Types of bingo bonuses

Online bingo sites all offer some sort of incentives either to welcome them to the site or to keep them loyal so they will return and keep playing. Each site has its own policy as to what bonuses they offer, when they offer them and what players have to do to clear the bonus. You can rarely just withdraw a bonus whenever you like, otherwise players could make a deposit, be given a bonus and withdraw it immediately without actually having to play on the bingo site. Whilst there are many different types of incentives and bonuses, we are going to detail the main types of bonus offers, how the bonuses work, and finally who offers the best of them.

Sign up bonus

A sign up bonus is, as the name says, a bonus bingo sites give when a players first joins them. This can also be referred to as a welcome bonus or a no deposit bonus. There are a huge number of bingo sites on the market making it a very competitive field and bingo sites sometimes offer a free money sign up bonus to tempt players in to trying them. They believe that if they do not do this, players will not even give them a look. If the player does not give them a first look, then there is no chance of them ever depositing or becoming a loyal player. The “no deposit bonuses” are typically between £5 and £10 in size and often the play associated with these free signup bonuses is restricted to bingo games, which means you cannot play slots or other games with the free money you’ve received for signing up.

In addition to restricting the types of games you can play, bingo sites often cap the amount of winnings you can cash out if you have not deposited to the site prior to winning. The “normal” cap on winnings from a no deposit bonus is £100. The way to get around this if you enjoy playing with no deposit money is to make a deposit AND play with the free money.

Deposit Bonuses

Bingo sites offer two main types of deposit bonuses. The two main types of bonuses are sticky bonuses and real money bonuses. Real money bonuses are tied to a deposit. The basics of it are that you make a deposit, and the bingo site matches your deposit at whatever rate your deposit qualifies. Let us look at the two different bonus offers right now:

Sticky bingo bonus

A sticky deposit bonus is a bonus that can be wagered but cannot be withdrawn (think of a sticky bonus as free play credits). Whilst you may not cash out the bonus money, you CAN withdraw the winnings you accumulate from playing with the sticky bonus money.

Most sticky bonuses have additional conditions associated with them. The bingo site typically will not let your bonus credits remain if you cash out before satisfying their wagering requirements. The wagering requirements that a bingo site sets is called a play through requirement, as it refers to the act of playing through your bonus money.

Real money bonuses from bingo sites

A real money bonus is the opposite of a sticky bonus in that it can be withdrawn. Before you get too excited though, just remember that there are usually conditions attached so although you can withdraw it you might have to wager a certain amount beforehand. Some online bingo sites might request that you play through the deposit a set amount of times, others might ask that you wager the bonus amount a set amount of times whilst others might state that you wager the combined sum of the deposit and the bonus a certain number of times. In some cases, the play through conditions may state that only wagering on certain games applies, or play on certain types of games may only count a set percentage towards your wagering requirements. The chances of winning a game usually affect whether it can count as all or part of your clearing requirements.

When do I get deposit bonus money from a bingo site?

Typically, bingo sites offer deposit bonus money on your first or initial deposit. The deposit bonuses are often the largest of all bonuses you will receive. This again is to attract the new player in the bingo site’s door.

Reload bonuses are a firm favourite with bingo players and can be found on many online bingo sites. They do vary greatly though as to how often they appear and if there are any limits on them. Some bingo sites have a fixed reload bonus, so you know that if you deposit a certain amount of money you will always get a bonus. Other sites offer these from time to time, maybe as a special offer, or possibly on just a certain day of the week, so if you are about to make a deposit a bit of research may pay off for you. Deposit bonuses or reload bonuses are seen by some sites as a useful tool to ensure players return and keep playing and depositing on them.

Watch for bingo bonuses

Many players keep a sharp eye out for any type of bonus they can get whilst playing at online bingo sites, which is why the sites have certain restrictions in place to make sure that they do not abuse the system. Sites give away bonus money to attract players but they are still businesses and need to make enough money to continue operating. Thus, they can (and will) ban bonus hunters if they feel the bonus seekers are abusing the system. Bonuses are great to receive as they give you extra money to play with. However, there are other factors you should take into consideration when choosing which online bingo sites to play on. As well as looking at their bonuses you should also look at the range of games they offer, the times they are played, the prices and customer service, as bingo sites can easily stop a bonus at any time so it is better to look at the overall package.