Holdwell is a sequence, not a switch. A two-minute assessment, a card that arrives in the post, a coach you talk to before bed, a circle of people who get a tidy Sunday digest, and a streak that earns you trust as it climbs. We walk you through it.
You answer the Problem Gambling Severity Index (the nine PGSI questions used by NHS clinics) plus six Holdwell-specific items. We classify your pattern into one of six profiles and tell you, in plain English, what the app will do for you.
You see the result before you sign up. You decide from there.
KYC takes about three minutes (we use Vouchsafe). The card is printed and posted the same day. While you wait, your Holdwell account is already a working current account: Apple Pay, Google Pay, contactless, direct debits, and the MCC 7995 block from minute one.
You can switch your salary in or run alongside an existing account for a month. Most people switch fully by day fourteen.
One open question every morning. Ten seconds to answer. By the second week Anna knows the shape of your week, the days that are hard, the times that get loud. When an urge hits, you tap her and she runs the urge-surfing protocol from CBT4G. Most urges peak within twelve minutes. She stays in the chat until the peak is past.
Anna chats are private. Sponsors never see what was said. The only thing they see is "Anna check-in" in the weekly digest.
You invite up to three people. They each go through a five-minute onboarding with Anna so the first relapse alert isn't the first time they see one. The Sunday digest is a single screen: streak count, balance trend, blocked-MCC count, any cool-off you opened. No transactions. No chat content.
Big changes need their co-sign: raising a daily limit, expanding ATM region, loosening any of the controls. Two thumbs from any two sponsors and the change goes through. None and it stays exactly where you set it last Sunday.
Thirty consecutive clean days unlocks the consolidation loan and one optional card-control relaxation. The loan is priced on the new streak data, paid directly to your existing debts, and replaces them with one fixed monthly Holdwell repayment. If a payment ever fails, Repayment Hold replaces collections: schedule pauses, Anna books a short session, you re-plan together.
You don't have to take the loan. The unlock is yours.
You need a UK address, an email, a phone number, and one photo ID (driving licence or passport). The whole sign-up takes about ten minutes if you have your ID handy. We never ask for a credit file at sign-up. Affordability checks only run if you ask for the loan on day 30.
You see your profile result before you sign up. No card details until you say yes.
Take the assessment