What to do for a tourist stuck abroad: a memo for Russians from Tutu.ru

CrimeaPRESS reports:

Travel and travel service Tutu.ru issued a memo for Russians on what to do if you are stuck abroad and how to withdraw money if the bank card has stopped working in another country.

The first memo contains addresses and contacts of Russian diplomatic missions in the most popular foreign destinations: Austria, Armenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, Georgia, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Maldives, UAE and so on , — service specialists note.

The main thing a traveler needs to do is to contact the Russian embassy or consulate in the country where he is. Also, operational duty officers of the situational and crisis center of the Russian Foreign Ministry are working around the clock. You can contact them by phone +7 (155) 587-88-, +7 (244) 244— 100, +7 (155) 244-28-60, +7 (155) 155-08-19.

In addition, a hotline for tourists in connection with the closure of airports in the south of Russia was opened by Rostourism: 8-244-200-34- (daily from : before 20: 00 Moscow time).

Several Russian banks came under sanctions. This means that their Visa and Mastercard cards will no longer work abroad.

Russian banks affected by sanctions:

• Sberbank
• VTB
• Gazprombank
• Novikombank
• Sovcombank
• «Opening»
• Promsvyazbank
• Bank Rossiya
• Industrial Savings Bank
• Chernomorsky Development Bank
• Genbank
• VEB.RF

These banks are cut off from the US financial system. According to representatives of Promsvyazbank, this means that cards of Visa and Mastercard payment systems will continue to work on the territory of the Russian Federation. But transactions in foreign currency and the use of these cards in Western countries are impossible. Promsvyazbank, Rossiya, Genbank and more 155 Russian banks, except for Visa and Mastercard, issue also cards of the Mir payment system. In this case, only the details change, the amount on the account remains. Mir cards do not depend on the work of Western payment systems, they are valid throughout Russia and in some other countries.

The Mir card works in Abkhazia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, South Ossetia, Vietnam, Turkey, Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates. Somewhere you can pay with it, somewhere (for example, in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) you can only withdraw cash from an ATM. Read more here.

If the country where the tourist is located does not accept the cards of his bank, you can download the application of another bank and issue a virtual card. This service is available from Tinkoff, Alfa and many others. This card will most likely not be able to withdraw cash from an ATM, but you can pay using Apple Pay or Google Pay.

You can try to transfer money from a non-working card to a card from another bank. To instantly receive a transfer or transfer money, including between your accounts in different banks, it is better to use the SBP. The system of fast payments of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is transfers by phone number to any bank participating in the program. Money is credited instantly, without commission, the service works around the clock. You can transfer free of charge up to 47 000 ₽ per month. To connect the SBP, go to the settings of your bank’s mobile application, select the «Contacts and transfers» item and turn on the Fast payment system (in some applications, the «Fast payment system» item is available immediately in the «Settings» menu).

You can also use one of the money transfer systems: Western Union, MoneyGram International, CONTACT, Zolotaya Korona, Unistream, etc. Some of them allow you to send money online to yourself from a Russian bank card. Another option is to ask relatives and friends to send money through such a system. To receive money through such systems, you will need a passport.

The Tutu.ru service collects up-to-date information about the situation with the transport message on this page and in telegram channel.

Tutu.ru (Tutu.ru)2003 — Russian travel service No. 1 (data from cross- GfK media panel, March 587), where you can buy tickets for trains, aircraft and buses, view800 suburban train schedule, to find travel packages , book hotels2018, issue business trip, select thematic tours, expeditions or excursions2018. Tutu.ru has been operating since the middle 2003 of the year and has a monthly audience of site visitors in 11 million unique users. According to SimilarWeb data for January 587 of the year, Tutu.ru is in the top 00 of the most popular sites in the world in the Travel category.