Login vs ID Top-Up vs Gift Card: How to Add Game Currency

Anyone who has searched for cheaper diamonds, gems or points has met the same three offers: "send us your login", "send us your ID" and "buy a code". They look similar on a product page, but they put very different things in someone else's hands: your account, your player number, or nothing at all. This guide compares the three routes plainly, quotes what the publishers' own support pages say about third-party sellers, and explains how each route works on The Nexus. It will not tell you that one of them is perfectly safe, because none is.

The three routes, in plain words

Before comparing risks it helps to be exact about what each route is, because stores use the words loosely.

Login top-up

You give the seller access to your account, usually through the account name, a verification code, or both. A person then signs in, buys or applies the currency, and signs out. The currency arrives on your account because someone with your credentials put it there. You are trusting a stranger with the thing the publisher tells you to keep to yourself.

ID top-up

You give a player ID, sometimes called a UID or user ID, and for some games a server, zone or region as well. Nobody logs in. The currency is delivered to that ID from outside the game client. Your ID is not a secret in the way a password is, since other players can often see it on your profile, but a wrong digit sends currency to the wrong person.

Gift card or code

You receive a code, redeem it yourself on the publisher's or platform's own page or app, and the value lands on your account through the same system the publisher uses for retail cards. The seller never learns anything about your account. What you have to get right is the product: the right brand, the right region, the right kind of card.

Route one: login top-up

A login top-up is the route that asks the most of you, so it deserves the most scepticism. Riot's own account guidance is blunt: it tells players to never share account access, even for rank boosting or trading, and notes that Riot already has access to your account and never needs your password. Supercell's Safe and Fair Play page says that giving private information or credentials to third parties puts your game, and your financial and online security, at high risk, and that Supercell cannot support accounts that were compromised this way.

The same Supercell page describes the scam version of the route: sites that offer cheaper gems, ask for login details, and then hijack the account and try to sell it on. It adds that buying gems from unauthorised vendors can mean revoked currency and a permanent ban. That is Supercell's wording about its own game, and it applies whether the person behind the login is honest or not, because the rule is about who has access, not about intent.

When a login route may still be the only option

Some currencies cannot be sold as a code or by ID in some regions. At the time of writing, Wild Rift Wild Cores for Europe and North America accounts are delivered manually, by account login, on The Nexus. Manual delivery can take longer than an automatic route, and the product page is where the current route for your region is shown. Riot's guidance above still applies: Riot says to keep access to yourself, so you are making a trade-off with open eyes, not following a rule Riot has endorsed. Our Wild Cores payment guide explains the route choices for that game in detail.

How to reduce the exposure if you do use one

• Use a password you use nowhere else, and change it once the order is complete.
• Turn on multi-factor authentication where the game offers it, and secure the email account tied to the game, since password resets go through it. Riot makes the same point on its account-protection page.
• Give details only on the private order page for that order, never in a public chat, a comment or a social media message.
• Do not play on the account, or share its login, until the order shows as complete.

Route two: ID top-up

An ID top-up keeps your login out of the picture, which removes the biggest single risk of the first route. What remains is accuracy and provenance.

Accuracy: the ID, the server, the region

Most failed ID top-ups are typing mistakes. Mobile Legends, for example, needs a user ID and a zone ID, and the two numbers together identify the account; swap or drop a digit and the currency lands elsewhere or is rejected. Our refund policy says to check the player ID, game, server and account region before paying, and states that a top-up delivered to the details you confirmed does not normally qualify for a refund or a second free top-up when the mistake was in the entry. It also notes that an email address, an IP address or a Riot ID tag does not establish an account's region. Read the number back from your game profile, character by character, before you press pay.

Provenance: where the currency comes from

This is the part a buyer cannot see. With a code, the publisher's own system checks the code when you redeem it. With an ID top-up, the currency arrives by a route that the publisher may or may not recognise, and a buyer has no view into it. Riot's billing page says players should never need to buy premium currency through a third party, and that a deal from one is a warning sign. Riot also states that if a chargeback follows a third-party purchase, the player still has to repay the balance. A reversed payment anywhere along the chain can come back to your account as a suspension or removed content.

Not every ID top-up ends badly, but the risk sits where you cannot inspect it, so look for a clear refund policy, an order record and an honest description of the route.

Route three: gift card or code

A code is the route with the least hand-over, and for that reason it is the one most publishers' own retail programmes are built around. You buy a code, then redeem it on the publisher's own page. Nothing needs to be shared.

That does not make a code immune. A code works like cash: whoever has it can redeem it. Google's guidance on gift card scams says never to share the code on the back of a card, and Apple's gift card page says Apple gift cards are for buying things from Apple, not for paying anyone else. If you paste a code into a public chat or send it to a stranger, it can be redeemed before you notice.

The two code mistakes that actually happen

• The wrong region or brand. A code is tied to a product line. Check the region and the brand on the product page against the account that will redeem it. Our refund policy says a valid code delivered as ordered is normally not returnable for a region you selected incorrectly.
• A code from a source the publisher does not recognise. Roblox's gift card terms state that cards obtained from unauthorised sellers, resellers or distributors, including internet auction sites, may not be honoured. Check each publisher's terms for its own wording.

What publishers say about third-party sellers

Here is what each publisher's own page says, paraphrased, with the page named so you can read it yourself. These are policies for their own games; other publishers differ, and policies change.

The pattern across these pages is consistent: publishers want currency bought from them or from their authorised retail partners, and they describe the alternatives as a risk to your account. A store like ours cannot override that. What we can do is tell you which route each product uses and keep the paperwork of your order.

What The Nexus does for each route

These are the store's own rules, not publisher policies. Each product page states its delivery method before you pay.

• Gift cards and codes. After payment is confirmed, the code appears on your private order page. You redeem it yourself on the official site or app. We never ask for your game password for a gift card or code order. Browse them in the gift card catalogue, for example Steam.
• ID top-ups. You enter a player ID and, where the game asks, a server or zone. Mobile Legends needs both a user ID and a zone ID; see the Mobile Legends page. Check the numbers before paying, because the refund policy treats a correctly delivered top-up to confirmed details as final.
• Login top-ups. Our team adds the currency by signing in to your account, as on the Clash Royale page. Some products are delivered manually and may take longer, and the page shows the route for the region you select, as on the Wild Rift page.

Payment methods depend on your country and are shown at checkout; in Egypt they include Vodafone Cash and InstaPay. Refund and replacement rules are in the refund policy; we do not paraphrase them beyond what is quoted above. The how it works page walks through an order from payment to delivery.

A decision table

The last row is a judgement, not a publisher rule. If you pay for a child's game, read the parental-controls section of the Roblox Robux guide to see how limits and gift cards interact on one platform.

Steps: choosing the route for your game

1. Open the product page for your game from the games hub or the gift card hub, and read the delivery method stated on it.
2. If a code is offered for your region, prefer it. Check the brand, region and card type against the account that will redeem it.
3. If only an ID route is offered, copy your ID and server from your game profile and read them back before paying.
4. If only a login route is offered, read the publisher's account-sharing rules first, use a unique password, turn on multi-factor authentication, and keep the order page open.
5. Pay with a method shown at checkout, then keep the order page and receipt until the currency has arrived and been used.
6. If anything looks wrong, contact support through the order, not in public, and read the refund policy.

Red flags that apply to every route

Some warning signs have nothing to do with which route you choose. The short version is below, and the FTC lists the same general signs on its how to avoid a scam page: impersonation, a made-up problem or prize, pressure to act fast, and unusual payment demands.

• A seller who asks for your password for a code or ID order has chosen the wrong route for the product.
• A price far below the publisher's own store should make you ask who is paying the difference.
• No order page, no receipt, and no written refund policy means nothing to refer to later.
• Messages that push you to move to a private chat, or to hurry, are the pressure the FTC describes.

For gift cards in particular, our gaming gift cards guide covers which brands exist, and the Steam wallet code or game key guide shows a code route for one platform. If your question is about a Riot region, the VALORANT VP region checklist shows what to confirm before paying.

How we keep this guide accurate

Statements about what Riot, Supercell, Roblox, Apple and Google say come from their own support pages, linked in the text and listed in the sources, and were read on 5 October 2026. The FTC guidance is general consumer advice from a United States agency, so it describes warning signs rather than the law where you live. Statements about delivery on The Nexus come from our own product rules and the refund policy, and routes can differ by game and region, so the product page always wins over this article. We do not quote prices because they change; see the live price on each product page. We did not verify Epic Games or Moonton policies, and we say so above instead of guessing. If you spot something out of date, use the correction link at the end of the article.