15 April 2023 , 13:38
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A horrified dad has described the moment he checked his 13-year-old son’s bank account, opened to teach him about saving, to find he’d spent £1,500 on video games in just weeks.
Daren Collins set up under 19s bank accounts for his three kids with Lloyds to teach them about saving, and so their mother, who lives in Malaysia, could send money across.
But the 56-year-old said he was “knocked sideways” after checking into 13-year-old son Anese's account and finding just £4 remaining, when there should have been around £1,500.
Anese spent hundreds on Oculus Quest - a VR headset developed by Oculus, which is a part of Facebook - blowing £900 across 40 purchases between February 27 and 29 alone, Teeside Live reports.
The fuming dad was forced to scramble to get the money back arguing that Lloyds Bank "should have some sort of responsibility" after not flagging the huge spending.
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Anese with the consoles he bought games for (Teessidelive)Daren has since received a £208 refund from Microsoft, as well as money from Meta. Lloyds Bank has since agreed to refund the amount he spent, minus what Google, Meta, and Microsoft have already refunded to him, as a "gesture of goodwill".
Anese and his father opened an under 19s account, which is an option for parents who want their children to manage their money more independently. Lloyds Bank said Daren asked for a debit card for Anese, so he could make his own payments, as well as for online banking to be set up.
Describing the situation as a "nightmare," Daren, from Middlesbrough, said: "They have got these bank accounts and I put money into his savings and whatnot. The kids both have £1,500 in their bank accounts and I check them frequently. I checked Anese's last week and he had £4 left in his bank account."
Daren said his main gripe was that Anese had been allowed to make 40 transactions in a small space of time. He went into a branch and spoke with the manager, but says he was told the bank could not help out at the time.
"I make irregular spending in my bank account I get a phone call from the bank," Daren continued. "If I am making any purchases via my credit cards, then I have got to go via my app.
"He is 13-years-old, and he has got a child's bank account, is there, not a way where it is flagged, or somebody is contacted? 40 purchases to me it is absurd.
VR technology like the Oculus has been hailed as the next generation in gaming (Getty Images/iStockphoto)"I spoke to the bank manager and said surely you must take some sort of responsibility for this. You are holding his money - to allow a 13-year-old to make so many purchases unchecked. All of these unflagged."
Daren said his main gripe is with the purchases between February 27 and 29, where £900 was spent. He was hoping the bank could sort out a "goodwill gesture" of some sort.
He explained: "There are going to be lots of parents whose children have bank accounts and maybe they have monitored them slightly more than I did. I mean I do monitor them every six or eight weeks but it is his bank account.
"I have been bringing them up as a single parent for the last 10 or 11 years. I accept that I make mistakes and this is a mistake.
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"But I personally have five accounts with Lloyds, the children have got their children's accounts, and I thought Lloyds would have empathised and could have done just the one day, and help out there."
He claims he was told the reason the spending was not flagged was "because the IP address was all the same."
Despite the upset, he has managed to get some funds back from the huge amount lost. He received £208 back from Microsoft, which runs Xbox, and although Daren said Meta stated its terms and conditions for not refunding in-app purchases, it refunded the cost of a game which was around £30.
He said: "My main gripe isn't with the vendors or merchants who have both tried to do something." He appreciates that Meta and Microsoft both "made an effort".
Daren is now in the process of switching the children's banks over to Natwest following the ordeal. It comes at a poor time as he was saving for the kids to go on holiday, which he had just booked for summer, so they could visit their mother in Thailand.
Since Daren spoke with Teesside Live, he has successfully been able to get the money refunded. Daren thanked the companies for agreeing to refund the money.
The bank confirmed that 40 payments were made between February 27 and 29, which were not stopped because they were approved by the account holder, Anese, and each transaction was relatively small and made over three days from a known device and location. They were also "not far outside Anese’s usual pattern of spending".
The Lloyds Bank team has also had a chat with Daren about further ways he can monitor Anese’s usage of the account.
A Lloyds Bank spokesperson said: "Keeping a close eye on children’s online activities, and making full use of parental controls, will help them stay safe and avoid accidental over-spending. Parents can also set up mobile alerts to receive updates about activity on their child’s account.”
A spokesperson for Xbox EMEAUKI declined to comment. Teesside Live has contacted Meta for comment.