1000If you play online roulette at many different casinos, it can be difficult to keep track of your wins and losses over several casinos. One way to do this is to use an E-wallet. You upload a set amount, say £100 and use that to deposit at each casino.

For example, you deposit £100 to your E-wallet from your bank account. You have £100 to spend.

  • You deposit £10 to Bet365, lose that.
  • You deposit £10 to Ladbrokes and cash out £20.
  • You deposit £5 to William Hill and lose that.
  • You deposit £10 more to Bet365 and cash out £25
  • You deposit £10 more to Ladbrokes and lose that.

In your bank you will have a single transaction of £100 gone out to your e-wallet. In your e-wallet account, you will have all the transactions in there and the overall balance. Its quick to that you are exactly even, no profit and no loss. If you did that with a debit/ credit card it would be blended in with all your other transactions so it would be hard to work out your profit. Not impossible but just not as easy as being able to glance at your e-wallet balance.

A side effect of all your gambling transactions being in your e-wallet rather than your bank account, is that it keeps your bank statements clean. So for example, you are applying for a mortgage, all those deposits and withdrawals from betting companies won’t affect anything.

You can limit the amount you bet each week. For example, you can load £50 a week in to an e-wallet if you lose that, wait another week before you deposit again. A good way to manage your spending. If you have serious problems though, self barring is the only way really to go and e-wallets won’t help.

Which E-Wallet?
The main providers of e-wallets are NETELLER and Skrill (Moneybookers). They provide much the same function. Most online casinos accept both so it doesn’t really matter with respect to acceptability. The only difference is the fee structure and perks. Each has its pros and cons. You can actually get the fees down to almost zero if you use the cheapest methods to deposit and withdraw.

Upload Costs
With Skrill, uploads are free if you use bank transfers or local debit cards. Credit Cards attract a 1.9% fee.

With NETELLER, uploads are free if you use bank transfer or 1.9% with cards.

Withdrawal Costs
You will eventually want to withdraw your money.

With Skrill, this is €2.95 which is approximately £2.36.
With NETELLER, this is €7.50 or £5.00.

Skrill does have a clear advantage here. However, many people chose to leave their money in their e-wallets or spend it so the withdrawal costs aren’t relevant.

Pre-Paid Credit Cards

Both e-wallets offer pre paid credit cards. This is where NETELLER makes up for the higher withdrawal fees. If you chose to spend your money instead of paying it back to your account, then its effectively free. There is a shipping fee of £8 initially but thats it. You can get extra virtual credit cards for only £2 extra too. Handy if you do not trust a site or to let a spouse use.

Skrill have a pre-paid Mastercard too but that has an annual free of €10. The transactions fees for cash are slightly less than NETELLER’s are but this doesn’t matter as long as you spend.

Other Perks
NETELLER has a VIP scheme where you can earn money the more you spend. Some of the fees are greatly reduced and you can get cashback on some of the higher VIP levels. For ordinary members they have regular special offers in email and you earn reward points as you spend.

Skrill has a VIP scheme too where you can get merchandise from their special VIP shop. You get reduced fees on forex like with NETELLER and a free prepaid credit card.

Summary

E-wallets are a great way to manage money online. You can control your money a lot better than if you were making deposits straight from your bank account. A nice little bonus is that they offer pre-paid credit cards so you can spend your winning directly too.

Sign up to NETELLER here.

Sign up to Skrill here