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A bit of info for you if you have old credit balances lying around in internet betting accounts. I’m not sure if this is normal practice with all bookmakers (I hope not, as if it is I’ve got more issues to sort), but it certainly seems to be the case with Ladbrokes.
I’ve had a Ladbrokes internet betting for an awful long time. It has been left with a small balance in it of £24.12 for years (which was my money, not promotional money or a free bet).
I logged into the account on New Year Day, with the plan to top it up & have a bet at Cheltenham. These bookmaker websites are very good these days & have nearly everything, including their own messaging services.
As I rarely visit this account, I thought I’d open the messages in the inbox. To my amazement, the first one was advising me they would be deducting a regular monthly admin fee of either 5% of the balance (or mimimum £2 whichever was greater). The next three at monthly intervals were advising me of money they were taking from my account. If I had not of logged in by chance, they would have eventually reduced my account to £0.
Their idea of advising me in writing, seems to be to send me a message to the said dormant internet account, which seems a bit silly as they know it’s dormant.
In fairness to them, I moaned at them & they have refunded the withdrawals they have taken from the account.
The irony is I probably stake a fair amount of money with them on other platforms (mostly in cash). Can’t help feeling this is rather sharp practice & I don’t want to deal with them again. How angry should I be ?
Dear Customer,
We recently wrote to you about an Administrative Fee which would be applied to your Ladbrokes account.The Fee has now been taken from your account and was calculated as either £2 (or currency equivalent) or 5% of the balance on the date at which your account became inactive, whichever is greater. When calculating the charge, we have included balances from all wallets (including poker, casino etc). The Fee itself has been taken from the Sportsbook wallet and this may result in a negative balance if funds were held elsewhere.
If your account retains a total positive balance a further Fee will become due on the 1st day of every subsequent month. To prevent further Administration Fees, please reactivate your account or withdraw your balance. Please note: No Fee will be deducted beyond that which would take the aggregate of all balances into a position below £0.
Laddies are far from being the only bookie to have instituted what I believe is refered to in the trade as ‘the graverobbing clause’.
The UK Gambling Comission’s wonderful light touch regulation strikes again. You won’t find these clauses applying to customers from terretories with proper regulation (eg Australia).
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