Payment Methods

Have you ever decided that yes you were going to sign up for something, or open an account just to be confronted with so many different payment methods that you don’t know whether you are coming or going? And the problem with most of these sites is that they don’t tell you what the differences is between all of these methods they just assume that you know. Well, this happened to me quite a lot and so I decided finally that I was going to do a little research, and this is what I came up with.

It seems that most payment methods are divided into 5 main types, namely, credit cards and debit cards, e-wallets, transfers, checks and pre-paid cards. Credit cards are credit cards; no need for any explanation there, and checks or bank drafts are pretty straightforward too.

The pre-paid card an example of which is the EcoCard, is a virtual credit card with which you can make all sorts of transactions online without putting your real credit card information at risk, or indeed any of your personal details. Many people prefer the pre-paid card precisely for its anonymity which is coupled with swift transactions, free payment, simple registration and ever growing market recognition.

E-wallets are the most numerous of payment methods available, and often preferred by online institutions. The idea behind an e-wallet is that rather than giving websites your credit card details, you use an in-between financial services provider – this is the e-wallet provider. The advantages of using an e-wallet is that only one website has your personal details, i.e. your e-wallet provider, and all the sites that you purchase things from have your details from that site only. This means a number of things. Firstly, because it’s all online, transactions are nearly always instantaneous. Secondly, it’s far more secure than giving your credit card details to all and sundry. There are loads of these e-wallet providers, some of the biggest being Neteller, Moneybookers, Firepay and Click2pay. Most of these companies will give you a choice of your preferred currency, will have free or very low transfer charges, will offer immediate credit, will pay funds to a site and receive funds from that site, and will offer inter-account transfers. Using these types of methods are often rewarded by casinos with top-up bonuses: Always worth checking out.

Wire transfers and bank transfers will appear quite regularly as options. The good things about them are that they involve no giving of information on line, and in the case of wire transfers, a bank account is not a prerequisite. However, these options usually have a longer transfer period, and more often than not are a one way street meaning that you can credit a casino account with a wire transfer, but when it comes to withdrawing your winnings you would have to request a check/banks draft or find an alternative methods of receiving your money. This is what I found out, I hope it’s useful!