Most online Forex brokers are offering customers a wide variety of methods to deposit funds to their forex trading accounts. In addition to the very traditional deposit methods such as credit card, bank transfer, and personal or business check, many brokers are offering various web wallet systems. We generally list the available deposit and withdrawal methods for the particular brokers reviewed in the broker reviews section on forex-rates.biz.
Following are some of the web wallets that are rapidly growing in popularity as forex broker deposit methods, which are simple, convenient, and generally very secure:
Liberty Reserve
Liberty Reserve is a complete electronic currency, owned and operated by Liberty Reserve S.A. Liberty Reserve offers three e-currencies, one being on par with the US Dollar, the second being on par with the Euro, and the third being on par with one gram of gold. Liberty Reserve accounts require no identity documents to set up, and very limited personal information. To get funds in and out of the system, however, requires the use of a Liberty Reserve currency exchanger, which is independent from Liberty Reserve itself. To fund your Liberty Reserve account, you need to transfer funds to the exchanger, who takes a small fee and then transfers credits into your Liberty Reserve account. Similarly, to withdraw, you transfer Liberty Reserve to an exchanger's Liberty Reserve account, and they in turn deduct their fee and send funds back to your bank account. You never actually carry out any financial transactions directly with Liberty Reserve.
Moneybookers
Moneybookers is a popular online wallet, based in the United Kingdom and regulated by the FSA. It is operated by Moneybookers Ltd., which is owned by Investcorp Technology Partners. Moneybookers commenced business in 2001 and offers accounts denominated in USD, EUR, GBP, and CAD. Both personal and company accounts are allowed. Moneybookers offers several convenient ways to deposit to its online system from, as well as receive withdrawals back to, your bank account, regardless of where in the world your account is located.
PayPal
PayPal is arguably the first wallet system offered online, and certainly the largest and most popular. It is operated by PayPal Inc., which is owned by eBay Inc. PayPal accounts are based on the customer's e-mail address. A credit card or USA-based bank account is required to add funds to your account balance and to send payments to other customers. PayPal charges fees for receiving payments to your account, and also to withdraw funds from your Paypal account to bank accounts outside of the USA. Senders of Paypal payments do not pay fees if the transfer occurs to another Paypal account. Many forex brokers accept PayPal, but PayPal also has usage restrictions based on your country of residence, so it has limited use for a great many traders in various parts of the world.
WebMoney
WebMoney is more than an online wallet, it is a complete electronic currency system, operated by WM Transfer Ltd. WebMoney started off as an online payment system dedicated specifically to the Russian market, but it has grown into an internationally popular payment system with representatives throughout the world. The virtual currencies (popularly known as e-currencies) offered by WebMoney are WMZ (which is equivalent in value to the U.S. Dollar), WME (which is equivalent in value to the Euro) and WMR (which is equivalent to the Russian Ruble). WebMoney accounts are accessible via internet either using your web browser, or by using a special software offered to all WebMoney account holders that allegedly makes your use of the system much more secure. WebMoney processes more than 100 million dollars in transactions on a daily basis, and has millions of customers worldwide. An interesting feature of WebMoney is that accounts are anonymous, though withdrawing funds from the system does require personal identification on the part of the account holder.
