Sofort, as most people know it (or Sofortuberweisung and Sofortbanking to give it its other names) is a banking service used in European countries such as Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Being tied to a number of different banks in those countries has seen this payment method grow over the years and now it is accepted by many online casinos catering to players from those same nations. However, this particular payment method is not available to residents of New Zealand, so no luck there.
There are a great many online casinos that accept Sofort as a way to make deposits, primarily because there are hundreds of them who are based in Europe. The system works by storing your banking information securely so that you don’t have to share it with the online casino or to any hackers trying to steal credit card information and things like that. So, when you’ve entered your desired amount into the casino’s cashier and chosen Sofort as your chosen payment method, you’ll be whisked away to Sofort’s website to verify the amount and the transaction. Once that is done, your transfer will be completed in a couple of seconds and you’ll be able to play your favourite games with your additional funds almost instantly. Easy peasy.
If you’re a resident in one of the European countries mentioned above then Sofort makes a lot of sense because it keeps your financial information safely tucked away and allows instantaneous transfers to a wide variety of online casinos. Another massive bonus is that there are no fees or hidden charges when using Sofort to deposit in the casino – in fact, Sofort forces the vendor or merchant (in this case, the casino) to pay any banking fees and related charges. So, whatever you choose to deposit is exactly what you’ll be able to use as playing funds.
Of course, if you’re not living in Europe, you can’t use Sofort, which is a shame. New Zealanders would be better off with a similar scheme run by the Australian Post Service called POLi. Another downside of the Sofort system is that it cannot be used to receive withdrawals from the casino, so you’ll need to find an alternative solution for this. This may change in the future, but at the time of writing, you’ll need an eWallet or to wait for a regular bank transfer.