Credit card junkies who splurge too much cash during shopping frenzies could soon be punished for their extravagant lifestyle—courtesy of a planned IoT banking platform that delivers an electric shock to folk who overspend.

Surrey-based Intelligent Environments claimed that its Interact IoT service will connect a bank account to the devices such as the Nest thermostat or a Pavlok wristband. However, there's a rather major stumbling block: it's yet to secure a deal with any UK banks.

The outfit's platform—dubbed the "IFTTT for money"—could apparently allow bank customers to set spending restrictions together with what punishment will be dished out if they fail to stick to their limit.

The Pavlok wristband, which raised some £193,000 on Indiegogo in 2014, vibrates or gives its owner a 255 volt shock. The gizmo is named after the famous physiologist Ivan Pavlov and was devised to help people break bad habits. The idea being that once a user surpasses their spending limit, they'll receive an electric shock to remind them about financial discipline.

The Nest thermostat, on the other hand, could automatically turn the temperature down in someone's home when their bank account balance is low. Intelligent Environments—citing Energy Saving Trust data—said that a three degrees drop in temp could save the average household roughly £255 a year.

Communications on the platform are, we're told, secured with AES 128-bit encryption and TLS 1.2. Due to security concerns, the platform has been built to prevent the connected devices from communicating back to the bank.

A spokesperson at the firm told Ars that it anticipated "strong demand from banks and credit card companies that want to give their customers more control over their finances." It additionally hopes to add other devices to the platform, including smart meters and connected lights.

As of today, the company's platform remains very much at the concept stage, given that no UK banks have struck an agreement with Intelligent Environments.

"The plan is for banks and credit card companies to buy the technology off us," the spokesperson added. "It is up to the banks to decide how they incorporate it into their wider propositions. Our expectation is that banks would incorporate IoT features as part of their service offering and therefore would not place any additional charges on to their customers."