Debit Cards

creditcardsOne of the key components of playing in any online casino is how you make transactions. The ability to deposit funds into your account to play and cash out your winnings to use how you please is key. You need something reliable, easy to set up and fast. Debit cards are a really good option that checks off all of these boxes, and that’s why they’re the single most popular way to make payments for online casinos. We’re going to break down what you need to know about using this method and how you can get the most from it with the smallest amount in fees.

Card Selection

There are a handful of major debit card companies, but Visa and MasterCard are the two most popular. Along these lines, they’re also the most popular debit cards for online casinos. You’ll also find Maestro, Solo and American Express accepted at sites sometimes, but Visa and MasterCard are the most popular options.

Something that’s pretty cool about this method is that you don’t actually need a debit card in your name to use this option. You can buy prepaid cards from general stores or gas stations that you fund in person and then spend online, and you can even process withdrawals back to these cards. This puts you in a position where you don’t even have to use your main debit card and have it connected to online casino transactions if you don’t want to.

Because of this flexibility, prepaid cards in particular are one of the most advantageous casino deposit options when it comes to combining convenience and speed.

Fee Schedule

The one disadvantage of using a card like this is the fee schedule. It’s going to vary a bit from site to site, but the bottom line is that the debit card companies charge the casino some pretty serious fees for processing payments. They have to pass some of these fees along to the customer to keep a profitable business model, so you can end up paying anywhere from 2 percent to 5 percent on the amount of your deposit and/or withdrawal. Most online casinos will only charge a fee on the deposit or the withdrawal and not both.

This also goes for using a debit card to fund another payment method, like electronic wallets. You’ll still get the same sort of fee, usually in the range of 2 to 5 percent again, so you can’t really get around it.

Security Issues

Some people have an issue with using their debit cards for online purchases in general because of big security breaches that seem to always be in the news. The fact of the matter is that you’re probably not going to run into issues like this, and reputable online casinos are very careful about how they use and store your data.

In fact, you’ll always have to verify your identity before you request a withdrawal when using a debit card, so it’s easy to see that online casinos take debit card fraud seriously.

Overview

Overall, there are a lot of advantages when it comes to using debit cards, especially prepaid ones, over other deposit and withdrawal methods. With that having been said, you pay for it with higher fees that you’ll get with certain other methods, but the trade-off is that it’s faster and more convenient.