While the shutdown of Neteller was greeted with a collective groan by the poker community, by no means does it signal the end of online poker. Although Neteller was by far the most popular method of deposit and withdrawal from online poker sites, there are and have existed for some time many other options or "ewallets" to choose from. Two of the more popular choices to replace Neteller are Epassporte and Click2Pay.
Epassporte has been around for a while and is what I used four years ago to make my first online poker account deposit and withdrawal. One frequent complaint from Epassporte users is the amount of hidden fees that they attach – for instance, their load/reload fee is $5 per $100 deposit and in order to withdraw funds, you need to purchase a $35 electron card with a $2 fee for withdrawal or do an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). While I have personally found Epassporte a bit inconvenient to use, I did not have any major problems depositing and withdrawing in the period that I used it.
One cause for concern was Epassporte's Better Business Bureau (BBB) rating. BBB exists as a private non-profit service to provide reports to customers and create accountability for businesses. Epassporte's BBB rating was an F, the lowest rating possible out of a 10-point scale, which corresponds to the following description:
We strongly question the company's reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law's licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company's industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.
Click2Pay has been around for a while too, although it has seen a major surge in accounts since Neteller's shutdown. Click2Pay offers deposit/withdrawals through credit card or bank transfer. Unlike Epassporte, Click2Pay does not charge a fee on deposits made directly from your bank account. It does, however, charge a 3% fee on deposits made using your credit/debit card. Customers report that Click2Pay currently has a 7-day delay between opening an account and processing a withdrawal. Unfortunately, a BBB rating for Click2Pay was unavailable.
Paper checks also currently remain a viable method for withdrawal for Pokerstars at the time of this writing, however Full Tilt has temporarily suspended issuing checks. I contacted both representatives about the option of paper checks and got these responses from both sites:
From Poker Stars:
At this time, the only other regular cashout method available to US
customers is by check. The minimum cashout by check is currently
$50. All checks over $1000 are sent by courier; smaller checks are
sent by regular mail, but can be sent by courier if you pay a $25 fee.
From Full Tilt's website:
Unfortunately, due to a recent change in our check processor's policies,we are temporarily unable to issue checks to US residents. We areworking to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. In the meantime,rest assured that this does not affect the money in your Full Tilt Pokeraccount in any way. Your money is safe, secure and ready for use on ourtables or for withdrawal at any time. Full Tilt Poker is fully committed to continue offering its services to all of our players worldwide.
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