Visa is the largest credit card company in the entire world. The company holds nearly 40% of the credit card market in the United States and processes more than $4 trillion in payments on an annual basis. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that using a Visa credit card is the preferred deposit method for many online gambling enthusiasts from all over the world. As a result, most real money gaming sites support Visa credit and debit card transactions, allowing you to make fast and safe payments without being forced to transfer your money through any additional service.
As you’d expect, making a Visa deposit isn’t all that different from buying something from an online store. This also means that the site you deposit to will require you to provide its staff with the credit card number, CVV code, expiration date and your billing address. This information is perfectly safe with all the major network sites – no high-profile gambling site would ever disclose your personal information to unauthorized third-parties for profit. It’s also worth pointing out that Visa doesn’t really issue cards or set the interest rates on them – instead, Visa offers its services to financial institutions, which offer cards and set the rates themselves.
Visa deposits are very popular with all kinds of gambling sites, including online casinos, poker rooms, bingo services and sportsbooks. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a site that doesn’t support this banking method. In most cases, making a payment via your Visa credit card won’t give you access to any additional promotions, but you should keep in mind that welcome bonuses available to all the new members tend to be very generous regardless of the banking methods that you pick.
Depositing via a Visa credit card or debit card tends to be the default payment method for most US-facing offshore gambling sites due to high acceptance rates. European networks tend to prefer e-wallet transactions, but making a Visa deposit won’t be a problem regardless of the bookmaker, casino or poker room you pick. Nevertheless, please note that most of those sites have certain deposit limits in place, which usually means that your payment can’t be lower than $5 and higher than $2,000 or so. Making a larger deposit usually involves contacting customer support after sticking with the site for a while, but don’t worry – no major site will prevent you from claiming the entire first deposit promotion due to maximum deposit rules.
As briefly touched on above, making a Visa credit card deposit is very simple and doesn’t differ all that much from purchasing something on eBay or in any other online store. All you need to do is visit the cashier menu, pick Visa as your preferred banking method, fill the appropriate form and wait for the money to be credited to your on-site account. The entire process shouldn’t take too long, as most sites process Visa payments instantly. Quite obviously, Visa deposits aren’t as fast as e-wallet payments, but unlike PayPal transactions, they’re supported by virtually every real money gambling network in the industry.
Keep in mind that the amount you transferred is going to show on your credit card statement. Furthermore, please note that while Visa deposits are very convenient, they have some limitations. For example, many sites don’t support withdrawals using this method, which might force you to rely on traditional bank wire transfers or checks. All in all, Visa credit card payments are best suited for players who’d like to make a large deposit in order to take advantage of one of the generous welcome bonuses, as you won’t be required to pay any transaction fees.
Many popular banking methods aren’t really available to United States-based players due to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Fortunately, Visa payments are an exception to this rule, as most offshore sites support Visa deposits. The downside of using Visa to make a deposit to one of those sites is the fact that there is a small chance that the transaction will be refused. In such a case, you don’t have to worry about losing your money or any legal consequences – the only thing that you might lose is time.
On a brighter note, Visa has the highest acceptance rate of all the credit card companies, which means that it usually is the best choice if you’ve decided to deposit via a credit card. The same holds true for regulated sites operating on intrastate gambling markets – in the end, if you want to ensure that your payment goes through without any hassle, you should definitely choose Visa over MasterCard or American Express. Furthermore, you should always make sure that the card that you’re planning to use has been cleared for international transactions, as the most popular domestic-only cards simply aren’t going to work.