Poker Sites Accepting Wire Transfers

Pros and Cons of Wire Transfer Poker Site Payments

The main benefit of wiring money is that it is secure and reliable. You do not need to use any 3rd party accounts or exchanges – you simply send money from your bank to the poker site. This is also ideal for larger deposits. The reason is that fees are usually fixed (or at least tiered). This means that the more you send the lower, proportionally, the fee component becomes. Wires are a great way of withdrawing money. If you deposited with MasterCard, which does not accept withdrawals, then I recommend a local bank wire as the best withdrawal option.

There are some drawbacks. If you are using a 3rd party wiring service like Western Union or MoneyGram, then you’ll need to take the cash to your local branch office. While the fees are higher, especially for small amounts, this is a very reliable way of getting your money on board. Those fees can also be high if you are using a traditional bank wire using an IBAN or Swift Code. Here your bank will often charge you a fixed fee. While $20 to $40 might be small if you are sending many thousands of dollars, this is a big chunk of a smaller deposit amount.

How to Wire Money to Online Poker Sites

I have covered both the traditional wires straight from your bank, and the wires using the money transfer giants below.

For both of these payments, you’ll need to set up a player account at your chosen poker site first of all. If you have not yet picked a site with the best combination of easy tables and good bonuses for your geo, then head to our Poker Sites page for a listing.

Money Transfer Services: Offshore sites serving the US market accept ‘person to person’ wire transfers. These use services like Western Union and MoneyGram. Neither company will knowingly send funds to a poker site – which is where the ‘person to person’ part comes in. The first step is to speak to your poker site’s cashier staff. They will give you the name of someone to wire the funds to. You then find your local branch office, send the cash to this person, and e-mail the reference number to your poker site. Reconciliation is usually very quick, you’ll have the money on the tables within a few hours during a regular (non-holiday) day. This can also be used in reverse to withdraw your funds.

Bank Wire Transfers: To wire money direct from your bank outside of the US, you’ll again need to get in touch with your poker site. You will need their bank account information, which will take the form of an IBAN Number and / or Swift number (depends on your country). You need to make sure that you send any reference number they give you in the text section when you wire the cash. This will ensure that the payment can be reconciled easily. Local bank transfers are also possible in some countries, these can use a combination of account number and sort code.