How to pay abroad instead of Visa and MasterCard? Instructions. Updated

The name of the holder is not indicated on the front side

Visa and MasterCard payment systems have suspended all operations in Russia-this is part of the sanctions due to hostilities in Ukraine. Since March 10, all cards of these systems issued in Russia will stop working outside the country - this applies to plastic cards, Google Pay and Apple Pay.

How can you replace Visa and MasterCard cards, how to release instant and virtual cards and what to do for those who are not going to leave Russia? Read the instructions "Paper" .

Updated March 8th . Added information about the departure of JCB from the Russian market.

1. All Russian cards Visa and MasterCard will continue to work in the country after March 10 . Transactions will be stopped only for payments abroad, as well as paying for goods and services in foreign online stores and services. If in the near future you do not plan to leave Russia or make purchases on foreign online platforms, there is no great sense in issuing alternative payment funds now-after blocking Visa and Mastercard, increased demand arose for them.
2. Today, Russians have two Visa and MasterCard alternatives : Mir National Payment System and Unionpay Chinese cards. Until recently, the Japanese payment system JCB was also available to Russians, but the authorities of this country imposed sanctions against Russia, and JCB left the country .
3. At the moment, the easiest way to connect to the Russian Payment System "Mir" . The cards of this project have been issued since 2015, Mira has its own contact payments system , similar to Google Pay and other similar services. Mir cards are also accepted abroad : in particular in Turkey, Vietnam, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
4. If you are going to one of these countries, you can issue a Mir card in almost any Russian bank , the issue will take some time. Among other things, customers offer MIR SUPREME premium payment funds with bonuses for holders. In addition, instant cards are available with instant release: they are made not personalized , but carriers can be obtained at the time of circulation. According to the Banki.ru service, 33 options for such debit cards are available to Petersburgers. In addition, many banks produce virtual cards for payments on the Internet - they can be used for payments in the same countries that support the physical cards of Mir.
5. For calculations on the territory of the European Union, cards of the Chinese Unionpay are suitable : they are accepted in 180 countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Italy and other states. To date, they are executed by eleven Russian credit organizations : for example, Solidarity Bank, Gazprombank and St. Petersburg Bank. There are also cobuding cards issued in conjunction with the Mir system - you can get a payment tool, for example, in the Rosselkhozbank, and later such cards will appear in the bank Tinkoff and Savior .
6. Unionpay also supports the instant issue of cards - the system’s website says that such a service in Russia is offered by Rosselkhozbank and Vostochny bank. Since February 14, Vostochny has become part of the “Sovcombank” - on the website of this organization there is no information about the release of Unionpay cards. Other organizations are ready to speed up the design of the card - so, in the bank " Solidarity " urgent manufacture within two business days costs 1,500 rubles. Unionpay virtual cards are not issued in Russia.
7. It is worth considering that after blocking the Russian Visa and MasterCard , the Unionpay cards arose in a stir : it is very difficult to get through to the partner banks of the Chinese payment system, and some of them changed the terms of issue, the Fontanka writes . For example, at the Bank "St. Petersburg" the tariff for issuing cards raised to 10 thousand rubles due to a deficiency of plastic. This information is confirmed by readers of the Paper . They note that they promise to release the card within a week.

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