Some online casino deposit options will cost you money

As our use of the internet increases and it becomes an even more important tool in our daily lives, we are also hopefully becoming more aware of the risks to our privacy and personal data associated with our online transactions particularly if it involves money. None of us are totally immune from internet fraud or the theft of our personal data, but we are able to take sensible steps to reduce that risk. Every time we purchase goods or services online we should always choose the most secure way to pay for them, and clearly the same applies to opening and funding an online casino account so that we can enjoy playing casino games online. Just because playing online casino games is a leisure activity does not mean that we should drop our guard and behave irresponsibly when it comes to transferring funds into an online casino account to provide the stake money we need to play those games. We have a responsibility to do what we can to protect ourselves, but when it comes to funding an online casino account there is another factor we need to take into account when deciding the best way to do it, and that is cost. Every online casino offers their customers a whole range of deposit options designed to cover as many different money transfer choices as possible, but unfortunate some of those deposit options will cost the unwary extra money in additional and unnecessary bank charges. For the reasons we have outlined at the beginning of this article many of us always reach for a credit card when purchasing products or services online because it is one of the better options in terms of our financial security and has a built-in insurance element should the product or service prove unsatisfactory. Unfortunately for a couple of reasons a credit card is actually one of the worst online casino deposit options we could choose. Not online is using a credit card to fund playing casino games effectively gambling with borrowed money, which is never a good idea, but the banks will also apply a surcharge of at least 2% on any credit card transaction involving gambling. Basically the banks do not like their customers gambling with money borrowed on a credit card and therefore penalise anyone attempting to do so. We should also point out at this stage that in Ireland some debit cards will also attract a surcharge not because it is gambling with borrowed money but simply because of the way their transactions are processed. That may sound unfair and it probably is but we should remember that there are always far better options than using either a credit card or a debit card.

Before the introduction of online gambling most of us would do our sports gambling through a betting shop or at the race track using cash. Playing casino games at a real casino or even playing bingo at our local club would also be a cash transaction, and clearly from the point of view of protecting our personal data using cash has to be the best option. It is important therefore that we point out that in Ireland both Ladbrokes and Paddy Power allow their online casino customers to manage their accounts using cash through their high street betting shops. If you have relatively easy access to one of those betting shops this cash option may be the best choice you can make. There are however several other online casino deposit options which are also relatively risk free and will not cost you money in additional charges, one of which is an e-wallet account. Even those of our readers who do not know what an e-wallet account is will probably have heard of Pay Pal. Pay Pal is just one of the companies providing access to an e-wallet account, and almost every online casino will accept payments through a Pay Pal or a Neteller e-wallet account. An e-wallet is a separate bank account designed to be used for any internet financial transaction, including of course funding an online casino account. The primary advantage of using an e-wallet account is that the internet site operator does not have access to your main current account banking details, but there is an additional benefit when using an e-wallet to play online casino games and that is that your bank does not know what you are doing with the money you have in an e-wallet account. For many people who enjoy gambling that increased privacy is a very important factor in choosing the best deposit option.

Most online casinos also list a number of pre-loaded cash cards among their acceptable deposit options, and these cards also have a number of advantages both in terms of privacy and security and in this case also controlling budgets. Many people now use pre-loaded foreign currency cards when they go on holiday and the pre-loaded cards that feature on many of the online casino deposit option list operate in exactly the same way. Two of the most common cards are Paysafe and Ucash, both of which are acceptable at most online casinos. Players can load the card from their primary bank account and can of course also choose how much money they are prepared to risk on playing casino games by limiting the amount they load on their card. For those casino games players who are susceptible to chasing losses, using a pre-loaded card is an excellent way to reduce the temptation because you can only play with the money you have on the card. At the very least it will make us think twice before transferring more money into our account. All the online casinos on our recommended list include most if not all of the deposit options we have considered in this article, and we hope that we have at least persuaded our readers that a credit card is never the best option whatever your circumstances. Winning at an online casino is hard enough without it costing money before you even place a bet.