Your Guide to Online Bingo Bonuses – Part One

Entering the online bingo world means that invariably, you’re gonna end up entering the world of online bingo bonuses. As one of the jewels in the crown of online bingo marketing, bonuses are there to keep you coming back for more, by basically rewarding you for parting with some pennies. Yet bonuses are often a whole big can of worms. There are tons of different types of bonuses, each with their own terms and conditions. To make it easier, we’ve scoured around and put together a little two-part guide to help you get the most out of your online bingo bonuses.

In this section, we’ll start by looking a little closer at the most common types of bingo bonuses and go through a bit of terminology.

Then, in part two, you’ll find our very best top tips for getting the most out of your bonus, as well as the best bonus deals out there (and the ones to avoid).

So, let’s get started with a few key terms for you to get a handle on.

Key Bonus Terms:

Cash Balance

When you sign up to a bingo site, you’ll be adding funds to your account. This money (i.e. the real money you part with from your card, Paypal account or similar) is turned into your “cash balance” at the bingo site.

Cash balances also include most of the money you win from playing online bingo games or bingo slots and side games.

Bonus Balance

Often in the lobby at your bingo site of choice, you’ll also find a separate calculated “bonus balance”. This includes any ‘free’ money you get from an online bingo site.

Chat prizes, converted loyalty points and some no deposit and free bingo winnings make up your bonus balance, alongside bonus cash you receive when claiming an online bingo bonus.

Deposit

Every time you add money to your online bingo account, you are making a deposit, which is the money that is subject to any bonuses granted.

The Basic Types of Bonus:

Now we’re gonna look at the main types of bonus you’ll probably encounter on an online bingo site. The list isn’t exhaustive, but you are more likely than not to find at least one of the following whilst playing online bingo:

First Deposit Bonus/New Player Bonus/Welcome bonus

There’s a couple of different terms for your first deposit bonus, but they basically mean the same thing – signifying the bonus you get when you make your first deposit after signing up.

Your first deposit bonus is often what’s used by online bingo sites to market to players – so when you see a “£20 free” sign, like this one from Foxy Bingo below, you can bet that generally, this refers to the amount of bonus you’ll get on your first deposit.

Bonuses are normally given as a percentage of what you put in – although there are a couple of exceptions, with some offering different conditions to claim your bonuses.

Most of the time, you can easily work out how much bonus you’ll get by taking a tenner deposit as your standard. So say for example you have a 200% welcome bonus – you can calculate 200% of £10 = £20 free.

Top Tip! Loads of sites – take this grab from Costa Bingo for example – have their own deposit calculators on site, which make it really easy for you to see how much bonus you can get back on your first deposit.

Free Welcome Bonus

Sometimes, a deposit bonus is not enough – which is where free welcome bonuses can come in.  Spin the wheel bonuses are a great example of an additional “free welcome bonus”, like the ones mentioned here in our Spin the Wheel feature.

But sites can also just chuck in a bit of extra cash on top of your first deposit bonus as a sweetener for when you sign up (and once you have deposited).

Although free bonuses are exactly that – free bonus cash given when you sign up – there is normally the precondition that you MUST deposit a certain amount of money before you can unlock these extra goodies.

You can see an example here in the following grab from Bingostreet, who offer a free welcome bonus in their “Shake the Signpost”feature. When you sign up, you’ll get a welcome bonus of on your first deposit. AND if you put in £10, you also unlock the chance to receive an extra cash amount.

Top Tip! Sites on the Joy of Bingo network are great for these additional free welcome bonuses – look out for them at Wink Bingo, 888Ladies Bingo, Red Bus Bingo, Bingostreet and Tasty Bingo.

No Deposit Bonus

Unlike free welcome bonuses, no deposit bonuses are exactly that – you don’t have to deposit to receive your free welcome money.

The idea is simple – you sign up and you instantly have a set amount of no deposit bonus to use trying out selected games on the site.

No deposit bingo bonuses were a lot more popular a few years ago, when sites were pretty much bribing players just to go through their doors.

Although you wont find so many No Deposit bonuses around these days, there are still a couple waiting to be grabbed, particularly at sites like City Bingo (shown above) and Sing Bingo (who, coincidentally, are all on the Mandalay Media network)

Top Tip! Generally, you can expect your no-deposit bonus to be a maximum of £10, with plenty of sites still offering cheeky £1 bonuses to get you started.

Redeposit Bonuses

Although not as common as first deposit bonuses, there are still plenty of online bingo sites that offer up a reload bonus.

It works in pretty much the same way as your first deposit bonus – i.e. a percentage of your deposit is given on top as bonus cash – but generally, you can expect redeposit bonuses to be around the 50% mark as a standard.

Not all sites will offer a redeposit bonus, with some preferring to offer other one-off bonuses via their newsletters or through specially issued bonus codes.

Loyalty Bonuses

Similarly related to the redeposit bonus is the loyalty bonus – a type of bonus that is more about convincing you to continue playing at an online bingo site, rather than just signing up to a new bingo site.

Most loyalty bonuses are calculated as points, which you ‘earn’ when you play bingo games or side games on your selected bingo site. It’s pretty much like a supermarket loyalty card, with your points available to “spend” only at your online bingo site.

The general conversion rate is £1 on bingo = 1 point and 1,000 points = £1 of bingo free play. Most bingo sites will give you this cash in your bonus balance, rather than giving away free cash.

Top Tip! Although the standard is 1,000 points for £1, there are some sites that offer different rates depending on your VIP status at the site. So if you’ve deposited more over your playing “lifetime”, you’ll find it easier to stack up points, or find your points are worth more pounds.

One-Off and Special Bonuses

In addition to all this, there are several “one-off” bonuses to look out for. These include:

• Birthday Bonuses: some bingo sites will give you a special bonus on your birthday.
• Bonus Codes: Look out for bonus codes in newsletters or on bingo comparison sites – they are a code you can input when you use your on-site banking, entitling you to a larger re-deposit bonus.
• Referral Bonuses: Often, your refer a friend cash amount will be credited into your bonus balance, or given in bonus points for you to convert into bonus cash.

Now that’s your basics covered. If you want to know more about bonuses and our tips on how to get the most out of them, be sure to check Part 2 of our guide to Bingo Bonuses.