If you're a total newbie to the world of online poker, you might
run into issues actually getting fund into your poker account. Many
credit card companies no longer accept charges from poker websites,
and Paypal is very strict about NOT using their service for any type
of online gambling transaction. NETeller has become the method of
choice for funding an online poker account in the last couple of
years.
Signing Up For NETeller
Signing up for NETeller is pretty easy. You just fill out an
online form with some personal financial information and boom,
you've got a NETeller account. Almost all gambling sites on the
internet accept NETeller, and their fees are similar to the fees you
would see from Paypal or any other online wallet service. You can
even get a NETeller debit card so you can take cash straight from
your account at an ATM.
Privacy Concerns
It wouldn't be prudent to just sign up for NETeller without
considering any privacy concerns or risks. But I can honestly say
that I'm completely comfortable using NETeller, and in fact, I've
had much better experiences with their customer care people than
with the folks over at Paypal. And if you do a search on the
internet, you won't find any concerns or criticisms from anyone in
any of the player forums, and you won't find any disgruntled I-hate-NETeller.com
type sites either. That says a lot for their trustworthiness, in my
opinion.
NETeller is a publicly traded company on the London stock
exchange, and their stock price has been sound since they IPO'd. In
fact, it's brought in good returns for investors all over the world.
One thing I like about the security protocols at NETeller, and I
think Paypal could learn something from this, is that to log into
your NETeller account, you have an account number, a verification
number, AND a password. It's a third level of safety that many
online wallet services don't have. (With Paypal it's just your email
address and a password.)
This is just one more thing that makes me more comfortable using
NETeller to fund my poker accounts online.
NETeller Fees
The commission percentage that NETeller charges when transferring
money back and forth from your bank account is 8.9% You only deal
with that when you're putting money into your account at NETeller
though; there are no commissions involved in funding a poker
bankroll or a casino bankroll either.
NETeller Alternatives
I've used both NETeller and FirePay, and I've come away from my
experiences with the two companies preferring NETeller. But there
are other options online for funding a poker account. I just wanted
to present one in this article that I felt confident in.
You're obviously reading this article because you're beginning an
online poker career. I don't know what kind of games you like to
play, but I have written articles about different places you can
play different games, and you might be interested in them:
Where to play high stakes holdem online will give you a sense of
what the good places to get into some larger games. If you're
interested in
heads up poker, I have an article about that too. And of course,
most people are really interested in
where to play poker tournaments online now.
This page was last updated on January 5, 2006.
