Betting using POLi

POLi is a payment option that allows customers to use their Internet banking facility to safely pay for goods and services purchased online. It offers an alternative for people who do not have credit cards as well as for those who have them but prefer not to use them to shop at web sites.

The company responsible for operating POLi Payments is Centricom Pty, Ltd., which was founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2003. After gaining extensive experience in processing and managing payment transactions for consumers and businesses in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, Centricom established a Partner Program that “enables e-commerce providers to offer merchants a provision to access POLi’s automated online debit facility.”

Today, POLi supports the leading Internet banking sites of 19 financial institutions in Australia and New Zealand. POLi Payments are accepted by many of the world’s most respected brands, from Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia to Skype and Facebook, among others. Online accounts created with various eWallets, such as NETeller, MoneyBookers or Money2Anywhere, may also be integrated with POLi.

Among gaming web sites, no fewer than 394 venues welcome POLi for deposits or withdrawals or both. Affiliates include Betfair Sports, 888 Casino, Party Poker, William Hill, Sportsbet and EuroGrand, to name just a few.

One of the major advantages of using POLi for financial transactions is privacy. All transfers and purchases are conducted within the security of the user’s online banking facility. At no time is it necessary to disclose personal banking details to any third party. POLi does not capture usernames or passwords, its software has been reviewed by Secure Assessments and Verisign, and the bank website’s SSL certificate and thumbprints are checked each time a transaction is conducted.

Additionally, POLi is available free of charge, so money is saved on fees charged by credit cards and other payment methods. There are no sign ups and no need to manage accounts. Receipt of funds is immediate. And anyone who has access to the “Pay Anyone” functionality offered by a supported online banking facility can use POLi.

At an online gaming site, such as Betfair, using POLi to make a deposit could not be easier. Simply choose to pay with Internet Banking using the POLi payment option. Select the appropriate bank and follow the prompts to complete the payment using the selected bank’s Pay Anyone function. Enter the amount to transfer and complete the transaction. That’s all there is to it.

Although there is no cost to make a deposit using POLi, neither a charge from the gaming site nor from Centricom, some banks may apply fees for electronic funds transfers. Also, sites may place restrictions on the amounts that can be transferred. In the case of Betfair, the minimum deposit is $5, with no maximum specified. At William Hill, the limits are £5~£10,000.

To use POLi with an Internet banking option such as NETeller, a similar process is followed. Sign in to the existing NETeller account to initiate a POLi deposit. Information will be provided for transferring funds to the NETeller eWallet account from a bank account. By selecting POLi as the deposit type, the browser will be directed to the relevant online banking site to complete the transaction.

It should be noted that the transactions are conducted online using the POLi Web Browser (also known as the POLi Payments Screen), which should install automatically at the time of initiating the transaction. For quite some time, only Microsoft’s Internet Explorer could be used with POLi Payments, but quite recently Firefox has been added as an interface and a Macintosh compatible version is now available, too.