Best Online Casinos that Accept Bank Transfer Payments in 2024

Information about Bank transfer casinos

Bank transfers, or wire transfers, are a secure way of sending money between two bank accounts, either in person or online. Virtually every bank in the world offers a transfer as a core service, with the fees earned from them being a significant source of income.

The internet age has made traditional bank transfers less common, with many payment methods often offering free and/or instant payments, however if you prefer, you can still buy pretty much any product or service the old-fashioned way. Many online casinos accept bank transfers, and this page is dedicated to helping you find the best ones.

Read on to find out more about this service, the pros and cons of using it and how to make a bank transfer deposit. There's also a section about the bonuses offered by bank transfer casinos, something that's bound to interest many players.

Table of contents:

Bank transfers – the 19th century payment method that's still popular today

Bank transfers as we know them have a history stretching back to the 19th century. The term 'wire transfer' comes from the 1870s, when a bank operator, after receiving money from the sender, would transmit a message via telegraph, or 'wire' as it was known, to an office in a different city to authorize the release of funds to a person there. A 'telegraphic transfer' also gets its name from this procedure.

A leading company that emerged out of this time was Western Union, a US firm whose dominance of the industry led to a virtual monopoly in the 1940s and 50s. However, the decline of telegraphing and concerns about security have meant that it isn't the power it once was.

In the 1970s, seven international banks formed a co-operative transfer system called Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication or, conveniently, SWIFT for short. The goal was to standardize the transfer process between countries, offering customers a guarantee that funds would be sent securely. It works by assigning each institution a different code, directing the funds to the correct place.

While we now live in a much more technologically advanced age, the transfer process has stayed more or less the same, except most of it is automated.

Here's a quick summary:

1. The sender orders the bank to transfer a certain amount of money and has to fill out the recipient's bank details.
2. The sending bank sends a secure message (via a system like SWIFT) to the receiving bank asking it to execute the payment according to the details.
3. The transfer then takes several hours, or days, to complete, depending on the reciprocal accounts the two banks have, and often whether they're in different countries.
4. The requested amount appears as a debit in the sender's account, and a credit in the recipient's, alongside any transfer fees which are normally deducted from the sender's balance.

While the internet age has led to people preferring transfers via apps and digital wallets, there is still a large customer base for bank transfers. Whether increased online options mean it will eventually become obsolete remains to be seen, but it remains the payment of choice for millions of people around the world.

Pros and cons of bank transfers

Over the years, bank transfers have been subject to certain regulations, often for security purposes and, sometimes, to cut down on unscrupulous bank charges. It means the method is one of the safest ways of sending money, and many banks guarantee the completed transaction. If human error means the wrong details are entered, then the money either doesn't leave the sender's account, or it's returned if it has already been taken out when the error was detected.

Bank transfers are also widely available internationally, so users can send money to almost any country in the world, whether to a bank account or a business. Even in nations with poor safety records, payments are normally protected by international banking rules. It's also in a country's best interests not to jeopardize transfers as it would deter countries and businesses from trading with them.

However, despite its high security and accessibility, paying by bank transfer does have its pitfalls. As mentioned, more modern payment methods have shown just how quick paying online can be, often facilitating instant payments. It's also led to bad PR for the old method, as some customers have questioned how a transfer could ever take days, and cost so much money.

Speaking of money, bank transfers can be expensive. In the USA, for example, a report found that the average fee to send a domestic wire was $25 in 2021 – recipients even paid up to $15 in some cases. While this may be more than most countries, it goes to show just how much some banks might charge. For this reason, it's always a good idea to read your bank's terms and conditions before you send a wire.

How to find the best bank transfer casino for you

The widespread use of bank transfer means that many online casinos accept it as a deposit method. However, going through them to find the best one is a tedious task.

To help you out with this, Casino Guru has created this page, with a useful filter system to narrow down the list of transfer-friendly sites.

Our hard-working team has reviewed bank transfer casinos on our database and awarded them a rating based on their performance. You can find the best of these by clicking on the 'Recommended' filter. This will show you the casinos that are extremely user-friendly and offer a fine playing experience.

Many players want to find the latest casinos out there, as they sometimes offer tempting sign-up offers to build their client base. You can find new casinos that accept bank transfer by clicking 'Newly opened', or you may want to see the full list, in which case select 'All'.

As well as these main filters, you can organize the casinos by other features. You might want to find one that has games from a particular developer – to do this, go to the 'Game Provider' category and choose the relevant one – games from Rival and Microgaming, for example, are extremely popular. Other options include payment method, currency, or location, so feel free to take some time exploring those.

Then, the final step is to check out the information about your favored casino. Each site has an info box that will tell you everything you need to know about it before signing up.

How to pay by bank transfer in an online casino

Once you've found your preferred online casino, you may want to play for money. To do this, you'll have to deposit money and to do this via bank transfer is normally straightforward.

To start with, make sure you have your bank details to hand and that your casino account is fully open. Ready? Here's a step-by-step guide to making a deposit:

1. Go to the cashier section of your casino and choose 'bank transfer' from the list of options
2. Enter your bank details, possibly including a log-in to your online account
3. Enter the amount you wish to deposit
4. Double-click everything is correct and confirm the transaction.

Bank transfers are typically slower than instant payment methods, so the funds may not appear in your casino account right away. If it takes an unusually long time, though, then contact your bank to check if the money has left your account, and with the casino to see if they've received it.

It's also quite common for banks to accept casino withdrawals via bank transfer, however it depends on your online casino. If they do, then the process is similar to above, only you do it via the 'withdrawal' section of the casino.

Bank transfer casino bonuses

Casino bonuses are often an entertaining part of the online casino world. They come in the form of free spins or credit and give you the chance to maybe get something for nothing. Deposit bonuses are very popular among online casinos as they encourage players to send them money before getting the bonus, while no deposit bonuses are very popular with players as they only require registration.

To find bank transfer casino bonuses, then start off by going to our list of casino bonuses. Once there, go to the 'Payment Method' filter and select 'Bank transfer'. You will then see all the casinos that offer bonuses and accept transfers.

You can also sort bonuses according to their type by going to the 'Bonus type' section and choosing your preference, so for deposit bonuses, for example, just click their box. You can get the same results by going to our list of deposit bonuses and choosing 'Bank transfer' there.

Any bonus you find should be relevant as of the date of your search thanks to the Casino Guru team's hard work in keeping them up-to-date.