PaysafeCard
Review
PaysafeCard is one of the many successes that came along with the internet boom at the turn of the century. Founded in 2000 by four tech enthusiasts, it flourished into a leading global prepaid payment provider with an e-money licence issued by the British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that is now available in over 50 countries and reaching beyond Europe as far as New Zealand, the US and Argentina.
The main product remained virtually unchanged in its two decades of existence – internet shoppers buy a prepaid voucher at a local authorized merchant and use the 16-digit code to pay for online purchases at any outlet accepting PaysafeCard. This naturally includes online betting and casino sites as it is a very convenient method to fund a player’s account.
Having its humble beginnings during the first dotcom boom was certainly beneficial for the fast growth in popularity that PaysafeCard came to enjoy. Online shopping was going mainstream and in our domain, online casinos and bookmakers were breaking ground and at the start of its own boom. Still wary of handing over their financial details such as card numbers or bank info to gaming sites, punters were looking for ways to fund their accounts with a method that didn’t require any disclosure whatsoever – the core of PaysafeCard’s meteoric rise in online gaming.
The principle of using PaysafeCard has remained unchanged throughout the years. People can go to their local store such as gas stations or 7-11s to purchase a PaysafeCard in predefined denominations ranging from £10 to £175, paid in cash at the counter. They will then receive a printed receipt with a 16-digit PIN number which they can then enter at their chosen site to pay for online purchases or fund their gaming account. The amount on the voucher can be spent in multiple transactions until the total is depleted.
Naturally, PaysafeCard evolved in its 20-year history, branching out from their homely HQ in Austria. Starting with neighbouring countries such as Germany, they went on to cover most of the European continent before crossing the waters into the Americas, Australasia and the Middle East. Today, they are present in some 50 countries, offering a simple and convenient way for online shoppers and gamers to pay for their purchases.
Over the years, they expanded their product portfolio by adding the “My PaysafeCard” payment account which can be funded via an upload purchased at the same merchants who sell physical PaysafeCards. Plus, they offer a PaysafeCard Prepaid MasterCard, a loyalty program called MyPLUS and more recently launched Paysafe:Cash where internet shoppers create QR/barcodes during their purchases at an online outlet and settle the amount due at the nearest local payment point. Embracing the mobile age, they also launched the PaysafeCard APP offering the full suite of services on smartphones while in the latest expansion they were added as payment method to Google Play, opening them up to millions and millions of Google users.