Written by Ed Scimia on Saturday, October 16th, 2010

eChecks are one of the most popular deposit options for poker players, and have grown even more popular in the wake of UIGEA legislation that passed in the United States. eChecks are simply electronic checks that work in the same way a regular check does, just without the messy paperwork! eChecks are a cross between old-fashioned paper checks, and a wire transfer.

One of the best things about eChecks poker rooms is that there is no third-party payment processor to go through; to use eChecks all you need to do is go to the cashier page of the poker room, and click on the eChecks deposit option, or request a cash-out using eChecks. After that, it’s simply a process of filling out a couple online forms and you’re good to go.

Not all online poker rooms accept eChecks, and not all online poker sites are created equal, which is why we have compiled this list of the three best echeck poker rooms that accept echecks for both deposits and withdrawals.

Best eCheck Poker Sites for United States Players

What Is An eCheck?

eChecks are an excellent method of both depositing and withdrawing from selected online poker sites. echecks offer direct access to and from your existing bank account, meaning that you don’t have to go through a third party processor like an internet wallet to perform transactions.

So to get a better idea of the benefits of eChecks, let’s compare them to the other popular options that are available. First, let’s look at credit cards. They have always been one of the most popular methods to deposit money at poker sites. Many players have successfully used them.

However, they can generally only be used to make deposits. Some cards can be used to process “refunds,” which at best allow you to withdraw the amount that you used to deposit at the poker room, but we want and need something that will allow us to take out our poker winnings as well, and this won’t work for that.

This refund mechanism is only available with certain credit cards in certain countries anyway. Credit cards don’t make money from refunds, and in fact they lose money from them, so they aren’t keen on people using them for a means of acquiring money.

eChecks, on the other hand, allow you to conveniently make both deposits and withdrawals, and your cashouts are simply deposited to the same bank account that you used to make your deposit. While deposits are instantly credited, this is because the poker site trusts you as far as the transfer from your bank to them going through, and it does take a few days for the money to move to them.

So when you withdraw, it similarly takes a few days for it to get to your bank, and your bank won’t let you spend money they don’t have yet, so you do have to wait until it arrives. However this is the quickest way to get money to your bank, as it is a direct process.

Other Potential Issues With Credit Cards

While all poker sites accept Visa and Mastercard, some credit cards won’t even let you use them to make deposits, depending on your bank and the country you live in. Credit cards are actually owned by the bank that issues it, not Visa and Mastercard, who are only the payment processors. So both the processing companies and the banks that issue and own the cards set rules up for this, as well as any prevailing laws that may apply to gambling transactions in your country.

So what can happen with credit cards is that players may sign up at a poker site with an expectation of being able to make a deposit there using their credit card, and when they try to do it, the transaction sometimes gets denied. The only way to know for sure is to actually try it and see what happens. So if you’ve never used a certain credit card to make a deposit at online poker sites before, it’s always good to have a back up plan in case you aren’t able to do it.

With eChecks, provided that the poker site that you’re looking to play at accepts them and you live in a country where they are accepted from, there’s no need to ever worry about your deposit not working, and all you have to do is enter in your bank account information in and you’re all set to play some real money poker.

Another possible roadblock to using credit cards is that not everyone has the established credit, so there are a lot of people who do not qualify for a regular credit card. A lot of poker sites accept pre-paid cards, however some are accepted and some are not, and this involves the potential of a trial and error process similar to what you go through with regular credit cards.

So with pre-paid credit cards, you have to go out and buy something, either a physical card which you buy at a store or a virtual one that you buy online, and if you haven’t used this particular pre-paid card to make poker deposits before, you may not even be sure that it will work. If it doesn’t, it’s actually worse than getting declined with a regular credit card, as you got this pre-paid one specifically for this deposit and may end up finding out that you have spent both your time and paid processing fees for nothing.

Of course, you can still use the non working pre-paid card to buy other things, and unless you are a hermit you’ll have no problem doing that, but you could have bought this stuff without having to go to the trouble and expense of getting this card.

eChecks Versus Internet Wallets

Another very popular deposit and withdrawal method that allows you to move money in and out of poker sites is the internet wallet. There are many types of these, but they all basically work the same way.

Internet wallets serve as an intermediary payment processor between your bank account or credit card and online poker sites. While they can also be used to make other purchases, the majority of the ones that are taken by poker sites do most of their business with gambling deposits and withdrawals. This is actually a good thing, since you don’t have to worry about an internet wallet not allowing gambling transactions and then getting in trouble with them if you get caught making them.

Instead of having your deposit go straight to the poker room, like eChecks do, you have to get your money into the internet wallet first. This generally requires players to first verify their bank account, where the internet wallet will make one or more very small deposits and you have to verify that amount before you can use the account.

So this adds some time to getting the account up and going, usually about a week. However, before you can use an internet wallet to deposit at a poker site, you need to have money in your account to do it, which takes a few days if you’re using your bank account. If you use a credit card then it is instant, since they can charge the credit card immediately, unlike bank accounts which take a week or more for them to get the money.

So the average deposit time directly from your bank account is a week with these versus instant with eChecks, although you can keep money in the internet wallet to use later. When it comes to withdrawals, while it does take eChecks a week on average to get your money in your bank account, with internet wallets, the money first has to be sent to the internet wallet, then sent to your bank account.

So in both cases, eChecks eliminate an extra step, making them faster on both deposits and withdrawals. If you can use an eCheck, this is preferable over any other method in fact.

How Do I Deposit Using An eCheck?

Depositing by eCheck is extremely easy once you are pointed in the right direction, which means finding good poker sites which accept eChecks. The next step is to make sure that you live in a country where eChecks are accepted. Then, you will need your banking information, and the depositing poker site will let you know what they need and how to get this information. If you have a blank check, you can get the numbers you need from that, or if not, you can get it from your bank, either online, or by calling or visiting them.

Then, once you register your bank account with your selected poker site that you want to play real money poker at, you are all set and your deposit will be instantly available to use. There are limits to how much you can deposit with eChecks per week, which differs by poker site, as they are trusting you with the money prior to their getting it, but the limits are usually pretty generous.

eCheck Processing Times

Although you get credit for your eCheck deposit instantly, and can begin using it right away, it takes up to 10 days for the money to move from your bank account to them, so this is why there are limitations. For obvious reasons, you are not permitted to withdraw deposits until the eChecks have cleared.

For eCheck withdrawals, it takes about the same amount of time to get the money, and in this case, the money needs to be received into your account before you can use it. So this can take up to 10 days as well, although my experience has been 4-5 business days. Echeck withdrawals are actually the fastest way to get money from your poker account into your bank account, since it’s a direct transfer.

eCheck Fees

Another nice feature of eChecks is that there are no fees involved to either deposit or withdraw. Some other payment processing methods do involve fees, particularly with internet wallets. Whenever you pay fees, that’s less money you either have to play with, or less money you get to keep.

Free is simply better, although if you have no choice but to pay fees, they generally are a pretty small percentage, and many poker sites will pay the fees for you when you deposit, and all you have to worry about is the withdrawal fees. You don’t have to worry about either though with eChecks.

eChecks For U.S. Poker Sites

As you might imagine, it can be challenging these days to find poker sites that take U.S. players at all, let alone take a particular deposit method. Of all of the methods to deposit that are available to U.S. players, eChecks are definitely the preferred method for depositing, and especially for making withdrawals.

So in this case you definitely need to be in the know as far as the very few sites out there that take eCheck deposits from U.S. based players, and we have that important information for you that you will need.

eChecks In Canada

Canadian players have a much easier time with eChecks, and all you need is a Canadian checking account to be able to take advantage of all of the benefits and conveniences that eChecks provide.

However, given that there is a lot more variety here as far as the poker rooms you can use eChecks at, you want to make sure that you aren’t just aware of the ones that take eChecks, you want to know what the best poker sites are that take eChecks from Canadians. So all you have to do is make sure you choose one on our recommended top eCheck poker sites to make sure that this happens.

Are eChecks Safe?

Although all deposit methods at poker sites are verified as safe, you don’t get any safer than eChecks. They are in fact safer than regular checks, as sometimes you are never sure whose hands they get in, and as they contain information regarding your bank account on them, they have the potential to be used to commit fraud against you.

Since this information is transmitted securely to the poker site that you choose, you can be assured that only they have this information. Of course you want to make sure that the poker sites that you are dealing with are completely trustworthy, and almost all of them are, but this is another reason why you want to go with our recommendations that we have for you here, as all of them are completely safe and secure.

So now that you know about eChecks, all you have to do now is click on our links to the best eCheck poker sites out there, get your banking information out, and you’re ready to roll.

eCheck Poker at Sports Interaction

Sports Interaction (www.sportsinteraction.com) hits number one on our list of instant echeck poker sites and is a long standing online poker room that has been dealing cards on the Internet for a ling time making it one of the best known brands in online poker.

Sports Interaction allows US players to deposit or cash-out their funds using eChecks. To sweeten the deal Sports Interaction Poker is also offering a great first deposit bonus to online pokerplayers, an respectable 110% match bonus up to $600.

As well as great bonuses and promotions, the real money poker games are Sports Interaction are renowned for being some of the softest games online. If you want to play at one of the fishiest online poker rooms then simply click the link below to get started!

>> Click here to visit Sports Interaction Poker <<

eCheck Poker Depositing at PokerStars

Pokerstars (www.pokerstars.com) has even more action and game selection than Full Tilt Poker, and would top our list of best eCheck Poker Rooms if they offered just a few more promotions; instead they end up as our third choice, with UB and Full Tilt Poker taking the top 2 slots! With a great reputation and a deposit of 100% up to $600 PokerStars is one of the most trusted names in online poker.

Like Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars does not charge any fees on deposits or withdrawals using instant eChecks. This means you can deposit at Pokerstars using eChecks without having to pay any commission at all to the site.

On top of this players making their first deposit using echecks are also elgiible to receive the Pokerstars $600 signup bonus as well as entry into the Stars VIP club and free entries into the various new depositor freerolls.

>> Click here to visit Pokerstars <<

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