Dan Katz PokerBonuses.com

December 11, 2009

Best USA e-Wallet: eWalletXpress

With the passage of the UIGEA in 2006, funding online poker accounts became increasingly difficult as e-wallets closed their doors to U.S. customers. Fortunately, one, in particular, has been a stalwart: eWalletXpress.


eWalletXpress is available as a funding option for most of the major online poker rooms that still accept U.S. customers; PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker are the two big exceptions. It is a very secure option – the company is committed to keeping customer funds safe, evidenced by the fact that eWalletXpress encrypts all personal information in the same Tier 1 data centers used by top banks and financial institutions. Customer support representatives are also available by phone 24/7, which can be extremely helpful in the 'round the clock world of online poker.


With eWalletXpress, you can have one central source from which to fund many poker accounts, making it very easy to track your cash inflows and outflows. In fact, the site provides detailed statements of all your transactions and real-time access to your funds to help you keep tabs on everything.


Registration is a snap. Just enter basic personal information, create a user name and password, and you're off. Of course, you then need to deposit money into your eWalletXpress account. That's easy, too. You can make a one-off transaction with an electronic check or register your checking account information with eWalletXpress so you can continue to make quick deposits and withdrawals done the road. Deposits with the e-check Basic service will take five business days to clear, but one great option eWalletXpress offers is the Xpress Funds route, which makes your deposit available immediately after you pass an online identity validation process.


Upon registration, eWalletXpress limits customers to a $150 maximum deposit. After that, it goes up to $750 per week. Upon reaching certain validation levels, those maximums increase to as much as $4,500 per week.


For you high rollers, larger deposits can be made with money orders ($1,000 per day) and bank wires (no limit).


There are some fees involved with eWalletXpress deposits and withdrawals. The first checking deposit is free, though. We recommend checking the eWalletXpress website for up-to-date fee information, as it can always change. Fortunately, fees are easy to minimize. There are no fees to have funds transferred from a poker room to your eWalletXpress account, so when you win at the tables, you can build the funds in your account for free, making it so that you may very well only have to pay once (or never at all, if you only need to make that first, free checking deposit) to fund all of your poker accounts. For withdrawals back to your checking account, try to cash out as much as you can manage in a single transaction in order to soften the impact of the fee.


For those looking for a solid e-wallet from which to conduct the bulk of your online poker transactions, eWalletXpress is definitely an option worth trying.