This wristband will give you an electric shock if you overspend

Have you ever fully surrendered to the temptation of shopping till your wallet thinned and regret crept up on you? A British company is presenting you with a solution for that –a rather painful one.  

Intelligent Environments has teamed up with Pavlok, a wristband that could “reduce people’s cravings”, to help put brakes on one’s shopping sprees.

The firm, which sells software to banks including HSBC and the Bank of Ireland, was able to connect the wristband to bank accounts. 

The bracelet will release an electric stimulus up to 340 volts once it detects a drop below a certain threshold that the user had previously set in the account the band is linked to. The company’s chief executive David Webber, however, guarantees that the device is “completely secure.”

The spending limits are customized though, but the key to the product, according to Webber, is to “give customers the choice to control how they spend money”.

The brand’s name was inspired by Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov who was known for his work in classical conditioning. Pavlov proved that animals can learn new behaviors through repetitive stimulant.

No bank has yet acquired the technology.

(Photos: Pavlok)