Online casinos and the Maestro debit card

Here at onlinecasino.ie our primary objective has always been to help new online casino games players get the best from their online casino experience, and that includes best value for money. We can and do advise on which casino games have the lowest house edge and therefore offer the best chance of winning, but the biggest influence on value for money has to be the choice of casino deposit option. We offer no apologies for continuing to return to this topic because it is a decision which can cost the unwary quite a lot of money before they have even started playing casino games. All the major online casinos will naturally accept a wide variety of deposit options including credit and debit cards, e-wallets and in some cases cash. Of these deposit options it is credit cards which cause us most concern, and not just because using a credit card as a method of funding casino games is effectively gambling with borrowed money, but because it is also expensive. If using plastic is still the most convenient we would usually recommend a debit card, but there are many people in Ireland who hold a Maestro debit card and while most online casinos are Maestro casinos and accept the Maestro card there can be unforeseen costs associated with its use as a casino deposit option. The problem lies in the fact that Maestro debit cards are usually processed through the Laser credit card system in Ireland, and can therefore incur similar surcharges to the use of a credit card as a deposit option, often as much as 2% of the transaction value. Clearly a Maestro debit card will not attract interest in the same way as a credit card but any additional cost will reduce your potential winnings. If you hold a Maestro debit card and want to use it as an online casino deposit option, open an e-wallet account such as Pay Pal or Neteller and fund your casino games via the e-wallet rather than directly through your debit card.