[Bobo Fett]

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for people who have used instadebit...how are their exchange conversion rates?

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You finally got me off my backside to calculate this.

I'll explain a bit again how they operate. When you deposit for the first time to a US site, they take it straight from your bank account, and charge you whatever they have for that day's rate. If you cash out from a site in US dollars, they actually keep it in US dollars for you...in this regard they act as an eWallet. What I did earlier this month was deposit $25 on to VegasPoker247, and then withdrew $50 (their minimum) about 48 hours later. I subsequently withdrew $25 from Instadebit to my bank account as soon as it was available. On May 7, $28.37 was taken from my account; on May 10, $26.98 was deposited. That's a spread of 5.56%...eep! It looks like the US dollar lost about 0.5% in the same time frame. It did take a couple of days for both transactions to come through, so it's possible those days aren't exactly right, but even if I look a couple of days back, the biggest change is about 1%.

In summary, the exchange vig doesn't look good. However, that's only one small transacion, maybe my experience won't be universal. Otherwise, I like the service (aside from the limits). Proceed with caution.

Edit to add: I should mention again, that 5.5% is the total for BOTH ways. Knock off the 0.5-1 the dollar actually moved in that time frame, we're looking at 2-2.5 vig for withdrawing. Not great, but not obscene. If I didn't have Party EFT, it would be in the running for my next option, since it's so easy. Limits are a problem, though.