Card: the route without an intermediate stop

Why the card is barely searched for

In Google's keyword data for Switzerland no notable figure appears for «kreditkarte casino», while «twint casino» reaches 320 searches. That is not a sign that nobody pays by card — it is a sign that nobody searches for it first. The card is taken for granted, and things taken for granted do not end up in a search box.

Out and back are not symmetrical

The most important point about the card: a deposit is usually straightforward, a withdrawal to the same card often not provided for. Then the way back is a transfer or a settlement unit — that is, exactly the intermediate stop the card was meant to avoid, only this time in the other direction.

Anyone choosing the card should therefore look in the cashier window, before the first deposit, at which withdrawal routes are listed there. That list is visible without an account and is the quickest way to avoid a nasty surprise.

What the terms say about it

Two figures in the terms count for the card: a minimum amount for a withdrawal and occasionally a ceiling per period. At one entry in this ranking a ceiling of 15 000 euros a month is stated, at another one of a million USDT a week. Both figures stand expressly in the terms — readable in the relevant entry.

When the card is the better route

For small amounts the card is almost always cheaper than the detour through a trading venue, because the fixed network fee falls away. For larger amounts the picture turns as soon as you count the way back. And anyone already holding a settlement unit does better with that route in both directions.

What the card reveals about the operator

Card processing is the most demanding payment route a house can set up: it requires contracts, checks and running charges. An operator that accepts cards has therefore gone down that road — which is no seal of quality, but it is a sign that somebody has taken on work that only pays back over years. The reverse does not hold: a coin-only cashier does not mean the opposite; it means only that a house did not want that work. In the ranking this point is deliberately not an input: it cannot be read off as unambiguously as a register number, and a calculation with soft inputs would stop being a calculation.

The first three places with number, status and score.

The card is always to hand, and that is exactly why it so rarely turns up in a search box. Which cashiers carry which route stands in the ranking; the overview of all the routes is under Payments.

Card is one of five routes that come into question from a Swiss account. Which one is cheapest depends less on the name of the route than on the number of conversions it demands — and on whether the way out and the way back are the same.

Common questions