If I read their terms correctly it is also possible that they deny you to convert USD in EUR in the software and than cash out the EUR in your EUR bank account.

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/room/tos/

5.10.c states:
So before you are able to cash out, their rules say that they can ask you to play some euro games first.
They literally get their additional cut either by rake or by their new margin. well played

So the answer (for those who deposit/withdraw in EUR/GBP) is just to keep a wallet in that currency and convert automatically when entering/leaving USD games?

Just about to be forced to cash out my stars.fr account, lovely timing I must say.

Clearly, we should start seriously about some kind of protest.
The whines here aren't going to change anything

I also figured this.

Can anyone confirm?

Comparison between Pokerstars and the most competitive money transfer service.

Current mid-market value:

xe.com: 1,000 GBP = 1,603.53 USD

Transferwise: 1,000 GBP = 1,603.04 USD

(I'd lose $0.49... that is what I call competitive)

Pokerstars: 1,000 GBP = $1,563.54 USD

(I'd lose $39.99... that is what i wouldn't call "extremely competitive."

+1, well the other sites have improved alot gotta start playing on other sites. oh well thats always what happens when money hungry gold diggers take over something that has great understanding of their customers. well good luck pokerstars, keep making these changes, I wonder how fast u will start losing traffic. Yes you will remain the biggest site but I can see many people moving away from you for your dirty choices.

No idea why anyone would withdraw in a currency apart from their own.

Banks make charges for that anyway.

I could be way off with this but do you think theres a chance stars implemented this now for the possible pull out of countries like Aus and Russia? in a final ploy to take a % of what these people had in there BR when they make there final withdrawal

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...6/index44.html

quote "My understanding is basically this - if Stars (or anyone else) is to successfully apply for a licence in the Uk then it isn't allowed to continue operating in countries where online poker is illegal (Australia, Russia, etc)"

I would be surprised if this was done in anticipation of certain countries like Russia getting booted. No doubt if that happens then people will see a correlation, but many times things like this are left hand having no idea of what the right hand is doing. Ironically enough, I would be more likely to believe that if all these changes are coordinated that this is more of a sign that no more countries will be booted in the near future, but we will have to see on that.


I appreciate some of the frustration in this thread (the losing a penny thing each time one leaves a table is a real issue that also happened at ipoker), but ignoring the huge game selection advantage Stars has over other sites, have people who are up in arms actually looked at how similar situations are treated on other sites?

Here are the figures from US to Canadian for Stars

$1,000 US = $1,123.15 if exchanged within the client

$1,000 = $1,095.11 if US is converted to a Canadian check (it does round down from 1,095.116 which is interesting and may be related to how that situation is handled with exchanging to buy in to tournaments)


on Party Poker $1,000 US = $1,090

and I believe Party Poker now charges 3% on many types of withdraws (like Skrill) even within the same currency.


It seems that many players will not be impacted if they use the exchange feature within the client (I appreciate the rule about currency speculation being mentioned, but I would be a bit surprised if this situation applies for if it did why even have the exchange function at all).

I get that those in countries with currencies other that US, Pounds, Cdn or Euros are genuinely not happy, but I would be curious which sites give those players better options with regard to exchanging their money.

As angry as everyone is with some of these changes (and I do understand that), I am wondering if all that happened here was Stars removed an artificial benefit that pretty much no other site offers.

So if I have £ as my preferred currency, deposit from a £ bank account and withdraw back to a £ bank account, I will not get charged any withdrawal fees?

Any how many payment providers, banks and other poker sites use the exact xe.com rate without charging any fees etc?

Makes sense.

How is that relevant to the point I am making?

Michael stated that their rate is extremely competitive. If you compare it against others who also charge [unnecessarily] exorbitant fees then, yes, their exorbitant fee is extremely competitive compared with the similar exorbitant fees of others. However I would prefer to use a company that charges far lower and reasonable fees as my benchmark to gauge what is competitive or not. (The exchange currency market is evolving. New companies have come along and demonstrated how they can successfully operate at a much lower cost to it's customer base. These hefty fees will hopefully soon be a thing of the past.)

Jeffrey Dahmer was an extremely kind and caring young man if you compare him with Hitler.

dont think ive seen anyone ask this and thats possibly because its a stupid question but can you not just xfer to FT and withdraw from there? i mean sure itd make sense amaya would apply this across both but has this been checked?

Does it actually cost to convert within the client now? So if i have just USD currency and then wanna play some ept tournaments i'm losing a few %?
That really sucks and adding potentially 2%~ on top of any buy-ins can be a huge difference in determining whether to play a live series or not..
If i wanna play into some ept satellites, or steps (EUR) i lose more, then converting it back to usd lose a bit more?

and what if i play say EPT, cash for X EUR, then want to convert that to my primary currency, do i lose on the payout too??

I really hope you guys will reconsider this, selfish reasons aside I truly believe that things like this; (near) vig free currency conversions (provided as a convenience to players, primarily to play more on pokerstars/events, not a way for players to make money from pokerstars!) contribute significantly to pokerstars good reputation and it's really unfortunate. I just made a conversion to send funds to a friend and had no idea about the changes, guessing i lost something?

*I just talked to a friend/re-read the post, and am not sure, but I'm really sorry if I misunderstood the changes, just to confirm is it only for withdrawing different currency where there's a slightly worse rate, or is currency conversion within the client included such as converting USD to EUR for EUR cash games, or EUR tournaments, or sending others funds in other currencies etc..?
If it's just for withdrawing, even though that affects me as well, I think that is a lot more reasonable and makes more sense

feeling pretty rinsed already.

Email exchange with Stars.

Me: I'm aware of the new exorbitant charges that Stars have introduced when depositing/withdrawing funds.

However can you confirm that as someone who deposits/withdraws in GBP that I can avoid all of the atrocious new charges by only keeping a GBP wallet, and that my automatic currency exchanges that take place every time that I buy into/leave a USD game game do not incur a fee?

Stars: Thank you for writing us and allowing us to be of assistance.

Please be advised that if you cashout from your GBP bankroll in GBP then you will not be charged this margin . However, if you cashout from your USD bankroll in GBP then the margin will apply.

This margin only applies to cashouts and deposits when PokerStars bankroll currency is different to the cashout/deposit currency.

I hope this information explains the situation for you, however,
please contact us again should you require further assistance or
clarification.

Regards,

Shweta
PokerStars Payment Services

Me: Yes, I require further assistance:

Can I deposit in GBP into my GBP wallet, then transfer those funds into my USD wallet and play using those funds- then at a later date when I am ready to cash out, reverse the process and incur zero fees?

Stars: Thank you for contacting us.

Yes you can do that. As that the changes in exchange rate margin where applied only to deposit and cashout transactions and not transfers.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for any questions or comments.

Regards,

Marilyn S.
PokerStars Payment Services.


So, (assuming UK player) don't cash out from USD account:



Transfer USD to GBP account:



then withdraw:

I didn't think they would do USD wires to Canadians?

So is it safe to assume based on the exchange above that stars support is either blatantly lying or entirely uninformed on this matter?

That's it, I'm withdrawing my money.

Wait... ****!

No. They haven't contradicted- just clarified- what was said in OP.

Thanks for telling us in advance and posting this update in a convenient place where the vast majority of your customers will see it /s

Got unknowingly dinged on my cashout 8+ hours before this topic was posted.

Ah okay, I misread before, thanks.

If there ever was a time to unionise, it is now.. This is the last straw seriously. Comparing yourselves with a bank? R u delusional? How dare you after all these years and all the extortionate rake we have paid. How dare you?

We need a union asap.. We need to protect ourselves as players.. They abuse us because they can and they have no real competition.. The other sites are run by a bunch of monkeys who wouldn't know what's good for poker if it hit them on the head so what do we expect really?? I wish scheinberg had warned us about this before he made his billions and ****ed off. But of course that would hurt the value of his company and he knew exactly what he was doing.

Just so disheartened by all these terrible changes.. POKERSTARS REPS, AMAYA IS KILLING
WHAT YOU CREATED! Wake up and speak up or u will lose us too.

And seriously, don't try and reassure us with your claims your rates are better than a banks. Don't insult our intelligence. What do u think we are stupid? Do you even realize how expensive rake is?? You need competitors asap who are not morons like your competitors now.. So many changes since Amaya took over and we as players are fed up..