[McBruce]

Is it really necessary to set up a separate account for tournaments with fees added (like the ACBL tourneys), AND the new money bridge tournaments? I've put some money into the former and I don't see why I cannot simply use that money to play in the latter. If it has to be separate, at least set up some simple way within BBO that I can transfer funds from one account to the other.

Took me some time before I decided to put some money into the BB$ account to play the odd tournament. The free mb tourneys are interesting and I might try some of the ones with entry fees, but the second I get transferred to the Paypal area again I look for ALT+F4.

Money's money. Find a way around this, please. BBO will continue to grow and there will be other interesting events in the future that we can choose pay for. Don't make us open a separate account for each one.

[inquiry]

McBruce, on Jul 12 2006, 04:47 PM, said:

Money's money. Find a way around this, please. BBO will continue to grow and there will be other interesting events in the future that we can choose pay for. Don't make us open a separate account for each one.

Money is not money in this context.

When you buy 100 worth of BB0$, you are credited with 100 dollars. You can use them as you see fit. Play in tourneys, buy bridge master, buy CD roms. BBO makes its money off you when you pay for services and goods, a nice profit i imagine, so they "eat" the credit card charge to put your money there. Let's call it 6%, I don't know what it is.

When you buy money tourneyment dollars, BBO profit margin is much less. Much of the registration money goes back to the winners as a prize (or their rake at money bridge is fairly small). Here they are not willing to pay the six percent up front, and they are willing to give you back your winnings. So, if you buy 100 worth of this money, you will see 94 credited to your account. Where did the other money go? To the credit card company or paypal or whoever.

Thus, you are not allowed to move BBO$'s into money bridge. You maybe happy to learn BBO readily allows you to move money out of money bridge and into BBO$s. You can avoid the percentage charge for buying bbo money bridge dollars simply by mailing BBO a check for the amount you want. That will give you the full amount you inserted.

Mabye fred, uday or sheri will explain this better, but this makes perfect sense to me.

[uday]

We recognize the disadvantages of using two currencies. Someday we'll find a way to come back to a single currency.

For now, the distinguishing characteristics are:

Money Bridge Dollars: are effectively money, and can be withdrawn. They can be used for gaming ( money bridge and money bridge tournaments). They can only be used in some countries ( basically, if you can't withdraw via paypal, you should not bother depositing).

BBO$: are effectively purchases, and cannot be withdrawn. They can be used for product purchases (tourneys, gib rentals, online books).

[pagehoutex]

Transferring "real money" (i.e., withdrawable funds) from the Money Bridge Account to purchase BBO$ (non-withdrawable site dollars) is very simple. Just send an e-mail to moneybridge@bridgebase.com stating the following information:

1. Your player name
2. Your password
3. The amount you want to transfer from MBA to BBO$

When I made my initial inquiry whether this was possible to do, Rain answered promptly with the above instructions. I think she told me to allow 24 hours before asking why no acknowledgment of receipt of the instruction and transfer having occurred had been given because it could take that long to process. But the one time I did it she must have been checking e-mail because ten minutes later I logged on and was greeted with system messages showing me the new balances in both accounts.