Hi,

First of all I'm not sure if this topic belongs here, if not then sorry!

When depositing on 888 from SEK(Swedish currency) to USD I've noticed that
I lose money because their exchange rate is not accurate?

An example if you check https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter...rom=USD&To=SEK the current rate states that $1.00000=kr9.18457. But on 888 $1.0000=kr9.6402. I'm planning on depositing $1000 which should cost me $1000*kr9.18457=kr9184.57 but instead costs me $1000*kr9.6402=kr9640.2 so I'm losing some money as you can tell, is this normal?

Appreciate any answer

Companies charge money to exchange currencies. You can test this by going to an airport to one of those exchange boots and converting your currency to US dollars then converting those US dollars back. They will appreciate the 8-10% (about 4-5% each transaction) in commissions you paid as you protest about the xe.com rate.

Unless your currency matches one in a cashier of a poker room/online casino you will similarly have to pay exchange fees. Kind of how the world works.

888 is wery well known scamming people with the rates. You really need to have $ account (skrill / neteller) if you are planning to play there more.

Generally everything you say is wrong, so I am not surprised you are classifying a 3-5% fee (which is basically standard) as a scam. Having to pay for exchanging currencies is something that anyone involved in an industry where that happens should know exists. If 888 was charging 10-20% then those fees would be relatively unfair, but likely all of this fee information is available to be found easily, so one can compare the rates different rooms and e-wallets charge for that service, though most will fall within a relatively tight range.

Perhaps you believe charging to exchange currencies is in and by itself a scam, and if so you can start a company that does it with no fee associated. Would be like the bank of getting change - you can try to overcome the $0 you make per transaction through sheer volume...


All the best.

Weird that when I deposit on the same day from € to 888 $ I get less compared to other sites with $ cashiers. And the same thing when I cashout from 888 $ to € I get less compared to other sites when I do the same. But yeah you must be right and everybody else who says the same that 888 pays with worse rates is wrong. Feels bad I opened your answer because you were on my ignore list. And now I remember why.

Looks like they charge around 4%. Other sites might charge a bit less, some may charge more. That does not mean this is a scam, rather what one should do as a customer is be aware of all the charges to the various rooms and factor that in when choosing which room. At times the games will be so good that an extra cost is worth it. I never said every site charges the exact same thing, rather I said they would likely be in a narrow ranges, due to competition. You need to stop being wrong on everything.

All the best.

P.S. When is Pokerstars going to take away the money won by Romania and Belgium in that server issue last week as you definitively proclaimed?

Atleast in the past they charged that 4% i guess, PLUS wrong exchange rates on their favor. Its basicly a scam. I cant remember getting ****ed with exchange rates like that on any other network ever.

Having played on nearly every major network, 888 is the only one that charges any noticeable amount on currency exchange. In fact, the majority of poker networks out there charge 0%, or have multi-currency options to help avoid these things. So while the 888 fees technically aren't a scam, they are most definitely greedy and not at all in line with the industry standard, as Monteroy seems to be suggesting. Do you think they're actively swapping euros for dollars every time someone makes a deposit Monteroy? Of course they're not.

I doubt many rooms have SEK cashiers (aside from the Swedish sites), and moving money from SEK to a different currency will result in a charge from the room, or the e-wallet or the bank. Many times people in this industry have no idea they are being charged ( I have lost count of the number of people I have explained to cash out Euros from the Euro cashier on Stars instead of the US cashier).

Some rooms like Stars will allow (within limits) exchanges among a few major currencies within their cashiers at no cost, which allows many to then cash out in their native currency to avoid exchange costs. Currencies like SEK though will pretty much always be subject to an exchange charge, and if 888s 4ish percent is higher than other rooms then that should be a factor in the choice of which room to use.

To answer your question - do I think they are actively swapping Euros for dollars each deposit? No, and those who deposit Euros into a US cashier when other methods are available are making a mistake. Do I think they keep a reserve of every non major currency, like for the OP? Nope.

To get back on topic the currency exchange service i use (transferwise) charges 0.3% on top of the mid market rate for GBP to EUR transactions. Saying 4% is standard is clearly wrong in 2018 times are changing. With 888 charging over 10x more than what is fast becoming the standard rate in modern times i don't think its a huge stretch to call it a scam.

Not to mention 888 obviously hold local funds in all the major markets GBP/USD/EUR/CAD etc so no conversion for these small transactions actually takes place.

Edit.

In regards to OP he is depositing with SEK which i wouldn't consider a major currency. To test this i got a quote for exchanging EUR TO SEK with my broker and it still only costs 0.37% on top of XE. Still think 4% is standard Monteroy?

I think comparing the rates from a large online currency exchange business where holding and exchanging a ton of different currencies with a poker room that probably (even you agree) holds 3 or 4 major currencies is not that accurate. Not like the poker room will rush to a currency trader every time someone deposits 50 bucks worth of a non major currency.

One can exchange between the major currencies with Stars cashiers at no cost, and if 888 lacks that option ( ie they convert with a fee within their software) then indeed they present a competitive disadvantage to those who cannot figure out how to send US to a US cashier or Euros to a Euro cashier etc.

It is not a scam, they say what it costs when you try to deposit. Customers are responsible for finding the most efficient method to move money to each room these days. This is not 2008 where some e-wallets literally never charged exchange fees (forget the German one that shut down recently that was great about that back in the day).

Is the 888 rate the best? Nah. Is it a scam? Nah. Do a lot of people in this industry lack the knowledge that exchanging currencies is not a charity service? Yup.

All the best.

I never actually said it was a scam. I said "i don't think its a huge stretch to call it a scam" As you are highly intelligent im sure you have heard of economies of scale. When me a private individual can exchange non major currencies for 0.3% charge imagine what a multi million dollar company can do with reduced rates due to increased volume. And yet they charge 4% on major and non major currency exchanges alike. Its not a scam like payday loans aren't a scam with their several thousand % APR. But its all legal and clearly states the price.

Nothing else to say to you anyway don't bother seizing the last word im sure it will be something clever. I will keep a eye out for the next rigtard thread im sure you will be there to show your superiority.

I appreciate you taking the time to try to stay on topic to replace your personal style attack approach within the context of the thread. Your passive aggressive game is kind of average, but perhaps it will improve over time. Certainly it is an improvement over the weird non-topic stuff you posted that was removed from this thread earlier this week.

Anyway, if you want to nitpick whether something is a scam or not a huge stretch to call it a scam, that is your choice, but my point is pretty simple. A lot of people in this industry seem to have no idea that exchanging money comes with a cost. That includes the OP who seemed genuinely surprised he could not simply get the xe.com rate. If someone spends the time as you did then savings can be had when exchanging money, however most people would save themselves a lot more simply by being aware of how things work. All banks and e-wallets charge for this service, and a player should do everything they can to reduce or remove exchanging currencies when possible. I have lost count of the number of Europeans that I educated with the simpel act of converting dollars to Euros within Stars before cashing out. Some unknowingly spent hundreds or thousands in needless exchange fees before that.

With sites like Pokerstars that is a lot easier within the 4 major currencies, but outside them a player faces 3%+ in costs (a change made a couple years ago that caused a minor riot - because exchanging money should always be free to many in this industry). I am not familiar with 888 in terms of how they handle the major currencies (ie: do they have cashiers in them, can one exchange between them at no cost etc.). That would be something a player intending to play there should research.

Thanks for the chat. In future when you appear from nowhere to attack me in a thread please reference this conversation, otherwise I will not likely remember you, and the next time we will at least have a history of interaction, which is an improvement over the first time you leaped in here.

All the best.