Holdwell is a UK current account first. Salary in, direct debits out, contactless on the iPhone, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ATM access. FSCS protected to £85,000. The one thing it can't do is buy you a Sky Bet stake.
Holdwell operates as an Appointed Representative under an FCA-authorised principal. That gives us a regulated home for client money, the Financial Ombudsman Service as the dispute path, and the same consumer protections any UK bank offers, with the gambling block built in at the network layer.
We do not pretend to be a savings app or a budgeting tool. The account is the product and the regulation is the proof.
Your sort code and account number are issued the day you finish KYC. Salary landing, switching direct debits from your old account, scheduled transfers, standing orders, all of it. Contactless on plastic, Apple Pay and Google Pay on day one.
Open banking is built in, read-only, so Anna can see incoming wages or other accounts you want her to see. You stay in control of which feeds count.
MCC 7995 is the gambling merchant code. We refuse it at authorisation. The decline message says "card declined by issuer". There is nothing to remember, nothing to switch on, and no in-app override.
Loosening any control needs a 24-hour cool-off plus your sponsor circle's co-sign. Calm future-you sets the rules. Urgent right-now-you can't break them.