desperate for help please!

bankingworries

Hi please can someone give me some advice as I am really worried.

In short I have past problems with gambling addiction but after 3 years have managed to get my credit file half decent and managed to get a new bank account with Halifax, just a normal bank account with no overdraft agreed or anything but I have a bank card and direct debits etc etc

My problem is last night I tried to use my bank account on an online gambling site (betfair) even though I knew I didn't have enough money in my bank account (don't ask why this is something illogical I do due to gambling addiction) however to my shock and surprise the deposit cleared (£200) this was a shock to me and so I tried again and it cleared again.

Now this is where I no doubt will lose peoples understanding but for whatever reason I continued the depositing until I had deposited over £5,000 (I don't have an overdraft agreed with the bank account)

I have no lost all that money as is always the case with a gambler however I would like to ask if it is fair and proper practice for the bank (Halifax) to allow me to deposit so much money to a gambling site without an agreed overdraft, surely red flags should have come up before such an amount could be deposited?

Please please can someone give me any advice on who to speak to if anyone?

*PS I don't blame anyone for my own problems they are something I accept and deal with in my own way I just feel maybe the bank are also at fault and perhaps I can get the overdraft amount (now over 5k) reduced or cancelled?

innovate

You should seek the help of gamcare http://www.gamcare.org.uk/

Also, all gambling sites allow self-exclusion. Do this now, whilst you realise that you should not have used the site.

You are not likely to get the overdraft cancelled because you spent the money. But you should immediately speak to Halifax to see a repayment arrangement. Don't wait with that since you will now get charged every day for your overdraft. You should have attended to this issue during the day today.

pmduk

It's the type of situation where banks are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Fortunately you aren't asking for sympathy as I suspect it will be in short supply on this board. You might want to consider a basic bank account as well as excluding yourself from such sites. I wish you well with your fight against addiction.

marlewuk

its embedded in most bank t&cs that if you try to use the card when there isn't enough funds then they'll treat it as a request to go into an unplanned overdraft

might be worth complaining that it let you go over by so much, they wont wipe the debt but at least this could ensure it doesn't happen to anyone else

you could write fca about this too so they could crack down on all the banks

Smithers37

marlewuk wrote: »

its embedded in most bank t&cs that if you try to use the card when there isn't enough funds then they'll treat it as a request to go into an unplanned overdraft

might be worth complaining that it let you go over by so much, they wont wipe the debt but at least this could ensure it doesn't happen to anyone else

you could write fca about this too so they could crack down on all the banks

Like pmduk said... It's the type of situation where banks are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

The OP has accepted that it was their own doing, and the banks have done nothing wrong. Complaining to the FCA about going in to a unplanned over draft is like complaining to Ford that people don't give way to the right on roundabouts.

I hope OP sorts their issues out soon.

jonesMUFCforever

Have the actual transactions CLEARED for use by the bookies?
Have they actually debited your bank account?

SuperAllyB

Presumably, as the OP says he has no(w) lost all that money.

jonesMUFCforever

It is not clear as he says ''I have no lost all that money'' but if it is a typo and he meant to say now instead of no then you are right.


However he has a point when if a balance on his account is nil and the bank 'agrees' to let him withdraw £5k there must be a glitch in the system somewhere - as he certainly would not have been allowed to withdraw the cash at a branch to actually walk into a bookie to gamble.

GingerFurball_2

Depends how the gambling site authorised the transaction.

It's another sad case of someone acting irresponsibly and looking to shift the blame elsewhere though.

bankingworries

Hi sorry for the typo, yes the answer was I have now lost all the money and so the funds/payments cleared and have also left my bank.

I am not looking to find a way to blame someone else, in fact quite the opposite I know this is my own fault and is a constant drain on my life however I am a little bit shocked, surprised and dissapointed that the banks let me go £5k overdrawn when it was only 9 mths ago that they refused mean upgrade from a basic to a normal bank account (I now have upgraded)

I presume I am going to have to phone the bank direct and seek solice/find an agreement, will they stop any charges if I make an agreement as I can pay the money back over the next 12-16 weeks?

Any more advice please post I am really worried right now and don't want to get in the same position as before.

*For those who have no sympathy, it is OK I do not seek it, I do go to the relevant GA meetings, I do try block myself from Gambling and I do always tell myself that I won't do this again but I am human and have a set DNA which means I screw up, also the blocks that can be put in place are just as easy to get around if someone is determined enough

Thanks for the replies so far!

warwicktiger

Interesting situation, I wonder if someone could gamble away their pension post under the budget proposals?