Foreign ticket and hotel reservation services have started accepting cards, including Visa and Mastercard issued in the Russian Federation, Izvestia writes. Those that offer Russian cards include Trip.com, Expedia, and City.Travel.
Chinese Trip.com in 2023 added the ability to pay for tours with Russian cards. These data were confirmed by the company itself, specifying that the service has been cooperating with a “company of the Russian Federation” for several months. You can pay for the services of the service with any card issued in Russia, be it Mastercard and Visa or Chinese UnionPay or national Mir.
From the comments of Russian users on the service’s website, it follows that sometimes there are failures during payment, especially in the case of UnionPay. In order to avoid difficulties, support is recommended to make sure that the Russian version of the site is selected, and the desired currency is the ruble.
As explained in the support service to one of the users, transactions in national currency are not always carried out the first time. In such cases, you should wait for the refund to the account and try again.
The American website Expedia and the UAE-registered City.Travel portal also allow you to book a hotel using a Russian card. While Expedia only accepts Mastercard and Visa, City.Travel works with any card issued in the Russian Federation.
According to experts, transactions are carried out either through Russian banks or through organizations of “friendly” countries. DOM.RF bank said that most of its clients choose City.Travel. Basically, such transactions were made by Mastercard holders (69%), less frequently – Mira (24%) and Visa (7%), the credit institution specified.
Rosbank also confirmed the transactions. The average payment bill through City.Travel with bank cards is 37.2 thousand rubles this year and 26.14 thousand on Trip.com.
Last year, due to the entry of Russian troops into the territory of Ukraine, the Mastercard and Visa payment systems left the Russian Federation. In September 2022, the US Treasury threatened foreign banks with penalties for cooperating with the Russian Mir payment system.
Author:
Natalia Gormaleva
Source: RB
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