Credit Card Casino

We all take both credit cards and online casinos for granted as if both had been around forever but of course they have not. The two main credit cards that players use to fund their online casino accounts are Visa and MasterCard but actually Diners Club was the first in the market introduced into America in 1950. We refer to this as a credit card but actually it was not a true credit card as the balance had to be paid off at the end of every month. American Express followed quickly on the heels and they even charged customers for the privilege of having a card, a policy which they maintained for many years. The first true credit card however, one which had a credit facility which did not need to be paid off every month, was Visa. Visa was a brainchild of Bank of America, the company is still registered there in San Francisco, California, and they launched what they called the Bank Americard in 1958 by issuing some 60,000 cards in Fresno without any application form or credit checks. This initial foray into the market was not totally successful as the credit department of the bank rather overestimated the goodness of the customers and although they had planned for a 4% default rate on card debts by 1959 it was running at 22%.

It is probably not generally considered but Visa does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers; Visa merely provides banks with Visa-branded payment products that they then use to offer credit, debit, prepaid and cash-access programs to their customers. For many years the only licensed “Americard” in the UK and Ireland was Barclaycard but as we know today there are a multitude of different issuers, all of which can be used to deposit into your online casino account as long as it carries the Visa sign.

Other banks in the USA were not about to let Bank of America have a monopoly and soon a few of them got together to form what was then known as the Interbank Card Association which was the forerunner of what we know today as MasterCard.

Visa and MasterCard are used by many to make deposits into their online casino accounts both in the form of credit cards and debit cards but there is a difference. A debit card is purely a cash transaction meaning that when you deposit into your casino account the cash comes straight out of your bank account which means that the money has to be there in the first place (unless you have some other arrangement with your bank). Because this is a cash transaction there should be no charges either from the bank or the casino. Using a credit card to fund an online casino account is however not a cash transaction so although the money will be available instantly in your casino account you do not have to pay immediately. This form of funding can be subject to charges by the online casino although often is not but is always subject to charges from your bank or credit card issuer. Funding an online casino account using a debit card is cheaper than funding using credit card.