Banking Apps Let Users Ban Themselves From Gambling And Drinking
In a move that is designed to allow consumers to take control of their finances like never before, the bank Barclays became the first of the major high street chains to allow its users to block payments on general categories, such as ‘gambling’.
It is being seen as an excellent move for those that have problems with things such as gambling and drinking, given that users of the bank’s mobile app can select a specific category in order to block any money from being spent with them.
Whilst there are obviously ways to get around the self-imposed ban, such as withdrawing cash and going to a betting shop in person, it makes life much more difficult for people to spend money on something that they don’t really want to spend it on. Obviously it is much more difficult to bet online if you can’t use your debit card to transfer funds to an online account.
How The Bank Spending Ban Works
Barclays have come up with a pre-assigned set of categories that users can ‘turn off’ the ability to pay for with their debit card. At the time of writing, these categories are as follows:
- Gambling
- Premium Rate Websites & Phone Lines
- Restaurants, Food Outlets, Pubs & Bars
- Petrol & Diesel
- Groceries & Supermarkets
It was a system that non-traditional banks were already using, with the mobile-only bank Monzo offering the ability to block similar payments because vulnerable customers were asking for the feature.
Monzo and fellow mobile-only bank Starling gave customers the option to impose a 48-hour block on specific transaction types in order to stop them from doing something ‘in the heat of the moment’.
If a customer attempts to make a payment to one of the categories that has been ‘turned off’ the payment will be declined automatically. The bank worked with the Money & Mental Health Policy Institute and the Money Advice Trust, identifying the sort of people who would most benefit from the initiative coming into effect.
Will It Make A Difference To Gambling Addiction?
It is clear that those that want to gamble will find a way to do so. Many high street bookmakers allow punters to pay cash in in the shop and then use that money online, meaning that you can get money into your online account even without using your bank’s debit card.
Yet the reality is that that will take people having to get cash in the first place, go to their local bookmaker and pay that money in, as well as having an account online with that bookie in the first place.
The fact that the system within the banking app allows you to turn off the ability to make payments to certain categories of business will make life more difficult for those that tend to gamble online using their debit card. For plenty of people, the activity being that little bit more tricky to do can be the difference between gambling and not.
Andy Gray lost £100,000 in a year he thought it was a brilliant idea, having turned to his debit card when cash from his business ‘wasn’t available’ to bet with.
Opinions About The New Spending Ban System
The Money & Mental Health Policy Institute was set up by Martin Lewis, the personal finance expert. He has described the combination of debt and mental health problems as a ‘marriage made in hell’, believe that giving people ‘more options for control’ allows them to take power away from their illness.
Lewis said, “Many with mental health issues struggle to control their spending – whether through gambling, shopping or premium phone lines – and I commonly hear from people with thousands of pounds of debt as a result”.
The Chief Executive of Gamble Aware, Marc Etches, was also enthusiastic about Barclays work and said that he encouraged ‘other banks to do the same’. He drew attention to the 340,000 problem gamblers in the United Kingdom and the £1.7 million further people at risk, saying, “initiatives like this can play an important role in helping to reduce gambling-related harms”.
It was a theme echoed by the Secretary or State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Jeremy Wright, who said, “Using technology for good must be a priority for all businesses”.
Who Is Eligible To Use The Banking Gambling Ban
The feature is open to all customers of Barclays that use the bank’s mobile app and have a debit card, with the bank hoping to allow credit card customers to use it in the future too.
That fits in with the most recent news from the government and the Gambling Commission that they are considered banning the use of credit cards for gambling as a condition of their license agreement. Customers can also request to be banned from any of the various categories by going into one of the physical banks or using telephone banking.
It seems that other banks have also followed suit, with the likes of Santander, Lloyds and the Royal Bank of Scotland introducing similar schemes with their own mobile banking apps.
Given that mobile-only banks such as Monzo and Starling led the way with this sort of thing, it’s natural that more traditional banks would take advantage of the most popular features.
If you’re looking at your own personal situation and wondering if this is something that you can use then it will definitely be worth speaking to your bank and asking them if it’s a feature that they offer or plan to in the future, or if not moving to one of these banks to take advantage of the option.
Is It The Solution To The Gambling Problem?
The obvious question that comes next is whether or not this is necessarily the right solution to the issue of problem gambling. Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Doctor Henrietta Bowden-Jones of the Royal College of Psychiatrists said, “If you are unable to access funds, this type of gambling block can save people’s homes and their families”.
The problem with this argument is that, at the time of writing, both Barclays and Starling allow you to turn the feature off immediately. In order to make the system more viable for people that genuinely want to limit their gambling it is likely that they will follow Monzo’s route of requiring 48 hours notice to lift the restriction put in plover by using the feature. That may then be long enough to allow people to cool off and think about their action.
