Ivobank - a useful bank account

[draconyx]

I haven't seen much mention of Ivobank (hxxp://www.ivobank.com) on here or other forums so I thought people might be interested in the benefits of having an account there.

Essentially they are a fairly new UK online bank. However, they also offer two extra services over a normal bank which make them a very useful account to have.

1) Free international bank transfers

As far as I know they are the only bank which provides this service. As well as being free you can also set up the transfer online in a matter of minutes. This is much more convenient than sending off a form or visiting your local branch as you have to do with other banks. For offers like Interwetten (where the best way to deposit is via bank transfer) using Ivobank can save you money and time.

2) E-wallet with associated special offers

The E-wallet seems to work much like Moneybookers. Unfortunately it is not yet accepted at many places. See here:

hxxp://www.ivobankinfo.com/merchants/

However, it seems like Ivobank are now starting to do special offers if you deposit to these sites using their E-wallet. I just received an email offering me a £15 bonus for a £20 deposit at any of the sites. I will be giving this a go at Expekt.

Hopefully they will be doing more offers in future. They appear to be aimed at the online gambling market and are apparently backed by the family behind Mansion so I am reasonably optimistic.

[lazza_w]

I've never heard of it.

They have a 'virtual card' - the picture suggests it's a MasterCard - is that what you use to deposit to books that don't accept it as a normal payment method (compared to moneybookers etc)? If so then do Mastercard charge as a cash transaction? Do you know which bookies accept it?

[draconyx]

I've never used the 'virtual card'. It doesn't strike me as particularly useful as I imagine it would cause problems if you needed to withdraw winnings to it.

I don't really see Ivobank ever replacing Moneybookers or NW Flex for normal bookie deposits. However, I think for the odd occasion where it is not possible or advantageous to use the usual deposit methods (as with the Interwetten sign up offer) it definitely comes into its own.

To be honest the main reason I posted this was the email I got about the bonus offer. If they keep on adding new supported merchants (as they say they will) then it's possible that there will be more offers as they try and get people to use their service.