Barclays Bank Offers Option For Blocking Gambling Transactions

Barclays has become the first UK high street bank and a financial institution in general to provide a service of blocking certain payments to their clients; for instance, the most vulnerable players can use the bank’s self-excluding system to halt gambling transactions.

The bank has presented its brand-new mobile app feature…

…which was developed with help from debt charity Money Advice Trust – on December 11th and it will let customers choose a category of a retailer – for instance online casinos – they want to block transactions from by simply pressing a button.

The same can also be achieved by visiting a bank branch or via telephone banking:

Once the retailer that the customer has been self-excluded from is turned off, it will automatically prevent and decline transactions if any are attempted by the client.

Barclays has used the Money Advice Trust research to boil the app down to five retailer categories which clients wanted to have control over:

• gambling
• restaurants, pubs and bars
• petrol and diesel
• groceries and restaurants
• rate websites and phone lines

Comments Barclays’ managing director Catherine McGrath:

“This new control feature is the latest new service that we have introduced in the Barclays mobile banking app that aims to give all of our customers a better way to manage their money in a simple, secure and effective way.”

A Wide Array of Issues Covered

Barclay’s initiative will, besides gambling, also extend to those who have issues with excessive shopping and even alcoholism, barring them from making transactions in pubs, bars and some websites.

The app feature is currently available to all UK debit card holders…

…and will soon be made available for credit card s too.

Money Advice Trust has collaborated closely with Money and Mental Health Policy Institute. Together, they’ve conducted a research from which they identified the type of clients with mental health issues and addiction problems who would benefit the most from this feature.

The Importance of Immediate Action

Money and Mental Health Policy Institute’s, Martin Lewis – a founder of MoneySavingExpert.com – has said that making something more difficult to do is slowing people down, which gives them time to change their minds multiple times – and avoiding slowness is vital when dealing with impulse control.

He added: “Many with mental health issues struggle to control their spending — whether through gambling, shopping or phone lines — and I commonly hear from people with thousands of pounds of debt as a result.”

Lewis stressed that one of the reasons he instated this charity is because people with mental health and addiction issues commonly end up being in terrible debts…

…and, as he says, pleas for help are commonly heard from those already thousands of pounds in debt. “Mental health and debt is a marriage made in hell”, he points out and finishes by saying that he “applauds Barclays for being the first major bank to sit up, take note and act… I hope the other bands will follow suit.”

Source:

“barclays lets customers block gambling transactions”, Naomi Schraer, moneysavingexpert.com, December 11, 2018.