Sally says:

The main winners from you signing up to this syndicate scheme seemed to be Lotto Social itself and your bank, Santander. The former did well, as overall you spent more than you won. Although the syndicates – which spread customers’ contributions across different lotteries – had several wins, these were usually no more than £25 and split between up to 50 players.

You estimate you have personally won just £30 but have now closed your account, preferring to have nothing more to do with the company.

As for Santander, by the time you noticed what was happening, it had earned about £145 from its charges. The bank levies a minimum £3 for any cash advance on its credit card, and because you had unwittingly set up two separate payments as cash advances, you faced a double charge – adding 60pc to the cost of your payments. Ouch! Had you known the consequences, you would never have allowed the payments to Lotto Social to be set up this way.

I asked Santander to revisit your complaint. This prompted a more senior executive to call you and, bingo, the following day, it agreed to repay all your fees and the interest charged. At last, a decent financial win for you.

A spokesman for Santander said: “We understand the customer was not aware that the third party company had set up the recurring payment on his credit card as a cash advance, and we have agreed to refund the £145 that he has paid in charges as a result.”

Your experience serves as a warning to others about these continuous payment authorities, especially those involving a cash advance on a credit card that can trigger extra charges.

Consumer expert Martyn James of the Resolver complaints website, said that your bank should have sought authorisation from you, given the regular nature of the payment. He suggested people often do not realise they have set up such arrangements, having unwittingly done so when signing up for a free trial that they then forget to cancel.

Mr James added: “Continuous payment authorities were designed with the best of intentions – to speed up regular shopping transactions. But instead they have been widely abused as a way to slip sneaky debits onto people’s accounts in the hope they won’t notice. That is why it is vital to check bank and card accounts regularly and claim back any unauthorised payments.”