OT: Dumb(?) questions about Pokerstars/Netteller/etc.

[Maple Leafs]

I've had some decent success over a few months with online poker. It's not much, and I'd be willing to bet that there are people here who are winning and losing the equivalent of my entire bankroll on single hands, but I've been happy with it.

I'm at the point where my bankroll is past the level it needs to at the levels I play at. I've thought about moving up, but I'm leaning instead to just staying where I'm at. I don't think I have the skill or the patience to really get serious about poker, and my personality is the sort that would rather beat up little guys than really test myself against better competition. So I've decided instead to start withdrawing some winnings and putting the money towards little treats for the wife and I. I think it would be neat to feel like I earned a "free" iPod playing poker (without thinking about how many hours it took to do it).

Here's the problem: I don't have the first clue how to get my money.

I guess I never really thought about it. I just sort of assumed I'd eventually lose my original buy-in, and move on to other things. But now I want some money, and I don't know how to get it.

I see that I can apparently just ask PokerStars to send me a cheque, but that takes weeks. Seems a little shady to me. I guess I can wait, but shouldn't there be an easier way?

I've signed up for a Net Teller account, but I'm not sure what to do with it. When I sign in, I only see options for "deposit". Do these guys have a "withdraw" page? If not, I guess I can admire their business model. My guess is this is some sort of attempt at user-centered web design gone bad ("He has no money in his account yet, so no need to show him the withdrawal screens"), but it makes me nervous.

To the big rollers around here -- how do you get your money out of online poker sites? Is Net Teller the way to go and I'm just being nit-picky about the whole "you can't withdraw your money" issue? Is there something else you'd recommend?

[dixieflatline]

I believe that once you hook your neteller account to a bank account withdrawal will be active. It is possible that withdrawal isn't active when there is nothing in your neteller account but I promise you that once your neteller account has been hooked up and you have money in it you will be able to withdrawal. Neteller is the best way of moving money IMO and withdrawals to your bank account are free if you make it an EFT which takes 1-2 days to clear. I have nothing but kind words to say about neteller and their support.

[GoSeahawks]

I believe that once you hook your neteller account to a bank account withdrawal will be active. It is possible that withdrawal isn't active when there is nothing in your neteller account but I promise you that once your neteller account has been hooked up and you have money in it you will be able to withdrawal. Neteller is the best way of moving money IMO and withdrawals to your bank account are free if you make it an EFT which takes 1-2 days to clear. I have nothing but kind words to say about neteller and their support.
I was charged $44 to put $500 into neteller last week (I was bonus whoring). Other than that I have no problems with them. It's a great tool for online poker and much much faster than waiting for the checks.

[Lathum]

I only use neteller. You need to validate your bank account then you can withdraw directly into it.

Send me a PM if you wanna talk more at length.

[Lathum]

dola

not a stupid question at all

[dixieflatline]

I was charged $44 to put $500 into neteller last week (I was bonus whoring). Other than that I have no problems with them. It's a great tool for online poker and much much faster than waiting for the checks.

Did you do this via EFT? I thought they were always free. They have always been free for me and I have moved a decent sum of money through them. Can you explain more what the large fee was for? Were you depositing into a site?

[kcchief19]

I was charged $44 to put $500 into neteller last week (I was bonus whoring). Other than that I have no problems with them. It's a great tool for online poker and much much faster than waiting for the checks.
Does that depend on the site? I recently opened up a Neteller account as well and was told that as long as I initiate the funds transfer request through the PokerStars software, PokerStars picks up the fee. Otherwise, Neteller charges you the fee. I don't know how that works at Party or other sites.

Here's a weird thing about about my last deposit at PokerStars with Neteller -- my bank account shows the withdrawal for my deposit amount, but it then also showed a .49 cent deposit from Neteller. It's almost as if I made the deposit, they took my money, then gave me 49 cents.

If I did that a thousand more times, I could get a free iPod.

[Mustang]

Electronic transfer is free I believe and that takes a few business days. If you want the insta cash thing, it is a fee of 8.9% I believe.. (hence the $44 charge on $500...)

[-apoc-]

Checks from Stars actually arrive pretty fast. I have gotten checks from them for 50, 250 500 and over 1000. Anything 1k and over they will overnight to you via fed ex. The rest usually take about a week but they are all free.

You can also request a check from neteller but they will charge you $2 to send it through the mail and $11 to send it overnight. I never bothered linking it to my bank account so I dont know about the fees involved but if you do an instacash through stars and most other major poker sites they will cover that fee. You have to do it on the deposit page though you cant get the instacash into your NT account and then deposit it.

Stars has the new Echeck thing also that is free to deposit and i believe withdraw through but i havent used it so I dont know the specifics.

[Honolulu Blue]

I've used Neteller and Firepay with decent results, similar for both. Stars tends to credit withdrawals up to the amount of the deposit to the same place it came from, and those are done quickly - within a few minutes. Winnings take a day or so to process, but they can go wherever you want. I've hooked up both Neteller and Firepay to my checking account, and the EFTs for both take 1-2 days to get to my bank. Those are free.

[Johnny93g]

ML, im pretty much in the exact same sitation then you....I did well in a few multiplayer tourny's, and had money i wouldnt use playing in my account. I signed up for neteller, saw the same thing as you. I got in touch with them, and they said i had to call to verify my personal information. Once i did that, i was able to withdrawl my money. I actually withdrew the cash via cheque on wednesday, and recieved conformation that the cheque was sent out via fedex last night....so it's pretty quick

[Maple Leafs]

OK, so I've reached my cashout goal. I successfully set up a Neteller account, and went through the verification process.

But now when I try to cashout and choose Neteller as the method, Pokerstars tries to tell me what my Neteller account name is -- using the same e-mail address they have on file for me. But that's not the address I used to set up the account. There doesn't seem to be any option to change it, it's just there.

I was thinking I would be able to cash out to Neteller, then transfer that straight into my bank account. Should I not bother and just have them send me a check? Am I missing something?

[-apoc-]

Changing your stars email addy to match your neteller addy would probably be the easiest way. Or you could try emailing [email protected] to see if there is any other way that you could go about linking the 2 accounts. If you made a deposit from your neteller account to PS they would automatically be linked regardless of the email addresses used but that is obviously going backwards from what you want to do. The support people at stars really are great though try giving them a shout if you dont want to change your email.