The following are some payment options;
Moneybookers
Deposit
Is a bit of a pain. While depositing through debit/credit card you are asked if the funds will be used for gaming purposes or not. If you select they won’t be then you can’t load them on a poker site. If you select they will be then most Indian banks won’t let you load them to MB.
What people do is make an account on a friend’s name upload funds stating they aren’t for gaming purposes and transfer those funds to their accounts and use them to upload on sites. There is a fee of 1% on sending money.
There is a way of depositing using Wire Transfer too and I think the whole mess of gaming purposes might be fixed by doing so. Someone will have to post what that’s about and I’ll update it here.
Withdrawal
Lowest withdrawal fee of around INR 130/ USD 2.38/ EUR 1.80 for wire transfers to bank account.
Charges are hidden in currency transactions. 2.49%
When you withdraw, the funds will be sent in EUR to your Indian bank account and MB will charge a fee of 2.49% on converting funds from any currency that your account is to EUR be it USD or INR, unless it is EUR obviously.
If you want to use MB I highly recommend having your account in EUR and having your poker accounts also in EUR if possible.
If your poker accounts are in USD and you can’t change that then you might as well have MB in USD. You’ll save one set of conversion from poker room to MB but will have to pay 2.49% when you withdraw funds into India as they will be sent in EUR.
If your MB account is in a different currency, say in INR and poker account is in USD then everytime you transfer from Poker room to MB you’ll pay 2.49% on whole amount. When you withdraw into your bank account you’ll pay another 2.49% for conversion of INR to EUR totaling 5.04%.
EDIT: For USD MB accounts withdrawals reach India in USD. INR MB accounts however send funds in EUR and you are charged by MB to convert them to EUR as well as your bank to convert them back to INR.
Banking
Banks will receive funds in EUR. They will convert them into INR and will charge something on that. This rate varies across banks and type of accounts. I think I was charged about 2.5% when I did it. My RM told me he could take it down to 2%, some people could get even lesser I think.
You’ll also have to pay service tax for the service of currency conversion by the bank and I think I was also charged Education Cess. Maybe someone can throw some light on it.
NETELLER
Deposit
Debit/Credit Cards
You can use your debit/credit cards to deposit on Neteller. You can also use some virtual cards like Netsafe by HDFC. However I know cases where none of the methods have worked so depends on your bank and account. Some have been able to do it with HDFC accounts while some haven’t so I think there are some other unknown variables too.
A fee of 1.75% is charged on the deposit. The funds will be converted into EUR when Neteller receives them so a fee of 2.95% will also be charged on that.
NEFT
You can also deposit using a local transfer into their ICICI account through Money In--> Bank Transfer. Keep in mind google chrome blocks the popup by default where their bank info is given. If you have problems I've posted them here too. You'll need a reference number too that will be given in that popup.
There is a 1.75% charge for making this NEFT transaction.
Since the receiving bank account is also in INR, if your Neteller account is in INR I don't think you'll be charged anything for currency exchange fee. If Neteller account is in any other currency then I think the same 2.95% charge on the whole amount will be levied.
EDIT: confirmed through a fellow member, in INR Neteller accounts only 1.75% is charged and there is no currency transaction fee since they don't convert the currency. Time taken for him was 2 hours to get the money deposited.
Withdrawal
The withdrawal fee is higher INR 550/ USD 12.75/ EUR 10.50 for wire transfers. Currency exchange fee 2.95%.
Unlike MB, Neteller can send funds in a wide range of currencies and INR is one of them.
I highly recommend having your Neteller accounts in INR as withdrawals are a lot cheaper especially if you play on only one room, especially if its Pokerstars.
Pokerstars accepts deposits and withdraws money into INR Neteller accounts in INR itself and doesn’t charge anything for the conversion meaning the Neteller conversion is bypassed.
If account isn’t in a room that does that then everytime you withdraw from room to Neteller you’ll have to pay 2.95%. If you switch money regularly across rooms it will become quite expensive and its better to have Neteller account in your poker room's currency.
Once money is in Neteller account and you withdraw to a bank account you can request the withdrawal in INR itself so bank will receive them in INR and nor currency exchange fee anywhere, only once when you withdrew it from the room.
Banking
Since money can be sent to Indian bank account in any currency, I recommend you do it in INR no matter what currency your Neteller account is in. If Neteller account is in INR you’ll have to pay 2.95% fee however your bank won’t charge you anything, not even a service tax.
Entropay
I have least amount of info on entropay, will need help.
Deposit
Very easy using Credit/debit cards. I don’t think many people have had problems with it. But it is very expensive 4.95%. Foreign exchange fee is also charged of 2%.
Withdrawals
Withdrawals to bank accounts cost $14.99.
Banking
Not confirmed but I assume Indian Banks will receive funds in USD or your entro pay account currency and will charge a fee to convert them to INR.
Changing currency of your account
I've done this several times with Neteller and Moneybookers. All you need to do is open a new account in the new currency with your true information from a new email address. The information could be the same as the previous one, no issues, actually better if your old account is verified.
When you open a new Neteller account you'll be insta blocked. You'll have an option to give your number and request a call. They'll call in an hour, explain to them that you opened a new account cause you wanted the new currency and you want to block the old account and transfer all your information and verified documents from the old one to the new account, you can use your old email address to if you want to. They'll cross check your details, ask those security questions and you'll be sorted within mins.
Same story for MB, after you open a new account you won't be blocked, go to My Account, Email support, Account/Security, I have opened more than one Skrill (Moneybookers) account. Explain the situation same way and ask them to close the old account.
It doesn't matter how many transactions you've made you can change the account currency anytime you want.
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