Making payments in the modern world is a much more varied interaction than it was in the past. The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, has changed the way that many residents of Toronto will perform their transactions in the long term. Indeed, there are a significantly higher number of ways to make payments now than at any other time in history.

This means that it can sometimes be difficult for people to choose what method they would like to use. In order to help make the right choice, we have gone over all of the most important ways to make a payment that are available. Whether you’re shopping at one of Toronto’s brick-and-mortar retail outlets or online, read on for insight into the different ways to pay and the positives and negatives for each.

Bank transfers

Bank transfers are mainly used for online shopping and other online vendors. It’s rarely an option that’s available in a brick-and-mortar outlet. A bank transfer works by sending funds directly from your bank account to the account where you are shopping – so if you have purchased an item from an online seller, you might transfer the money into their bank account.

This could also be used when playing at online casinos. Here, you would make a bank transfer to the casino account. Once this has been done, the money will be instantly available in your casino account. It might not be transferred from your bank account right away, but due to markers that the bank uses, this money would be marked as used and you won’t be able to spend it. However, because the money has been marked, you can start using it instantly at the online casino.

The positives of bank transfers are that they allow for instant payments to be made and they have excellent safety in place. When it comes to negatives, they do take longer than other payment methods for withdrawals or refunds to be processed.

Debit card and credit card payments

These are probably the most common methods of payment that are available to people in Toronto. While Visa and Mastercard are generally the most common names associated with this method, the debit system in Canada is actually operated by Interac. While Interac actually has its own specific debiting method, which we will cover in more detail later, within Canada, debiting is carried out by the network.

Most shops, both brick and mortar vendors and online, allow people to use debit cards to make payments. A debit card works by debiting your bank account directly when you purchase something. This works in a similar manner to the market system that bank transfers use, and as such, if you make a deposit at an online casino, you will be able to start playing right away.

Credit cards make payments in a similar manner – the difference is that you will be provided with a line of credit when using a credit card. Obviously, this will acquire interest as you play. Some online casinos don’t allow credit cards as part of socially responsible gambling regulations. Other than this, it makes a deposit in the same manner as a debit card.

The positives of debit and credit cards are that they are simple to use, make fast deposits, and have excellent security in place. In terms of negatives, withdrawals and refunds take quite a while. On top of this, credit cards accrue interest if you don’t pay them off on time.

E-wallets

E-wallets are becoming a much more popular way to make payments for users all over Toronto. At this moment in time, there are very few brick and mortar outlets in the city that allow purchasers to use e-wallets for payments. However, online retailers are allowing e-wallets much more regularly. PayPal is obviously the most famous e-wallet that’s in operation. However, Skrill, Interac and Neteller all have their own e-wallet option available.

What e-wallets offer is the ability for customers to make both deposits and withdrawals instantly. It means that waiting days or even weeks for a refund or withdrawal to be processed is no longer an issue when using an e-wallet. At online casinos, players are able to use a large range of different e-wallets in order to make payments. Interac is one of the most popular e-wallets for players in Toronto due to it being behind the debit system within Canada. However, other options are available if players don’t have an Interac e-wallet.

The positives for e-wallets are that they tend to have high levels of security in place and they allow for extremely fast withdrawals to be processed. In terms of negatives, they’re not fully available everywhere at the moment, so you might have to use another method if your favoured site doesn’t cover e-wallets.

Cryptocurrency

This is the least common method of payment at this moment in time. In fact, making payments using cryptocurrency is extremely difficult at brick-and-mortar outlets within Toronto. While there are some cryptocurrency wallets that allow people to have a debit card that will make an instant conversion from crypto to Canadian dollars when you make a payment, this isn’t truly using crypto for a payment. This is mainly because it will incur an exchange charge, which does remove some of the benefits that crypto offers.

Crypto is much more common in the online space. People are mostly able to use it at online casinos, which tend to have a much larger take-up of crypto payment methods than other online retailers. As the price of crypto fluctuates a lot more than more traditional currency, it can be a little more volatile as a payment method, but it is becoming more popular and more stable over time. Bitcoin is obviously the most famous crypto on the market, but there are lots of others, all offering slightly different services to people.

The positives of crypto payments are that you can make deposits and withdrawals instantly and you have anonymity when using it. The negatives mainly focus on how volatile it is – your payment for an item could conceivably have cost double the next day if the price changes rapidly, so it can be a risk to use it for payments.

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Joel Levy