Popular Gift Cards for Easy Canadian Deposits

Exploring Today’s Best Gift Cards for Canadian Internet Casinos

For decades, gift cards have provided last minute shoppers with the perfect gift idea. They are the universal answer to, “What do you get the person who has everything?” But gift cards aren’t just for gift-giving procrastinators. It turns out, they’re also an excellent alternative to using a credit or debit card to buy things online. That includes funding your favorite online casino account.

You won’t need a specifically branded gift card for this. In fact, it’s the ubiquitous, one-time-use prepaid cards that tend to work best for depositing at online casinos. And because that deposit is taking place virtually, you don’t actually need a physical card, either. Prepaid vouchers will work just as well.

Single-use “top-up” cards and vouchers can be loaded with a set amount of money, and then used for a single purpose. This can include everything from topping-up the money on your phone, to buying a product from a local store, to depositing and playing at an online casino.

Prepaid Gift Cards and Vouchers for Cash Casino Deposits

Prepaid cards are safe, fast and easy to use. They also provide the security and peace of mind that comes with protecting your credit/debit card details and banking information. Plus, you don’t even need to have a debit card or credit card. Gift cards and vouchers are the only payment option that lets you fund an online casino account with cash.

So, with all of this in mind, let’s take a look at…

The Best Gift Cards for Online Casinos

Visa Gift Cards

Ah, Visa – the biggest provider of credit and debit cards in the world. The Visa name is known far and wide as one of the few, truly international brands. You would be hard-pressed to find a website that doesn’t accept some form of Visa. It would be equally difficult to find someone who doesn’t know and appreciate this brand.

Visa cards can be used anywhere and for anything. It doesn’t matter whether you’re inside or outside of Canada, or whether the online casino you have joined is based domestically or internationally. Visa gift cards have few limitations, if any. It is important, however, that you read the text on the card. If international purchases are restricted, it will clearly state this on the card.

You can get your Visa prepaid card from an official source, such as your bank or card issuer. You can also choose to purchase a prepaid card from a local retailer, or one of these affiliated institutions:

Green Dot Visa

The California based Green Dot Corporation have spent a lot of money on branding and advertising, and they also offer a few unique features that helps them to standout. You can purchase your Green Dot card in over 60,000 retailers across North America, and there are a few options to choose from.

The Green Dot gift card is a prepaid debit card, and one that can be used wherever Visa debit cards are accepted. You do not need a checking account to purchase this card, but you can use your account to top-up your funds. The preferred way to top-up, however, is to simply add cash at the point-of-sale. You can also reload the card as needed by visiting any licensed Green Dot Visa vendor.

NetSpend

This is a very easy card to acquire. There are no credit checks, no activation fees, no need to have a bank account and no need to deposit a minimum balance. It’s just as fast, simple, and widely available as other Visa prepaid cards. However, it tends to be more widely available for purchase, and for use. Simply look for a Visa Gift Card deposit option in your online casino’s banking menu.

Other Prepaid Visas:

• PayPower Canada Cash Passport Prepaid Visa
• RBC Cash Passport Prepaid Visa
• Titanium+ Cash Passport Prepaid Visa
• PIVOT Cash Passport Prepaid Visa
• CIBC Cash Passport Prepaid Visa
• T24 Black Passport Prepaid Visa
• Canada Post Cash Passport Prepaid Visa

MasterCard Gift Cards

Much the same as Visa, MasterCard is a global brand, recognized throughout the world. They are perhaps better known for their credit cards, but they also offer a line of debit cards and gift cards. These are essentially the same as the Visa ones mentioned above, and can be utilized in many of the same casinos.

As with Visa prepaid cards, most large banks and financial institutions should be able to provide you with a prepaid MasterCard. In fact, some of the more popular prepaid cards are offered by the Bank of Montreal, who have a selection of these for you to choose from. But there are also prepaid cards found online and in shopping outlets across Canada. These include:

Green Dot MasterCard

Green Dot again? Yes! Green Dot is not restricted to Visa. They also have a MasterCard option available. They used to offer Discovery cards as well, but stopped doing so in 2007.

The Green Dot MasterCard features all of the perks of the Visa edition, noted above. However, the Visa card is the one most commonly purchased, due to a wider range of acceptance in international markets.

Iridium

Touted as “Canada’s lowest cost prepaid MasterCard”, price is clearly a big draw for this card. But the truth is, you shouldn’t be paying much for a card like this anyway. In most cases you won’t. Still, this card has a few other standout features.

Iridium is used in close to 30 million locations. You can use it to gamble online, pay the bills, shop your favorite retail and eMerhcnats, and much more. The Iridium Basic is non-reloadable, or you can purchase the reloadable edition, with a min/max load capacity is $10/$5,000, and a $2 reload fee.

Other Prepaid MasterCards:

• Cash Passport Prepaid MasterCard
• Store Financial Prepaid MasterCard
• Titanium+ Prepaid MasterCard
• DirectCash Prepaid MasterCard
• Universal Prepaid MasterCard
• Vanilla Prepaid MasterCard
• MyVanilla Prepaid MasterCard
• Opt+ Prepaid MasterCard
• HorizonPlus Prepaid MasterCard
• Prepaid Vouchers (Like Gift Cards, Minus the Plastic!)

Prepaid vouchers are just like gift cards, except that they don’t come in the form of a plastic card. Instead, they are printed like a receipt, with a printed PIN number. Or, you can buy them online and receive the PIN in an email or SMS text message. Just don’t lose that number!

Paysafecard

Paysafecard has been around since 2000, giving online consumers a safe and convenient way to pay for goods and services – and to fund their favorite online casino accounts. You can purchase a paysafecard voucher in just about any retail store across Canada (and a bunch of other countries). They aren’t free, but they aren’t expensive either. Every retailer tacks on a small purchase fee, at their discretion.

You also have the option of buying virtual vouchers by registering a free MyPaysafecard account. This isn’t necessary, but it has its advantages. Doing so will allow you to increase your spending limits, and at some casinos, you’ll even be able request withdrawals to your MyPaysafecard wallet.

The only downside is that Paysafecard only transacts in EUR and GBP. For Canadian users, that means paying the nominal currency exchange fee each time you deposit.

Flexepin

Flexepin Cash Top-Up Vouchers are prepaid vouchers that can be purchased online, or at various retail outlets across Canada. Customers can then use them to make purchases at online casinos and other merchant websites, both domestically and internationally. Each voucher comes with a 16-digit PIN, to be used just like a physical gift card.

The number of online casinos accepting Flexepin vouchers has increased dramatically in recent years. Digimedia’s group of iGaming sites, including Royal Vegas, Platinum Play and others, have all added this convenient option. To check if your favorite online casino takes Flexepin deposits, click this link, then enter the casino’s URL in the box provided.

PurplePay

PurplePay is a budding online voucher service available in several countries, including Canada. Its uses are many, with online gambling high on the list. PurplePay offers a mobile app for Android and iOS, but if you only intend to use it for online casino deposits, you won’t need it. Simply choose PurplePay from the list of deposit options, and you’ll be redirected to the PurplePay website to complete your purchase with a credit or debit card.

The only real benefit of getting the app and registering an account is if you intend to use PurplePay a lot. With an account, you’ll be able to request withdrawals via PurplePay. You can even request a PurplePay Dollar Card to withdrawal cash from ATM machines worldwide.

The negative? There isn’t really a negative to the service itself, except that there aren’t a lot of online casinos that accept it yet. I have high hopes that that will change with time, though.

Other Prepaid Vouchers

• AstroPay
• ecoVoucher
• Neosurf