You don't have to pay at either Pokerstars site, FWIW. Once you load the client and get a screen name, when you load the client and sign in you'll have a play money balance with which to play.
then if you want to sign up to pay they have several ways to insert money into you real account and then you play for real money. It can be deposited or withdrawn just like at a bank. Partypoker has a $50 min. on each deposit.
They have a bunch of different ways, but I couldn't get any of my cards to work. Something about not letting you charge to a non-US casino. This was the same with all my CCs and bank card. The other ways they offered, like western union, were just too much of a PITA so I stuck at the free tables. This was for pokerstars.net, BTW.
