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NETeller, a personal review
Hi everyone,
Here’s a bit of homework about NETeller and some related topics.
I thought of elaborating in a review of sorts. After all, our site is full of players of one kind or another, and my guess is that most of our members already have a NETeller account…
Therefore it’s a topic that we can share thoughts on… I opened my own NETeller account in June 1, 2000, as if for only having an extra gaming ‘tool’, but I never ‘seriously’ (as in regularly) started using it, (same as FirePay), until the latter part of 2002. PayPal was unequaled in all aspects, surely one of the most important was that they were virtually ‘everywhere’.
NETELLER A PERSONAL REVIEW
The online gamblers’ transition from PayPal to NETeller.
Until the autumn of 2002 Paypal was THE option of choice for depositing into casino accounts. Many of us know that Paypal was bought out by EBay, who was already using PayPal as its primary online payment service, in October, 2002. The tidy price tag reported, depending on your source, varied from $1.5 to $1.8 Billion USD.
EBay decided not provide gambling related transactions any longer, for being ‘politically correct’ reasons. While PayPal’s purchase was a done deal for months, the official date of the acquisition itself was put off until October. This was to allow Paypal a smooth transition out of the of the online gambling business. Online gamers were given the news with plenty of notice and ‘time ahead’ (months!), to change their online depositing options. Many players chose to move on to NETeller and/or FirePay, the two other most popular depositing for online funding.
Online gaming is a huge business and speculations as to who would become number one, as the main monetary service between gambling sites and their players were put to rest in well under one year. It became soon clear … and still remains that NETeller is number one for players, and FirePay is now just one of the rest. I’ve recently closed my FirePay account as being non-'user friendly’ for Canadians, and getting money out of our accounts was akin to pulling teeth out!
Funding your NETeller account.
NETeller is strictly gambling – so there’s no way to fund a NETeller account with PayPal funds. Western Union is also not an option accepted by NETeller, and if it were the fee to the depositor would be quite high…! As to why that option is not available the reason given me is: it’s for ‘security reasons’. NETeller Debit Card holders cannot use their card for depositing into their account either – the card is for taking money out only!
EFT transfers.
You can fund an account via EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) with your bank’s checking account registered with NETeller, and transferring from it (or from it) is easily done online. The drawback is that bank transfers can take up to 1-2 business days’ ‘processing’ time, thus a delay for the funds to appear in your account balance. If you register for their instaCash service on their site, then you can do instant deposits into your NETeller account. InstaCASH is an instant EFT! That’s probably the most efficient option!
Mind you, some online gambling venues will allow you to make an instaCASH deposit directly from their website, eliminating the need to deposit at NETeller first and then transfer the money at the merchant’s website! I’m finding out that more online casinos are recently adding this method to their array of depositing options.
Credit cards and secured credit cards.
As for using a credit card, as of now NETeller can accept a deposit from major credit cards. There are a few negative aspects in doing so... First, NETeller itself charges their service users a 3.9% (!) fee on credit card deposits! Also, most financial institutions that issue credit cards will consider the transaction as a being a ‘cash advance’ and charge extra, accordingly.
What's more, is yet another undesirable, but distinct possibility: the card’s issuing bank may not allow you to use your card for some ‘types’ of transactions (read gambling related) and refuse the transaction, period!
Credit card funding of a NETeller account should be a player’s last resort; I’d say if one’s going to use a credit card anyway, he/she should rather fund the casino itself directly with it, and save himself the 3.9% fee!
My recommendation for those who wish to maintain a credit card as an option for gaming deposits is to ‘equip’ themselves with a ‘secured’ credit card. The difference between a regular credit card (unsecured) and a ‘secured’ credit card is that in the latter it is ‘your own money’, your credit limit being the amount of money that you put into it.
More or less a secured credit card is technically a debit card, and as such you will have no problems depositing into a casino or other gambling site – it’s your money!
I know that some casinos still do not accept NETeller as a deposit option; of the ones that I play, theritzclublondon.com comes to mind, and that without my secured Visa I probably would not be able play there, or take their monthly 50 UK pounds match offer.
A nice aspect of a secured credit card, apart that it gives you the same protection as a regular credit card ('chargebacks', a very last resort in case you’re ever ripped off, included), you will get a yearly check of interests on your security deposit!
Bank wires funding.
Another option is Bank Wire deposits, which can be initiated from any bank worldwide. Please note that bank wires are different from EFTs. For bank wires you must physically go into a local bank with cash or certified funds, along the appropriate NETeller Bank Wire information provided to you by NETeller.
A brief origin.
NETeller was originally based in Calgary, Canada and except for some growing pains and rare glitches several months to a year ago, when the actual operations headquarters were actually moved to the Isle of Man, after speculations that the move was going to be to Gibraltar was put to rest, the service is just fine. Some administration offices are still in operation in Calgary as of this writing.
NETeller for gambling, PayPal for everything else.
I can’t think of a better ‘e-wallet’ service, standing right up there with Paypal but with a totally different type of clientele – NETeller being for all gaming purposes – PayPal being for everything else, basically.
Security.
If we compare Paypal to NETeller for security considerations, I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that I’ve received two Paypal ‘spoofs’ (defraud attempts) in just a few months, as opposed to none whatsoever with NETeller in over five years of using their services (!). Access to a Paypal account requires an email address and a password only, while the access into your NETeller account requires a 12-digit account number, a 6-digit security code AND a password.
NETeller’s Debit Card, P2P transfers and fees.
Their debit card: it’s always pretty neat to have an extra convenience, such as having your NETeller casino bankroll, or winnings at the tip of your fingers, in your wallet in the shape of their ‘bank machine card’. Here’s the cost of a few things that I use, namely their 1.9% fee (not bad compared to PayPal’ fee of near 3%) on P2P transfers – both on the receiver’s end. The cost for the use of the debit card itself (it’s $1.50 CND, the same as other bank cards here) is fine, but there’s also the $2 US fee charged when you transfer money from your account to your debit card balance.
Cash Giveaways.
Using NETeller has an advantage by letting you earn Netpoints. For every dollar transferred to a merchant you earn 10 Netpoints, so if you send $100 to a casino, sportbook, etc. you get 1,000 Netpoints. At this time you can only use Netpoints for their Cash Giveaways, which are in the form of draws.
One draw is weekly, one is bi-weekly and the other is monthly. The draws pay the winners, respectively, $500, $1,000 and $3,000. The costs in Netpoints for entries are 1,000, 2,500 and 5,000. As players, using optimal strategies for best EV and HE at games we play, it’s hard to resist not estimating which draw is the best value. For points spent for the dollar value at stake, let’s use NetPoints cost/potential win.
Weekly: $500 – 1000 Netpoints: 2 Netpoints per 1$
Bi-weekly: $1000 – 2,500 Netpoints: 2.5 Netpoints per 1$
Monthly: $3000 – 5,000 Netpoints: 1.7 Netpoints per 1$
The obvious best value is the monthly draw, followed by the weekly. For the best bang for your Netpoints save them up for the monthlies, and avoid the bi-weeklies.
Customer service.
Their 365/24/7 live customer service is just what any CS should be: friendly and always helpful. Many casino customer services should be so efficient…! And I can’t recall of any long waits being ‘on hold’ – I’ve called them a couple of times while writing this up, and after the customary “this call may be monitored…” it seems that they ‘just simply answer the call’ – no stalling! If you need any details on items or procedures brought up in this personal review, or have any other questions please feel free to call them at 1-86NETELLER: I’m sure that they’ll gladly help you out.
I hope that this was of some interest, as well as I hope that you appreciate their service as much as I do, and that this personal review may have answered a question or two that some of you may have had in mind, but never did inquire about.
Your feedback, be it pro or con is always and as per usual appreciated, and your own comments, experiences or thoughts about their services are most welcome.
Regards,
Pump up your game @ PumpPoker!
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Thatchatch
OPU#4113
OPU Certified
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Last edited by Thatchatch : 11-26-2005 at 07:17 AM.
Reason: pp
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InstaCash?
Hi there
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