Cheap ways of getting money from Stars for non-Euro players

[Nakamura]

All you guys who live outside Europe and the US, how are you getting your money from Stars?

I play on Stars and live in South Africa. I'm fortunate enough to hold a UK bank account from some time I spent there. Until recently, I used to get money transfered directly to it, but with my address change, Stars will no longer deposit directly to it in GBP.

I hold money in Stars in GBP and my Moneybookers account is in GBP, but for some reason Stars only want to pay me in USD. I emailed Stars about this policy and they confirmed that this is true for any payment option other than Entropay, which charges 1.95% to accept payments. I know if Moneybookers accept money in any other currency, the conversion charge is about 2% plus they give you a slightly lower rate than the ruling one.

I accept I'll lose about 2% of the value when I transfer my money from my UK account to my SA one, but it would be nice to avoid a second currency conversion charge. Is there any way to avoid that or do I just have to accept that I'm going to be raped for 5% every time I want to get some cash from Stars.

[DoubleJ]

Hi Nak,

just transfer your entire BR to my PS account, i'll spend 1.5% on it on coaching w/ carroters, and then transfer the remainder via BACS to your GBP account, saving you 0.5%



+EV for everyone!

[kevster]

I accept I'll lose about 2% of the value when I transfer my money from my UK account to my SA one

Dumb question that I'm sure you've already thought about........... Is there a reason you can't get a Stars withdrawal directly to your SA account, even if you have to make a withdrawal first?

[Nekrogovner]

Dumb question that I'm sure you've already thought about........... Is there a reason you can't get a Stars withdrawal directly to your SA account, even if you have to make a withdrawal first?

You wanted to say he needs to make a deposit prior to withdrawal?

But really, why can't you change your bank account info in Pokerstars client, so that you get all your withdrawals directly to your bank? It would be kinda weird if they can't make that change.

[Nakamura]

Dumb question that I'm sure you've already thought about........... Is there a reason you can't get a Stars withdrawal directly to your SA account, even if you have to make a withdrawal first?

They don't do bank transfers to SA bank accounts!

[Nakamura]

But really, why can't you change your bank account info in Pokerstars client, so that you get all your withdrawals directly to your bank? It would be kinda weird if they can't make that change.

I think to stop money laundering, they don't allow money to be transfered to bank accounts outside of the country you are registered in.

[BennyLaRue]

They don't do bank transfers to SA bank accounts!

That's right. Way to take a stand against apartheid, Stars.

[dneureiter]

Go to cashier, click add new currency GBP convert xxx dollars to pounds, click on pounds page in cashier, cashout to MB. this works for euros and stars charges you exactly market rate for currency they don't mark up at all. Never done this in pounds but its how I cash out €s to my € MB acct.

[Nakamura]

Go to cashier, click add new currency GBP convert xxx dollars to pounds, click on pounds page in cashier, cashout to MB. this works for euros and stars charges you exactly market rate for currency they don't mark up at all. Never done this in pounds but its how I cash out €s to my € MB acct.

I have a GBP account on Stars and GBP MoneyBookers account. You'd expect it would be possible to cashout in pounds, right? In the dropdown box for currency I can select USD or USD. The really odd thing is I can request a cheque in Euros from Stars.

I bitched to Stars about this and this is what I got.

Hello Robert,

Thank you for contacting us.

Unfortunately our system is set up to process cashouts in your location in US currency. It is not possible for us to offer GBP as the currency in which you cash out as GBP due to the processor restrictions.

GBP currency is not a local currency of south Africa either and this is why it is not offered in this area for cashouts. We suggest that you consider the possibility of having a bank account in US$ specifically in order to avoid any type of fees.

Your understanding is appreciated.

Regards,

Gabriel
Supervisor
PokerStars Payment Services

GBP currency is not a local currency of south Africa either and this is why it is not offered in this area for cashouts.

Really, no shit? And USD is a local currency how exactly?

[dneureiter]

^^^^ oh ok then, that makes no sense whatsoever. Maybe benny is right?

[KoRnholio]

Banks and poker sites will almost always find a way to make that 2-3% on currency exchanges. I learned my lesson when requesting a check from Moneybookers for the first time. Account was in USD, but they only send checks in Euros from a German Bank. I got hammered for the exchange fee and the 20 business day hold on the foreign check.

Only way I can see for you to get a withdrawal in GBP is to get an address in the UK again. Would a PO Box (Post office box, or whatever you Englishmen call them) in the UK be good enough for Pokerstars or do they need a real address? Have a friend in the UK who you could "rent" a place from for a while?

[Nakamura]

Only way I can see for you to get a withdrawal in GBP is to get an address in the UK again. Would a PO Box (Post office box, or whatever you Englishmen call them) in the UK be good enough for Pokerstars or do they need a real address? Have a friend in the UK who you could "rent" a place from for a while?

A PO box is a good idea. I'm going to look into that. I'm going to first see if they will let me alter my address back to my last UK address. It's worth a shot, even though they can probably see my IP address. I was here for over a year before I even thought about changing my address from my UK one, so I think they're bit slack about IP address and physical addresses.

If I connect through a VPN in the UK, does PS know I'm sitting in SA? It might be one way around the IP address issue.

[DoubleJ]

i'd be VERY concerned about spoofing your IP address, Robert.

I've seen some posts elsewhere about people trying this and forfeiting their accounts.

Seriouly, if i can help out via PStars x-fer and then passing dosh on to you, PM me and let me know. I know PS do some checks when x-ferring player-to-player, but should be able to get past that??

[bikes]

this is in the last email i got from stars

Any attempt to circumvent these restrictions is a breach of the PokerStars Terms of Service. This will lead to your account being closed and your account balance being forfeited. An attempt at circumvention includes, but is not limited to,manipulating the information used by PokerStars to identify your location and providing PokerStars with false or misleading information regarding your residence.

[DoubleJ]

wot he said^^^

[Miffed22001]

can you not change your money bookers account to a differnet currency?

I bitched at neteller long enough to get mine changed from GBP to US dollars and they eventually did it

[kevster]

Props Miffed. I always loved that av.

[kevster]

They don't do bank transfers to SA bank accounts!

So you can play from SA, acknowledge that you're in SA but can't bank via SA? I'd say that's fucking retarded but in the current climate......

Give it to me and I'll send it on for ya

[Nakamura]

i'd be VERY concerned about spoofing your IP address, Robert.

I've seen some posts elsewhere about people trying this and forfeiting their accounts.

Seriouly, if i can help out via PStars x-fer and then passing dosh on to you, PM me and let me know. I know PS do some checks when x-ferring player-to-player, but should be able to get past that??

Thanks I appreciate the offer. I'll let you know if I can't sort something out.

So you can play from SA, acknowledge that you're in SA but can't bank via SA? I'd say that's fucking retarded but in the current climate......

Give it to me and I'll send it on for ya

Yeah, the really fucked up thing is I can transfer money to PokerStars from my SA bank account.

Thanks, I appreciate all the offers of shipping the funds. I'm going to see if Moneybookers will let me alter my currency to Rands, which will solve a lot of my problems for the long term. Thanks for the idea Miffed ... yummy avatar

Oh, and still bitching at Stars to see if they will change my currency options. I suspect dealing with a supervisor at Stars is like ....

[Nakamura]

Success. Thanks Johnny!

Dear Mr. X,

Thank you for contacting Moneybookers customer service.

Following up on your inquiry we would like to inform you that the currency registered in your account cannot be changed once there are any transactions or transaction attempts made on the account.

If you wish to have an account in ZAR you need to withdraw or spend your balance in your current active account and contact us so we can close it manually. Alternatively, you may close the account yourself by clicking on the my account tab-> email support-> Account/security-> I would like to close my Moneybookers account. After you do that you would be able to open a new one in ZAR.

....

Best regards,
Johnny
The Moneybookers Team

[Micro2Macro]

checks and or wire xfers

[Nakamura]

Honestly, this whole thing is way messed up. I heard back from Stars for the third time confirming that owing to agreements between themselves and the payment companies, they are only prepared to pay South African customers in USD. I have pointed out I have a GBP bank account my MB account is in GBP too, but they won't seem to budge on the USD issue.

I just realised that while I can have a MB account ZAR, they don't do local transfers to SA bank accounts. The money has to be converted to EUR and so I'm back to being charged two FX charges, one when it hits my MB account in USD and another when it hits my SA bank account.

While I appreciate offers to do PS transfers to avoid 2nd FX charge, as far as I can see, this is going to be an long ongoing affair. For the time being, I'll take the 5% hit until I can work something out.

[Nakamura]

Just an update on this.

I did a test run and transferred the minimum to my UK Visa card, linked to my UK bank. The money gets transferred my Visa card in USD and there is a conversion process. The deal was supposed to be worth GBP 65, but over GBP 67 hit my account. I did a larger transfer about a week ago and GBP 1423.68 was supposed to be credited to my account, however GBP 1459.30 was actually credited.

It must have something to do the selling/buying/mid-market rates, but it doesn't really seem to make much sense to me.

[KoRnholio]

Bank error in your favour, collect Euros?!

Different places will have slightly different exchange rates. I know on some sites (not just poker) they are slow to change or update that rate. But a ~2.5% difference is way more than the result of just mid-market/inter-daily rate changes.

I wonder if cashing it onto a VISA is done as a "refund" and they are applying a different/old exchange rate? Virtually all my Moneybookers cashouts have shown up in my accounts as "refunds", but I can't comment on the exchange rate as there was none.