Hiya there fellow gamblers! Almost all of us have these little and colorful plastic rectangles in our wallet. Today I will be talking about using your credit card for placing esports bets and also gambling in general. I have received the same question from a lot of you too in Twitter, and today I will be going in deeper regarding the pros and cons when you use your credit cards for betting. So fret not, grab something to drink and read on so that you may find out if using your plastic is viable or not.
Different types of cards
First things first. We need to distinguish what kind of rectangular plastic you might have in your wallet. There are a lot of them that can be placed in the same general umbrella of what is commonly known as a credit card, or what it passes to be in these days. The first one in question is the type which is usually issued to you by the bank or a third party company such as Capital One or HSBC.
This type of plastic is a true credit card as this is not tied up to any of your bank accounts. This usually comes with a credit limit. The credit limit is the amount of money or expenses that you can charge to it for the whole month.
The second type is the debit card. This is usually issued by your bank and is most likely tied into either your savings or checking account. This would work the same way such as the first one, but there are huge penalties when using this if your account has no remaining funds on it or if it could not cover the cost. You would be incurring overcharge fees if ever a charge goes over the amount of cash you have in your account.
The last ones in question are the pay as you go, reloadable or prepaid cards. This is somewhat similar to the debit, but instead of directly tying this to your bank account, the funds are usually tied in to your account in places such as Skrill, Payoneer or Neteller. The only difference it has to the second type is that the transaction will not go through but you will not get overdraft fees if your balance in your account is not sufficient to cover the charges you made.
Now that we have this information sorted out. Let’s head over to the real pros and cons of using these types of cards for esports bets, and also which type of plastic you are going to need.
Pros
Now on to the fun stuff. The first pro that comes off the top of my head is the convenience. It is very easy to place online bets nowadays, thanks to these. Most of the bookie sites nowadays accept all of the three types.
Massively accepted
Usually, the major ones such as 888bet or Betway (check the review) will actually take direct payments from these cards. The smaller bookies will still take the first two and sometimes the third one if it has been issued by places such as Skrill or Neteller. Other prepaid cards are not accepted on some of these bookies. However, there are some small bookies too that will not directly take your plastic but would let you go through a third party deposit such as G2A Pay. They usually do this for their own security, and also they get bonuses when going the G2A route.
Speed
The second pro that comes to my mind is the speed of the deposits when you choose the credit option. If you are planning to use bank deposits or wire transfers, you usually have to wait for 3 to 5 days, depending on the bank. So, if you are planning to fund your bankroll for a tournament, you would have to do it a week before the tournament starts if you are using wire transfers just to make sure your funds are available on the day. However, if you are using that little rectangle in your wallet with the logo of Visa, Discover or American Express, you can actually do it a few hours before the tournament starts as the transactions are faster.
Play now, pay later
The last major pro of using a credit card for esports betting is in the word itself, credit! This is of course if you are using the first type. What this means is that you do not have to put money out right away if using a true credit card as you usually get charged at the end of the month for it.
This means that if you deposit money in your bankroll, and you win, you are basically paying for the amount that you charged at the end of the month with some profit along with it. This is of course if you win the bets you make. However, this is not true for reloadable or debit cards as they get charged right away with the amount on either your online prepaid account or your bank account.
Cons
Now with all these wonderful pros, using plastic has its drawbacks as well. Of course, for every up, there is a down.
Security
The first major concern on opting for these transactions is security! Usually, when you use your card on these sites, they store your information such as name, address and the number itself. There are events in the past that some of these bookie sites have been compromised and the information of account holders have been leaked out. This could actually impact you in two very negative ways, financial and identity. People could actually steal your identity then access your financial information and drain your bank.
Slow refunds
The second major flaw of using plastic is the other side of the transaction speed. The transactions usually get charged within 10 to 15 minutes for it to reflect on your bill that charges were made. However, if you are planning to ask for a refund on these charges, you might have to wait for 7 to 21 business days to get your refund back.
The turnaround time is usually dependent on your financial institution on how fast they can process these refunds. Sometimes, they even take up to two months if it gets backlogged. These can even take longer if you used the reloadable or the prepaid ones as they have a slower time to do the refund process.
Double charges
The last major flaw when transacting using plastic are the double charges. There are some instances that you sometimes get charged double for a single transaction. This happens when your the transaction page stops and you end up refreshing the browser, then you actually just sent another transaction to them. It could sometimes be an error in the system, either on the bank side or on the merchant side.
When this happens, you would need to ask for a refund for the double charge and like I have said previously, the transaction speeds for refunding a charge could take a long time. This could have been cash that could have been spent on other things but gets tied up due to a single error.
Conclusion
Now that you know all the pros and cons, you can actually weigh if you want to use your plastic or not on your next esports gambling transaction. I seldom use my cards whenever I gamble as I prefer the wire transfer route, but I have used them in the past.
If you want my advice, I suggest you go for the reloadable cards as they are more reliable and much more secure as these are not really tied in to your banking institution. Just do not get the habit of asking for a refund, and everything will be fine if you opt to use these prepaid plastics.
Good luck!
