Since the very first online transaction was made in the mid-1990s, many different payment methods have been developed that have enabled us to pay for goods and services at websites.
This page will take a quick look at the evolution of online payment methods, from credit cards to wire transfers to digital wallets and cryptos, and reveal some of today’s most popular ways to pay online.
What are online payments?
Online payments are transactions or the transfer of funds across the internet using an electronic device like a smartphone, desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or even a smartwatch.
It encompasses everything from sending and receiving funds to and from anyone in the world to paying for your weekly groceries at your favorite online store, topping up your online casino account, or paying a gas or electric bill from your bank account, plus many other things.
The main forms of online payments are bank transfers, digital wallet payments, mobile payments, and e-banking, to name a few.
What kind of payment methods do online casinos, poker sites, and sports betting sites accept?
Real money gambling sites today tend to accept a variety of trusted online payment methods.
Let’s just say that your preferred payment method is a wire transfer, and you want to know where to find the best wire transfer casino sites. One of the most trusted sites you can turn to is the official Time2Play website to obtain the most up-to-date info.
It has a list of today’s best online casinos that still accept wire transfers. The website also has information for hundreds of similar sites that accept various other trusted online payment methods, such as digital wallets, credit & debit cards, and prepaid voucher cards.
A brief history of online payments
In the early days, online payments were much slower than today, and there were just a couple of reliable methods to choose from – credit & debit cards and bank wire transfers.
Gradually, more new ways to pay for things started becoming available, such as PayPal, as more websites started accepting payments.
Online shops started looking for more payment methods to offer their customers because not everyone liked to use their credit or debit card details or their bank account information to pay for things at websites.
Digital wallets like PayPal quickly revolutionized how people paid for things online. They are also known as electronic wallets, e-Wallets, or web wallets, and they help speed up payments and make the process smoother and more seamless for the customer.
They made it far more convenient for people to buy and sell and much easier to send and receive money anywhere in the world.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum also started emerging and were considered even more secure than traditional online payment methods. They also processed quicker transactions and gradually started becoming more widely accepted.
What are the most popular online payment options?
Today, there are many different online payment solutions to choose from. Some people prefer using digital wallets to pay for things, while others prefer using credit or debit cards.
Each website is different in terms of what payment methods it accepts, and some payment methods are more prevalent in certain parts of the world than others.
However, some of the most popular online payment methods commonly accepted at websites today are the following secure, convenient, and reliable methods that many of you will already be familiar with by now:
- PayPal (digital wallet)
- Visa and MasterCard (credit & debit cards)
- Apple Pay (mobile pay/digital wallet)
- Trustly (bank transfer)
- Neteller (digital wallet)
- Skrill (digital wallet)
- Paysafecard (prepaid card/voucher card)
- Bitcoin and Ethereum (cryptocurrencies)
Many other secure ways to pay for goods and services online today also exist. Some of the other most popular methods used by millions of people today are Samsung Pay (mobile pay/digital wallet), MuchBetter (mobile pay/digital wallet), Neosurf (prepaid card/voucher card), American Express (credit card), Discover (credit card), and Maestro (debit card).
Others include JCB, Jeton, AstroPay, DogeCoin, Instadebit, Flexepin, CashToCode, POLi, eZeeWallet, Paytm, WebMoney, Venmo, EcoVoucher, and Revolut, to name a few.
Final note
The best way to find out if a website accepts your preferred payment method would be to head to their cashier/banking section or contact the support, and they should be able to tell you which payment methods they accept.
When choosing an online payment method, you need to find something that’s convenient and easy to use and that you feel most comfortable using. Make sure you choose one that doesn’t charge huge fees each time you use it and that it’s legitimate and perfectly secure.
