. General information, not legal advice: free, independent help is available from National Debtline, Citizens Advice and StepChange.
