MSE News: Had a flutter on the Grand National? Beware you're not charged an inactivit

ThumbRemote

davethorp wrote: »

I don't think you are getting the point? Why would anyone leave money in a bookmakers online account having won? Especially for a year as they would have to do to fall foul of the issues highlighted by the article. At which point there would be another grand national and presumably the punter would log in to their account, discover the money and bet it on the subsequent year.

A none story from MSE which isn't exactly unusual these days

I'm not sure you entirely understand the point of a Praise, Vent and Warnings forum. Where people post warnings. To warn about things.

Former_MSE_Paloma

MSE update: Friday 17 April, 6.26pm: Since publishing this article Coral has got in touch to tell us it does NOT charge a dormancy fee, when it previously told us it did. It has apologised for this error and says it's making it a priority to update its terms and conditions, which also wrongly say an inactivity fee is applicable. We have updated the story to reflect this.

paddyrg

Why would anyone leave money in an account?

Perhaps they're not regular punters, and want to have a bet on (some other big event several months away) without all the hassle of sending copies of driving licences, summoning dark spirits, etc like the bingo sites force you to.

davethorp

ThumbRemote wrote: »

I'm not sure you entirely understand the point of a Praise, Vent and Warnings forum. Where people post warnings. To warn about things.

Thanks for that. I might make a post then to warn people about the possibility of giant space badgers invading the earth. Something which is far more likely than anyone being affected by this MSE story :money:

ThumbRemote

davethorp wrote: »

Thanks for that. I might make a post then to warn people about the possibility of giant space badgers invading the earth. Something which is far more likely than anyone being affected by this MSE story :money:

Another fine example of the "this hasn't happened to me, therefore it can't happen to anyone, anywhere, ever" mentality exhibited by many posters on these boards.

It happens to people. How about starting with post 6 on this very thread for some examples.

thelawnet wrote: »

Lots of people have been charged these fees, it's not 1 person.

Example: http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25173

This guy was charged over £2,000 by Ladbrokes: http://forum.punterslounge.com/threads/134046-Ladbrokes-Check-out-this-screenshot-I-feel-absolutely-robbed!-Anything-I-can-do

davethorp

Ok and of the two examples given how many of them ticked boxes when signing up for the sites in question saying they had read the terms and conditions? And how many of them were telling the truth?

JReacher1

If you leave over £2k in a betting account and then don't touch the account for over a year then you've got more money than sense!

Its a strangely ridiculous warning and I do wonder why MSE have bothered with the article. They appear to be aiming in at a very small audience. It's not a mainstream consumer problem.

JReacher1

thelawnet wrote: »

I don't think you are getting the point. The article is timely because at this time of year more people than usual place bets, because of the Grand National.

Some of these people who placed those seasonal National bets will, not today, but in future, at a time varying according to the gambling firm, be charged a dormancy fee. So the purpose of the article is to draw people's attention to that fact.

The issue of dormancy fees applies 365 days a year, but from a consumer perspective, now, when all the National bets have been resolved, is a good time to address it and warn people that their bookies cash is not safe - leave £50 in Lloyds and it will still be there in a year's time, leave £50 in a supposedly reputable bookies like Mansion, and in 12 months time they will have confiscated it all.

I gamble a lot at many bookmakers and I've never heard of mansion. They seem a funny choice to use as an example!

jobbingmusician

Strangely enough I (who hate bookies!) am not against this practice as long as bookies warn people.

To be fair to them, what are they supposed to do if someone opens an account and then doesn't contact them again? Hold the money for ever? Supposing the account holder has died and not told his relatives about the account?

As long as the bookie makes every attempt to contact the punter I think it's completely fair. (If they want to write, I wouldn't even object to the REALISTIC cost of producing a letter being deducted from the account, if email contact had failed. They should try every avenue to contact the punter before confiscating the money.)

And I speak as someone who has hundreds of online bookie accounts (and I'm not that great at remembering to empty them )

(I must say that Coral made me laugh though. Typical incompetent Customer Service!!!!)

ljonski

i got an email from Totesport - threatening to confiscate my funds in 7 days! :eek:

Never realised that i had anything in there until i opened it