Depositing is the first thing you do in a casino after you have made your account. Withdrawal is the last thing, and we decided to make sure both of them don’t cause any inconvenience to you. We will make sure you feel like you made the best choice when picking a casino and a payment provider. Therefore, we decided to list all the top payment providers and their special characteristics.
We offer the basic facts on online gambling payments and list the most common payment options and their pros and cons. Sometimes the deposit and withdrawal options might seem confusing as you might have never heard of some of the providers but after reading this article, you will feel like a fish in the water when it comes to online gambling payments.
What do I need to know about online gambling payments?
Privacy and security
One of our top priorities is keeping your money safe from any harmful people, such as scammers or hackers. Therefore, please remember to NEVER give your credit card credentials, online banking codes or any other passwords or vulnerable information to any people ever. If a customer support operator of an online gambling company, for example, asks you for such things, in general, you should not answer. If you are unsure if the company is secure, we would suggest moving your business elsewhere straight away. If you are sure the company is secure and trustworthy, as any of the big operators, such as Unibet and LeoVegas, which are stock listed companies, then you should ask for a second opinion from some other customer support agent via different contact method.
Casino payment methods are usually extremely safe and secure. If you choose a site which we have listed on our site, you have nothing to worry about.
All in all, all the online gambling companies we list on our site are secure and trustworthy. If we hear otherwise, we will remove them from our site as soon as possible. The sites we list, use top-notch security and privacy, such as SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption, which makes it pretty much impossible for any 3rd party to capture your money or credentials. Therefore, you can feel safe and sound when using any of the payment methods on the online casinos we list on our site.
Pro tip: If you want an added layer of security, use eWallets, such as Skrill, with two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication means that Skrill will first ask your password and then a special encryption key, which you can check for example through your phone.
Set your limits
Many online casinos out there are responsible nowadays, as they should. One of the ways they show it is the ability for you to set your own deposit limits. This will make sure you won’t play more than you intended or play at certain times of day, for example, e.g., weekend nights when you might come home after few pints. If you already feel that you have been playing too much and gaming is not fun anymore for you, please consult UK’s best responsible gaming organization GamCare.
Fees
No one wants to pay fees, but such is the business that sometimes you need to pay a deposit and withdrawal fees if you choose a certain payment provider. For example, credit cards incur almost always some sort of fees, but e-wallets don’t. There is a trick to that since e-wallets usually charge you when you move the money from the e-wallet to your personal bank account or withdraw money from your e-wallet account using an ATM and a debit card associated with your e-wallet account.
Pro tip: Always check the fees! Usually, you will find a payment option that will incur no fees to you neither on deposit or withdrawal.
List of online casino payment options
Credit and debit cards
Debit cards are directly connected to your bank account. Whatever deposit you make, this amount will be taken from your bank account. Unlike debit cards, credit cards are not connected to your bank account as paying with a credit card is basically taking a short-term loan from your bank. Usually, debit card payments are free or incur small charges, but credit card payments will incur fees pretty much always.
Visa
Visa and MasterCard are the most common payment options provided by online casinos. It is a credit card payment with instant deposits and fast payouts. The con of the Visa card is the fees as most of the casinos charge a fee when you make a deposit and withdrawal with Visa.
MasterCard
As stated above, MasterCard is one of the most common payment options out there. It is fast and secure, but like Visa, there is usually a fee taken when you make a deposit or withdrawal. The fee can vary between 0-5% or sometimes a small fixed fee.
Visa Debit, Mastercard Debit and Visa Electron
Common and secure cards that offer easy and usually free gaming. We suggest using these cards as usually there are no fees since the money comes straight from your bank account. Top choice!
Maestro
Maestro is owned by MasterCard. It is the debit card service provided by the company. You might have a prepaid Maestro or the normal Maestro debit card. These both will give you instant and secure payments with small or no fees. Maestro is not common anymore in the UK as most of the banks have changed it to other cards.
PaysafeCard
PaysafeCard is a prepaid payment system, which provides safe and extremely simple payments. You can buy these cards or add money to them with cash. This eliminates the need for sharing your bank or credit card details. If you value security and anonymity, this is a good choice. Usually, there is no fee taken when using the card, but you need to pay a small fee when you buy the card or add money to it.
Virtual cards
There is no actual plastic or material existence connected to virtual cards. A virtual card is a card number connected to your actual card, in this case usually a credit card.
EcoPayz and Entropay are one of the most common virtual payment card providers out there. They are trustworthy with the payments, but there might be extra fees associated.
E-wallets
E-wallets or digital wallets are online sites that store your money and allow you to make transactions using it. Using e-wallets, you can make payments and money transfers through the Internet with low costs. Usually, these payments are free, but the wallet providers will charge you fees when you withdraw the money from their system.
PayPal
American e-wallet company called Paypal is one of the most known e-wallets out there, but it hasn’t landed that big in the online gaming business. The biggest reason for this is that the gambling operators need to pay the transactions, making the PayPal transfers an attractive option for you. You can find a couple of PayPal casinos in the UK.
Skrill
Skrill, formerly known as Moneybookers, is a worldwide online payments company founded in 2001. It is exceptionally trustworthy, offers top-notch security, excellent customer support and instant payments with quick withdrawals. Skrill is our top pick for e-wallets.
Neteller
Neteller is one of the most common e-wallets provided by gaming providers. It is almost as good as Skrill but in our opinion, but Skrill offers better security, and it is easier to use.
Phone billing
You can use phone billing with various operators, such as O2, Vodafone, Orange, EE, Virgin, and T-mobile. This means that you can pay your deposit with a phone bill. This is a fast, secure and easy to use payment method. There are still a lot of cons as most of the sites won’t offer phone billing as a payment option and the fees are usually quite high. You can read more here on pay by phone casinos.
Wire transfer or instant banking
Some sites offer wire transfer as an option, but the con is that it takes time from 3 to 5 business days to get to your account. Withdrawals also take time, but this option is usually free of additional withdrawal charges.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a form of a cryptocurrency, and it is used as a digital payment system. It is the most common cryptocurrency used in the UK. There are some specialized bitcoin casinos that offer bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a payment and withdrawal option. However, no UK licensed casinos currently offer Bitcoin payments. For this reason, you can’t gamble with Bitcoin from the UK without using a proxy and jumping through a couple of hoops.
