The most common and most sought after type of casino bonus is the Sign Up bonus. Also known as the welcome bonus, this offer applies to first time depositors and is the main attraction for new players to join an online casino where they currently don’t have an account.

Different online casinos have different ways of granting the Sign Up bonus. Some will automatically add it to your balance once you have made your deposit. Others will only credit it to you after filling out a form or requesting it by email. While most casinos try to make the bonus as easy to retrieve as possible, remember to check what are the exact conditions under which the bonus is credited to you. While all bonus offers are tempting, some of them require a minimum amount of deposit. So if you are after a 100% bonus and deposit 20$ when the minimum is 50$, the bonus will not apply to you. Even if we do not mention it in every paragraph of this bonus guide, it is expected of you to read the terms of use of any promotion offered to you by an online casino. Some promotions are really great as they sound while others are simply not.

Sign Up Bonuses vary by their amount and eligibility for cash out. The minimum amount you should expect to receive is 100% the amount of your deposit. Less than that, and you are simply not getting a good deal. Of course, there is also a maximum amount that you will receive - depositing 1 million dollars will not net you 1 million dollars for free. The maximum amount tends to be between 100$ - 1000$ dollars. If you happen to find a bonus that gives you a higher amount, remember to check the conditions, these bonuses tend to have very tough wagering requirements.

What are wagering requirements? This is the total amount of money you have to wager in order to be able to withdraw from your account. If you try to make a withdrawal before clearing the requirements, your withdrawal will be refused. This is the case for online casinos that let you use the bonus for wagering immediately after your deposit. In that case you will not be able to make any withdrawal until the requirements are cleared. Other casinos put the bonus on hold and only release it when you are cleared. This is easier if you decide that you don’t like the casino and just want to withdraw and move on to the next one.

The last thing you should take a look at is the list of games that are eligible for the sign up bonus. In the past this was not an issue, but since many people where playing strictly just to cash out the bonus, the casinos changed the terms to prevent that or to at least make it more difficult. If you plan on playing your favorite game but you notice that it will not help you clear the bonus, perhaps you should decline the bonus in the first place to not cause any delays with your withdrawal.

If you are looking for a new online casino to try a new bonus, you can use our database directly from the homepage of this site. You can sort the casinos by the size of the bonus, the maximum amount given, the software being used by the casino and many other conditions.