Bingo Beginners Guide

10 things you need to know before making your first deposit!

So you fancy a go at this online bingo lark and you want to make a deposit. Here are the ten most important things that you need to know!

1. How the online bingo deposit and withdrawl process works

Firstly before you do anything you must know what to expect when registering for a bingo site!

All bingo sites, when you register, will ask you for your name, address, email address, password and a nickname. Your nickname will be displayed to other users, so this is what they will know you by when they chat to you or when the winner is announced (assuming you are the winner!).

Next you will have to enter credit card details. For new players this is generally the bit they don't like! Picking one of the major players should ensure that your details will be stored securely. When you have done this your account will work as a bank account would. You will be asked to make a deposit. Once you have done this you can start playing. Pick a room that takes your fancy - this can depend on a number of factors e.g. how many people are playing, the type of bingo in that room, any special jackpot amounts etc.

When you have played for a while and (hopefully!) won some money then you can withdraw your money back onto your card, or make a further deposit if you were less lucky. When you return to the site then you will need to enter your password and either nickname or email address and the money you had in the account before will still be there.

2. What "no deposit bonus" the site offers

Most, but not all bingo sites offer 'free money' known as no deposit bonus'. This is 'real cash' the site will give you to play with without having to deposit any money into your account. This is effectively a welcome bonus. Don't think that you can get this and then withdraw the cash, making a tidy sum! Most bingo sites won't let you check out any money until you have made at least one cash deposit and also there are minimum amounts that you can cash out (see below for more info on that). What it's useful for is getting a feel for the site but can be used to make money too so is important! Lucky for you we have a No Deposit Bonus table with this information on it!

3. What the minimum deposit is

Most bingo sites will ask for a minimum deposit. This varies from sites to site and can be from £5 to £20 so checking the site is one that suits your budget is important to do before-hand. For instance if you only intend to spend £5 then make sure the site will accept this! Bingocat makes this information easy to see in our nice easy to read table of minimum deposits.

4. What deposit bonus the site offers

Once you make your first deposit you will get a bonus cash amount put into your account. This is know as a 'sign on bonus' or 'deposit bonus'. The amount varies wildly from site to site from nothing to 300% what you have deposited or more. New bingo sites often offer huge sign on bonus' to attract new players and sites often run promotions so it's important to get up-to-date offers on who is offering what if this is important to you. Guess what? Bingocat has created a table for you with all this information in it! Brilliant! Have a look at our deposit bonus chart to see who is offering what today.

5. Whether you will continue to get bonus when you make further deposits

In order to try and keep you playing at one site, they will sometimes offer you a bonus when you make further deposits. These are sometimes known as a 'reload bonus'. Not all bingo sites offer this and again, the amount offered varies considerably. True to form, BingoCat's Mr Tiddles has created a simple to use table of reload bonus'.

6. What the minimum check out amount is

So, you made a deposit, played for a while and now you've decided that you will try another site so you need to checkout your winnings. Shock, horror, suddenly you find out that there is a minimum checkout amount which is more than you have in your account! No one told you that would happen. Oh yes they did! Mr Tiddles is telling you now! Check out the checkout amount table.

7. What games the site offers

Ok, so you know they are offering bingo, but what sort of bingo, and what other games are there to play when you're waiting for a game to start? Most bingo sites offer 75 ball and 90 ball bingo, which is the same game with different ways of winning. If you don't know the difference between them then have a look at our beginners guide to online bingo. All bingo sites will have some kind of other games, such as slots (which are one-armed-bandit type of games) and scratchcards. The quickest way to find out what games are offered on any particular site is by reading our review section which has detailed information on the types of games that you can play and also see first hand what they look like.

8. How often they run 'specials'

Bigger bingo sites and the better run ones often run special promotions for their existing players. This can be super jacpots, special games, free games with big jackpots, group games or anything else they can think up! The idea is that this keeps players interested as there is always something new going on. Smaller bingo sites or sites which are lazy won't do this as much as others. Here at bingocat we keep an up-to-date list of the special promotional games that sites run.

9. Where the company is based

If, like most of our readers, you are based in Blighty then you will benefit from playing on a UK bingo site. Bingo sites based in other countries (the US for instance) will have all the prices in their own currency. Also the chat in the chatrooms may use slang that you are not familiar with. Here at BingoCat we only review UK Bingo sites.

10. You are not limited to one site!

This is important to remember. Don't be scared to check out a load of sites before making your first deposit!

Click to play now!