Just about every online bingo site has some sort of special program to reward returning customers, besides just the deposit bonuses.  The program may call it points or bingo bucks or some other name, but the idea is that the more faithful you are to the company, the more rewards you will get.  Most of the time, you can trade these points in for free bingo cards  and sometimes even other prizes.

Actions that are normally encouraged and therefore rewarded for by the online bingo sites include making deposits, playing a game of bingo, playing other games on the site, participating in chat and bringing your friends to play.  Generally the points awarded will accumulate in a separate account from your normal deposit account.  Each site will have it’s own conversion policies for turning those points into prizes or free bingo games so be sure to read the rules for your favorite online bingo loyalty program.

Although they are called loyalty schemes, that doesn’t mean that you can’t have accounts with more than one online bingo site.  You simply won’t accumulate as many points at sites that you don’t play as often but it’s still worth signing up for the program.  As long as you keep going back, even occasionally, you will slowly pile up enough points to play some free bingo, at least.

The biggest point earner is usually referring your friends so be sure to tell your friends about your favorite sites.  The online bingo sites know that the best advertisement in the world is word of mouth by personal recommendations which is why they offer the bigger points for referrals.  If you like the site, it shouldn’t be too hard to tell a few of your friends how great it is, right?

Pull tabs were introduced back in the 70s mainly as a fund-raiser tool used in conjunction with bingo.  These innovative little games are a lot like today’s scratch card tickets only instead of scratching them, you pull the little tab which opens a window to the picture printed below.  They were such a big hit that you started seeing them at other fund-raising events besides bingo.  It was a great little diversion between bingo games for the players while helping to raise funds for various charities.

Now you can see pull tab games on many online bingo sites.  Done with software, of course, the effect is the same as the old time cardboard pull tabs of yesteryear.  The themes the pull tabs can be made in with software are pretty much limitless and they are usually quite colourful and exciting to play.

Options for online features are expanded compared to the paper pull tabs, too.  Multiple bet levels are often offered, giving you the chance to multiply the potential prize hiding behind the little tabs.  Features such as “new card”, “pull all” and “2x” have made this quite the automated process if you so choose.  Die-hard fans will want to do everything manually to get the true feel of the old time pull tab games.

Keep in mind that pull tabs are a game of pure, unadulterated chance – it all rests on pure luck.  There is no possible way to strategic pull tabs to increase your chances or decrease your chances of winning a prize.  So we don’t recommend going crazy with pull tabs but playing a card or two on occasion is a fun little break from online bingo.

There are certain levels of service that you should expect from any online bingo site and if these are not provided then you should take your bingo dollars somewhere else.  Safety and security of your information should be top priority, of course, but personal service should also be a standard.  Players should always be treated professionally in a friendly and courteous manner from other players, moderators and customer support staff.

Safety and security should not be an issue if you’ve followed our previous advice to make sure that you are dealing with a reputable company.  Obviously, you want to deal with an online bingo site that does their utmost to keep all of your personal data private, secure and confidential.

There is only so much the online bingo site can do to keep other players in line.  There will occasionally be one who is rude, obnoxious and a general pain in the behind.  The key is how the administration of the online bingo site deals with this annoying behavior.  A good level of service would be to stop this player from pestering or harassing other customers immediately.

When you have a question or concern, often times the chat moderator or site assistant can take care of you.  This should always be in a friendly and professional manner and you should never feel like you are bothering them.  When you need to go further and perhaps contact customer support, you should expect a prompt response that is also friendly and professional.

How many of us actually read all the fine print in the terms and conditions of the online bingo sites that we sign up for?  I know I have been guilty of just checking the little box that says I agree to the terms and conditions when I truly have not the first idea of what they actually say.  Most of the conditions are the same pretty much universally but it’s the differences that can come back to haunt you later.

The biggest difference from site to site tends to be in how the online bingo site handles the free bingo bonus money, free signup money and any deposit matching that they may offer.  Rarely does a site just hand you the bonus and then let you withdraw any winnings.  Most will make you wager that free bonus cash anywhere from a few times on up to fifty times before you can withdraw any winnings.  This does make sense because the sites would quickly go broke if they just handed out free cash willy nilly to anyone who registered.

Other terms that you should be aware of and fully understand include things like how many accounts can sign up from the same IP address.  In other words, will the site allow multiple accounts from the same household or will it constitute fraud?  Often the online bingo sites will limit the number allowed to one in order to ensure that no one is taking advantage of multiple free bonuses, etc.

Just about all online bingo sites give out tons of free bingo money but you do need to be sure that you abide by all the rules, terms and conditions that they set forth.  The only way to be positive about this is to read them carefully and completely.  If you don’t understand something, send an email to support and ask for clarification.  That’s what they are there for, after all.

There are probably as many forms of chat games as there are online bingo sites.  Anything that can be dreamed up by a creative chat moderator will be found somewhere.  You may wonder why you should participate in those chat games.  After all, you’re there to play bingo, right?

Keep in mind that there are always gaps between games, for one thing.  Might as well fill those in with playing a game and getting to know the other players in a room.  There isn’t just the social aspect to consider, though.  Most chat games do offer you a prize of some sort, often being bonus cash that you can use to play more bingo for free.  Free bingo is always a welcome thing!

Chat games can have just about any theme to them imaginable but the play itself tends to fall into three types.  Some are based on choosing a number or it turning up during game play that was picked by the moderator.  Another that is usually popular is based on trivia – this is easily themed to any interest or taste.  Some games are simply based on someone saying the right thing at the right time, like a secret phrase or word that the moderator has chosen in secret.

With the socialization ranking so high in surveys about why people play online bingo, chat games make sense for the online bingo site as well as the players.  It’s a creative way to get the players interacting with each other and players get the chance to win bonus money to use to play more bingo.  You can see why the online bingo sites would encourage this as happy players come back and play more often than those that are not.  Chat games certainly add to the fun for players!

A large part of the appeal for most people who play online bingo is the social aspect of interacting with others within the chats.    This feature enables you to meet the other players and get to know them.  Many people develop real, long-term friendships while playing online bingo.  If the socialization aspect of online bingo is important to you, you may want to give a few moments thought when choosing your ID for each online bingo site.

The best user names tell something about you to the rest of the players on the site.  It could be a characteristic (i.e. FlirtyFay) or a favorite animal (i.e. LuvsHorses) or even you child’s name (i.e. Mom2billy).  Choosing names this way may make it easier to meet friends that have something in common with ourselves.

Some people aren’t very good at picking user IDs or just aren’t interested enough to come up with anything particularly creative.  That’s fine, too.  Many people use one of the various online name generators that can be found to create their usernames.  These are often quite humorous so this isn’t a bad option.

Whatever you pick should be a good conversation starter, whether you crafted it yourself or used some kind of generator.  People often strike up conversations with new acquaintances by asking what their username means or stands for.  Having one that is catchy or topical provides a great starting point for getting to know other online bingo players.

Online bingo can be an easy way to keep your entertainment budget to a minimum.  With frequent free play options and money games that can be purchased for as little as 1p per card, you may wonder how anyone could overspend playing bingo.  Because online bingo is not only a chance to possibly win a prize or cash jackpot, it’s also a great way to socialize and make new friends.  It can be pretty easy to keep chatting and keep playing for long into the night and end up realizing you spent a tad more than you planned.

The first thing you need to do to manage your online bingo budget is decide what that amount is and how frequently you can afford that amount.  Once you decide on a monthly amount to set aside, simply divide that amount by the number of weeks in the current month and that would give you a weekly online bingo budget.

Now that you know how much you should spend, the key thing is to make it so you can easily stick to that amount.  What many players recommend is to make only one deposit per week at your online bingo site.  If you play at more than one site, divide that amount accordingly but make only one deposit per site.  Now when you run out of funds before it’s time to make the next weekly deposit, you don’t play at that site the remainder of the week.  If you stick to this plan, you will never spend more than you can afford playing online bingo.

To stretch your budget, be sure to take advantage of every bonus you can get your hands on.  Often sites will give you a matching deposit bonus of 50% or more of the deposited funds.  You also have opportunities to win more bonus cash participating in chat games and sometimes in playing certain games at the online bingo site.  Check the promotions page of your favorite site to be sure that you’re getting all the bonuses they offer and you’ll find no problems sticking to your online bingo budget.

Each online bingo site will have its own specific code of conduct governing the live chat.  That’s one of the reasons that we have advised in the past to try several online bingo sites and several different bingo rooms in order to find one that you are comfortable in.  Some rooms it is perfectly acceptable to be more daring and perhaps even flirtatious while other rooms this behavior would shock the rest of the roomies.  There are some behaviors that are universally considered bad form, however.

If you’ve played online bingo and participated in live chats for any length of time, you’ve probably seen at least one instance of someone mouthing off to the chat host.  Usually it turns out to be someone who lost more than they felt they should or have some other issue with the bingo site.  Unfortunately, when you take it out on the chat moderator, you’re going to have a bigger problem.  Even if they don’t just ban you from the site, you will have put yourself on the moderator’s bad side.

Speaking of players who lose more than they should, we all have losing streaks at some point.  It’s considered extremely bad form to bring this up in the chat.  Even worse is the person who complains about her losses over and over and over again.  If you feel there is a problem more than just bad luck, contact the customer support.  Aggravating the chat moderator and other players isn’t going to solve the problem and could result in you being asked to leave the room.

Use good netiquette within the live chat just as if you were on a forum or other interactive web medium.  It is still considered akin to shouting when you type in all capitals and people will usually let you know it quite quickly.   Text can be read wrong and people get offended sometimes when there was no intent to insult you.  Keep that in mind and give the benefit of the doubt whenever possible.  Don’t be insulting or demeaning to the other players in any fashion, even in retaliation.  Let the chat moderator handle it – that’s their job.

Let’s face it – bingo is one of the easiest games to learn so most people can be online and playing within just a few minutes, even if they’ve never played bingo before.  There are a few mistakes that are commonly made by new players that can easily be avoided.

The first mistake is to jump right into the first site you see and the first bingo room you come across on that site.  It is better if you check out a few different sites to see what the similarities and differences are.  Then when you find an online bingo site that seems to suit you, test out a few different rooms before settling on where to start playing.  Different rooms will have different players and different atmospheres.  Make sure that it’s a room that you can be comfortable and relax in as you will be able to concentrate better on your game.

The second most common mistake is to be too eager to win and try to overdo it on how many cards you play.  Experts actually recommend to play about four cards per game.  This enables you to pay attention and concentrate on your numbers.  If you overextend yourself, it will stress you out and make it much easier for you to miss numbers.  Yes, you could use the auto-daub feature if you’d like but many players complain that it takes the authenticity from the game and they get less enjoyment from playing.

Another mistake, especially to new players, is to have too many other distractions going on.  Turn off your instant messager client so it won’t be popping up or beeping at you every five minutes.  Close out any windows other than your online bingo room so you can focus on playing the game.  That way you can avoid missing numbers as they come up.

These are common mistakes but they don’t have to be ones that you make now that you’ve learned to avoid them.  Play where you are comfortable, play only the number of cards you can really pay attention to and get rid of any other distractions – this will do wonders for your winning record as you start out with online bingo.