My money is being siphoned off!

[Zarathustra888]

I've an account with Neteller, which I use to move my bankroll around to various sites. It's in Pound Sterling now.

I've a feeling that whenever I withdraw from site A into Neteller, then deposit into site B, some of my money is being removed by some cunning method.

eg
$800 withdrawn from Hollywood poker
444.50 pounds goes into Neteller
$600 deposited to Fulltilt.
99 pounds now in Neteller.

US$:UK pound sterling exchange rate is 1.76

99*1.76 = $174.25

$800 in,
$600 out,
$174.25 remains.

Where's the other $25?!

[prayformojo]

Neteller charges a fee when it performs the exchange. At least it did when I had a Canadian currency account. Close your current account and open a new one in American currency to perform the majority of your transactions for free.

[Cancuk]

Ya, they screw me in Canadian dollars as well.

[Ro-me-ro]

NETeller charge you 1.9% to convert from US to GBP when you cash out and then 1.9% to convert back to US when you deposit [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

The solution for winning players that don't need to fund their NETeller account via their bank is to request NETeller to close your GBP account and open up a USD account instead [1]. You will have a new account number etc so make sure you tell all your poker sites about the change.

Ellis

[1] For those that need to regularly fund their NETeller account you will now be charged the 1.9% when you deposit into your NETeller account from your external bank account instead whereas before it was free because your account was the same as your home currency...

[ImsaKidd]

I don't know how you can stand taking the 1.9% hit both ways- i'm taking 4% hit from martins poker only because they have a 1000 euro bonus, but the transaction fees still piss me off.

Agreed that a new account is best. I still cant believe you didnt notice this earlier!

[William]

You have to be very carefull with Neteller, they will take your money at every opportunity.

This recently hapenned to me:

In mid december last year I wanted to withdraw the equivalent of 180 US$.
The ATM machine I used in Denmark accepted the transaction and before spitting the money just shut down. A "transaction cancelled" receipt was delivered to me.
A little annoyed, I crossed the street and went to an ATM machine belonging to another bank. There the transaction was refused because of "unsufficient funds in my debit card".
Now, extremlly pissed off, I went to the first bank to complain and after more than 1 hour of discussion with the busy lady, she finally told me that she had been told by whoever could provide an answer that I could not get my money but that it would be returned to Neteller in a day or two. Irritating but fine.

2 days later I receive a letter from Neteller apologizing for the inconvinience it may have caused me and proudly telling me that they had refunded 129$ to my debit card!!!

In other words, an ATM malfunction I was not responsible for had costed me 51$ (over 25% of the amount involved).

Of course I inmediately wrote to them and one more time 3 days later because they had not replied to my first mail.
In the next week, I phoned support twice to ask why they would not at least reply to my emails telling me what was happening and both times was told they could not help, that I had to write to the debitcard department.
I had to write a third and a fourth mail before some lady answered sending me an account statement and asking me to show her wich transaction I was not satisfied with.
There I could see that all kind of fees had been charged for operations that had failed (ATM fees, conversion from one currency to the other and back again, etc...) and even taking all those fees in consideration, that didn't amount to 51$,
The mail also said that an investigation could take 5 to 6 weeks of time.

It ended (for the moment) that I explained once more what had happened, indicated the number of the suspect transactions and am today, over a month later still waiting to find out what happened and waiting for some money that may never show up again.

Needless to say that after that last mail, Neteller didn't even bother sending me a mail telling me that they had received all information and that an investigation will take place.

[wonderwes]

[ QUOTE ]

In other words, an ATM malfunction I was not responsible for had costed me 51$ (over 25% of the amount involved).


[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, that is really bad. ATM's not using their own bank's card are always a mystery. And usually you can't get a hold of the bank to fix it. I guess EFT's would be the safe route.

[Sciolist]

Seems the best plan for GBP players would be to deposit to Party with Switch, play their requirement (if any - if you play a lot presumably there isn't one), then cashout to NETeller.

[Mike Haven]

Now that Neteller is regulated by the FSA they have to follow strict formal rules or risk losing their licence.

If you go to their home page, click Security, and use the drop downs to get to their Complaints Policy, you'll see at 3) they have to acknowledge your complaint by email within 5 working days, and, let you know who will handle your complaint, and how you can contact them.

If they don't follow their system to the letter, tell them you will be contacting the FSA or Financial Ombudsman with exact details of what has (not) happened to date.

This is now a hammer anyone can wield when a business is regulated by the FSA, and businesses buckle when they are threatened legitimately with being reported to the FSA. Not only can they be fined enormous amounts of money, but they can also lose their licence or be suspended from operating for relatively minor rules violations.

[xenthebrain]

I also have to pay the exchange rate from USD->CAD when I fund my card and then again from CAD->EUR when I cashout.
I always cashout the max my ATM allows, since the relative fees are the lowest than (because of the fixed fees you pay on every cashout regardless of how much you cashout).