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 |
