Best Poker Sites Accepting e-Check Deposits
Over the past few years it has become increasingly more difficult to deposit at poker sites with credit cards issued by US banks. The good news is the online poker industry has come up with a solution most major online poker sites now embrace. This solution is e-check deposits and this method is available at leading online poker sites such as fulltiltpoker and pokerstars.
If you're not familiar with e-checks, simply put an e-check (also spelled echeck) works just like a paper check except the transaction is conducted online. To get started making a deposit via this method you'd grab a check out of your checkbook, scribble void on it and then head to the cashier of your favorite online poker site accepting echeck deposits. From the cashier (after selecting the e-check option) you'll find a sample image of a blank check and you'll be prompted to fill in various fields using the details from the check you just voided. Once the transaction is complete you can tear up that voided check. That's right the entire process happens online, you don't need to mail to the poker site the physical check. While this is not important to know in case you're curious, the processor the poker site uses prints a check using a standard ink-jet printer that is marked "electronically authorized no signature required" and deposits that to their bank account.
The challenge for poker sites comes when they deposit checks which were electronically authorized and do not require a signature; these take quite some time to clear (in some cases as long as 60 days, though the typical time is 7-21 business days). This is however not too important to the end user, which is yourself the poker player making an e-check deposit, but it is worth brining up. What you'll often find is that your account balance will have a full or a partial cash out restriction until this deposit clears. This is what the poker site needs to do to protect themselves from returns which are quite common due to the long time it takes for such checks to clear.
At smaller online poker sites it might take a few days for an e-check deposit to reach your account. At the larger sites such as Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars your poker account will be funded instantly when you make an e-check deposit. The one slight downside is you'll need to enter your full social security number with your transaction. This is because these sites subscribe to a check systems service which will verify that you are the owner of that bank account, do not owe banks money and don't have a history of bounced checks. More good news to offset the need to enter a full social security number is that your balance is not cash out restricted very long. In fact, at PokerStars you're free to cash your winnings out right away and the only amount restricted is your uncleared check amount and this last just 10 days from the time of your deposit.
One other option worth noting regarding e-check deposits is third party processors such as MyPayLinQ, which is an option online poker site Bodog offers. Here players can open a MyPayLinQ and then fund it with e-check which takes about 48 hours to clear. Once the funds are in their MyPayLinQ account they can deposit them at Bodog or spend them at any of the thousands of merchants accepting MyPayLinQ payments. Other processors similar to this one Bodog Poker offers are UseMyWallet and eWalletXpress.
Once again if you're looking to fund an online poker account with your checking account the best option is an eCheck deposit at fulltiltpoker or pokerstars.
