Sophie is the mother of two children, including a 4-month-old baby. From one day to the next, she found herself without a cent and banned from banking. She tells us what happened and how she managed, not without difficulty, to get out of this situation.
Sophie* is the mother of two children, a 5-year-old girl and a 4-month-old boy. Married for 7 years, she seems happy and fulfilled alongside her family for whom everything succeeds. “We bought an apartment in the north of France, a spacious car to drive the children to school and plan short family weekends… We didn’t lack for anything and I even managed to save a little money aside, because I am more of a far-sighted nature when it comes to our finances“. Her husband works in a bank and the young mother takes advantage of her maternity leave, before resuming her consulting activity as a self-employed person. An ideal status for the young woman of 35, who can organize her work freely , depending on his family life.
But while she was planning to book a vacation, buy clothes for her children, stock up on groceries… In short, to spend to please herself, but above all for the needs of the family… She realizes that all the couple’s money has vanished. Sohie was far from imagining running out of money one day, she who has never been “in the red”!
“I remember going shopping at the supermarket for my baby: when I went to the checkout, when I had put diapers and milk powder, purees and small pots on the mat… The cashier said to me that my bank card does not go through. I then tried again by typing my code, thinking that there had been an error with the “contactless” option, but it was impossible to validate the amount!” she tells us. In shock, she immediately calls her bank and understands that it is listed as “Bank of France”.
“It was our joint account and I never got into the habit of checking the status of our account, I naively thought that everything was fine, especially since my husband is a bank advisor…”, she confides to us. One thing led to another, and she learned that her husband was quite simply addicted to gambling: casinos, poker evenings with friends… The losses piled up, he never stopped of wanting to repay his debts, and always hopes to earn even more.
To protect herself and especially her children, Sophie had to give up all her material possessions: her apartment, her car… “We had too many credits on our hands and debts to repay from one day to the next. So we sold everything we could, and returned to live with my parents, with the children, for more than a year, the time to rebuild our financial health.“.
Finally, Sophie had to make the difficult decision to separate from her husband who continued to lie to her in order to play, again and again. Today she is happy and fulfilled with a new companion, with whom she has rebuilt her life. As for her ex-husband, he continues to play (reasonably) while realizing, this time, what he has really lost.
*First names have been changed