Depositing Funds to Your Online
Casino & Poker Room Account
by: Andrew Denton
Ways To Deposit
When I first wanted to start playing in online
casinos and poker rooms, I thought it would be as
easy as 123 to start playing surely all you need
to do is to download the software enter your credit
card details and away you go?
Well yes kind of, but you may already have seen
there are a multitude of different payment and
deposit methods available ranging from credit and
debit cards right the way through to the good old
snail mail check!
There are a range of options but it is vitally
important that you choose the right one otherwise
your casino and poker play may not be as rewarding
as you first think.
Credit Cards
Historically credit cards have always been the
first thing people think of when looking to deposit
money and why not these days most of the major
banks offer internet fraud protection and depositing
via credit card is pretty instantaneous so what is
the problem well there could be a few.
1, A lot of US credit card issuers now will not
allow you to use their cards for gambling
transactions, this is also now starting to hit the
rest of the world with other big issuers.
2, Mastercard now prohibit winnings from being re
deposited back onto cards bearing their logo.
3, Some banks both in the US and UK who do allow
their credit cards to be used to deposit money,
account for these transactions slightly differently
and as a result charge interest differently usually
with no interest free period and certainly in the UK
with interest rates in excess of 21% AER.
4, There may also be limits with some online
casinos and online poker rooms on the amount of
money you can deposit and have re deposited back
onto your card so if you win big you may not get it
all back!
Debit Cards
Now becoming more standardised around the world
but used heavily in the UK and Europe, dont tend to
suffer the same restrictions as credit cards and of
course because the money is coming directly out of
your bank account unless you have an overdraft
facility you are not exposed to the excessive
interest rates associated with credit cards.
Bank Transfers
Still used a lot to make payments for bills etc,
one of the biggest issues with bank transfers is the
time funds are not moved immediately so you often
have to wait before you can use your gaming account
for anything upto five days during which lets be
honest the banks will be earning some interest off
your money, and at the same time the banks will
charge you for the privilege of transferring your
money this way.
Online Payment Services
I guess Paypal may well have started this trend
off but now there are a whole host of online payment
services to choose from (Paypal incidentally not
being one of them as when they were took over by
Ebay they stopped allowing Paypal to be used for
casino transactions)
The best known ones are Neteller, Moneybookers,
Western Union & Stormpay but there are others such
as Citadel.
All pretty much offer a similar service in that
you open an account with them for free and you can
then deposit money into them using either a credit
or debit card or by wire transfer etc, once you have
deposited money into them you can then use this
account to deposit and withdraw funds from your
online casino or poker room account in most cases
immediately.
All have a range of different services attached
to them and, obviously they have to make there money
somewhere, a range of different charges as an
example I deposited £25 into my Neteller account
from my UK credit card and was charged a 98p
handling fee by Neteller which was taken directly
off the credit card approx 4% charge which is
quite a lot especially if you are depositing large
amounts into the account.
However one of the main advantages of using
services such as this is that you can accept money
and deposit money in different currencies all
converted at the payment services conversion rates
and you can use one account to fund a range of
different casino and poker accounts and of course
one account to receive all of your winnings!
One final word of caution on this though when
using your credit card to deposit funds into your
payment service account just check with your card
issuer that they do not treat these deposits in the
same way as they would treat a deposit to a casino
and sting you with high rates of interest on the
transaction.
Snail Mail Methods
Need I say anything if you really dont want to
use any of the above or you are scared about leaving
your details on the internet then you can always
send a good old cheque (check!) and wait for it to
clear some (not all) online casinos and poker
rooms accept this method.
Conclusion
There are a myriad of different ways for you to
enjoy your online gaming and deposit and withdraw
money safely, if you do struggle to use your credit
card then one piece of advice which the banks would
kill me for saying is to balance transfer the money
off your credit card into your bank account then use
your debit card to deposit the funds (thus avoiding
the hefty interest charges) be careful though for
balance transfer fees but this is a whole different
article!
About The Author
Andy Denton runs a number of websites including one specifically on
poker strategy and poker site reviews -
http://www.haveaflutter.com and has
extensive experience in the financial services
industry.
This article may only be reproduced if a link
is retained back to
haveaflutter.com |
