Every bookmaker has its own set of rules when it comes to depositing and withdrawing money from your account, though in truth most of them seem to opt for the same minimum amount. There are numerous reasons for this, with the main one being that it costs bookies for each transaction that a customer carries out, so they have to make sure that it’s worth it from their own financial stand point.
The majority will allow a minimum amount of £10 to be either deposited or withdrawn, though some will dip as low as £5. It will usually depend on the method chosen, with PayPal charging higher fees to the bookmakers that they then pass on to customers. Whether you’re actively charged a fee or not will depend on a number of factors, not least of which is the method of deposit or withdrawal that you’ve opted for.
Minimum Deposit Amounts
There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to minimum deposit amounts with bookmakers that applies across the board. Instead, various bookies will have their own rules that will depend on a number of factors. If several bookmakers are part of the same parent company, such as Ladbrokes and Coral for example, then you’ll usually find that they have the same rules in place for customers adding money to their accounts.
As a rule of thumb, you’re best off expecting to have to deposit a minimum of £10 into your account every time you add some money to place bets with. You’ll often find that even individual bookmakers can vary on the minimum deposit amount depending on the method you want to use, simply because they’ll be charged varying amounts by the companies that send them the money. The lowest is usually £5.
Minimum Withdrawal Amounts
As you’ll soon come to realise, the only thing we can tell you with any degree of certainty when it comes to money and bookmakers is that there’s very little we can tell you with any degree of certainty. Some bookmakers have the same rules for deposits as they do for withdrawals, meaning that if the minimum deposit amount is £10 then the least you’ll be able to withdraw is also £10.
Some bookies, however, will have a lower threshold for withdrawals than they will for deposits, largely because they will always want people to add more money to their accounts than they take out. Again, the lowest withdrawal amount with most bookmakers will be £5, with the actual figure dictated by the method you’ve opted to use. It’s always worth checking out how your favourite bookies tends to work in this regard.
Contacting Customer Services
Sometimes there will be a perfectly legitimate reason why you want to withdraw less than the minimum amount that a bookmaker will allow. The most obvious example of why you might wish to do this is if you think you’ve developed a problem with gambling and therefore want to get all of your money out and shut down your account, but you’ve only got a couple of quid left to be withdrawn.
If you have a reason to want to get your money out and can’t meet the minimum threshold asked for by a bookie, it’s always worth contacting their customer services team. It’s easy to look upon bookmakers as big scary companies, but it’s worth bearing in mind that there are real people on the end of the phone line or chat box who will help if they are able to. That being said, they’re unlikely to do so if you want to deposit less than the minimum.
Thinking Through Deposit & Withdrawal Methods
It’s obvious when you think about it, but bookmakers are always likely to make it easier for you to use deposit and withdrawal methods that are easy for them. The more common a method of getting money into and out of your betting account that you want to use, the more likely it is that a bookie will offer low minimum amounts to you to do so. Equally, the less common methods will be more expensive for them, so they’ll discourage their use.
A debit card is always going to be much easier for a bookmaker to accept payments from than a wire transfer is, as an example. So it is that you’ll find that some bookmakers will allow a minimum deposit of £5 if you’re using your debit card, but will ask for at least £20 when you’re looking to make a wire transfer. In many ways, it’s just common sense, so have a little think about the method you want to use and ask yourself if it’s necessary.
Bookmakers Are Charged Fees By Banks
The reason bookmakers want customers to choose some deposit and withdrawal methods over others is that banks will charge bookies a fee for their transactions. The easier a transaction is to carry out, the smaller the fee is that the bookmaker will be charged by the bank in question. It’s why you’ll often find that a payment method such as PayPal asks for a larger deposit and withdrawal than a debit card.
Whilst methods such as PayPal are great for the customer and offer different levels of protection, they’re not brilliant for bookies and so they want to make sure that the money that they have to pay is worth it. Paying 30p per transaction makes more sense when each deposit or withdrawal is for £10 than it does when it’s for £5, say. It’s all about bookmakers trying to get the best bang for their buck, just as punters do.
There Usually Are No Fees For You
In the vast majority of cases, bookmakers won’t charge the customer a fee for making either a deposit or a withdrawal. This is common sense when it comes to the deposit side of things, given that bookies are desperate for people to put money into their accounts. You could understand why they might want to charge for a withdrawal, however, seeing as though that means that someone is taking money away from them.
Obviously no single bookie is going to charge a customer to withdraw money unless all other companies are as it means that they’ll lose customers to a rival. The only time there are exceptions to this rule is when the transaction method is just too unusual for a bookmaker to ignore it. They’ll want to dissuade as many customers as possible from going down this road, which is where the idea of charging them to do so comes in.
For yourself, you’ll need to weigh up whether the method in questions is really the only one that you can use. Is a wire transfer really necessary when you’ve got a debit card and the money is going from the same account? There will be occasions when the answer to that question is yes, but the result of that is that you’ll have to accept that you’re going to have to pay for the convenience of using your method of choice.