Moving money with speed, comfort and, in general, safety is a key factor in your online gambling enjoyment. You want to quickly upload funds to your favourite sites, transfer your winnings wherever you want or access your account balance 24/7.
Depending on your priorities, the quality of payment providers varies, but many online casinos now offer a wide range of fast, secure and easy-to-use payment methods (and withdrawal options).
Let’s take you in the online gambling world through some popular payment methods.
Credit and Debit Cards
These are the cards you use for your day-to-day finances and the online casino payment process is close to online shopping for information.
Most casinos are happy to accept them, but processing fees vary, some will gratuitously allow you to deposit or withdraw-others may not.
- VISA
- VISA Electron
- MasterCard
- Maestro
- American Express
- Discover cards are commonly accepted.
Payment methods like VISA are focussed on, so for example, casinos will offer visa casino bonuses for VISA customers and cardholders.
Digital Wallets
If you are looking for an alternative secure way of paying then Digital Wallets are great for online gambling (sometimes called e-wallets). They’re licenced by many sportsbooks and casinos.
They allow you to transfer money from your wallet to your preferred gambling website quickly and easily. Your financial details are covered because only your electronic wallet is seen by the online gambling provider, not your bank/card details.
It works like this:
- open a wallet and connect your cards, bank accounts or alternative payment information
- Transfer funds from the wallet to the gambling site
- Move funds from the wallet to the wallet move winnings back to the wallet and transfer them using the wallet or return them to your card or bank.
- Funds pass immediately and there is no fee on many occasions.
While there are a number of free upload options, the wallet provider charges when you upload or withdraw funds–online banking or debit card is usually free. If you withdraw from a pocket, there’s almost always a fee.
Wallets provide safety and flexibility, speed and comfort-not to use long numbers of credit cards. These also look to alternative methods of payment so that people who do not have access to conventional products such as big-name banks or credit cards can still load funds into their wallet with other ways to use with top online bookmakers.
The big three are Skrill, NETELLER and Paysafecard, now owned by one company (Paysafe).
PayPal is also an option, even though its gambling coverage is much lower than the three above. Also common are WebMoney and EcoPayz.
Prepaid Cards and Instant Payment Services
Prepaid cards work like a debit card, but rather than withdrawing funds from an account or lending facility, they need to be converted to cash before you spend.
This makes the control and tracking of expenditure easier. Only by being able to spend what you load on the card can you avoid debt.
Some are physical cards, some are digital, which means you have the numbers you need to enter to’ pay by card,’ but no physical card. There are instant transfers.
Fees vary by company and can be applied as a percentage or flat fee for account deposits or transactions. However, online casinos will not charge you to deposit with a prepaid card, including those listed below:
- paysafecard (former UKash service owner and operator)
- EntroPay
Instant payment services function as a’ middle man’ between your bank and the online casino. You may want to keep your banking separate from playing online, and these services will help you do that
Instant payment services enable you to make online deposits and pay merchants using a login and password to make your payments using funds from your bank account. There are usually instant transactions. Most are free to use, but a small transaction charge applies to some.
Online casinos that will not charge you for instant payment are: ClickandBuy Click2Pay iDebit (formerly Instadebit)
Direct Bank Transfers to Your Account
Bank Transfers include transferring funds directly from your bank account to your online casino without any intermediaries.
Because it is a direct transfer, usually there are no charges.
Bank Wire Use the account details of the online casino to transfer funds either in a branch or through online banking.
