Many Sberbank clients who are going to travel abroad are interested in the following questions: how to use the Sberbank Visa card abroad, whether the Sberbank card will work in another country, and whether payment will be made using Visa system plastic in a store or cafe. In this overview, you will learn how foreign transactions are carried out, as well as get the opinion of customers who often visit other countries.

The main advantages of the Sberbank card

Using a Sberbank Visa plastic card abroad is a more convenient procedure than paying for goods in cash. Almost everything is accepted abroad, except with the support of Maestro. When making purchases in shopping centers, you can easily pay with the plastic of the country's leading bank, however, to pay at points that do not imply cashless payments, do not forget to withdraw the required amount of money from an ATM.

The most important plus of using the card is the ability to make non-cash payments without conversion, since the transfer of savings to another currency will take place automatically at the current bank rate.

Plastic cards imply emergency cash withdrawal at any of the branches if the card has been stolen or. Details of this service will be revealed by specialists or managers of any department.

Disadvantages of a Sberbank card abroad

Like all banking products, using a Sberbank card abroad has its drawbacks:

• urgent restoration of the card in case of loss will require additional costs;
• when withdrawing cash through an ATM of any other foreign bank, you will have to pay a double commission;
• if card payments are made in rubles, when paying in shops and cafes, money for conversion will be withdrawn from the account;
• a warning to bank specialists is required if foreign trips are planned in order to avoid blocking the payment instrument by the security service.

What is better to take with you - Visa or MasterCard

Abroad, you can take bank cards with both payment systems. It is better to take a Visa card, according to which payments are made in dollars, to America, Turkey - that is, countries where payment in the mentioned currency is possible. With the Mastercard system, payments are made in European currency, so this card is ideal for traveling in the EEC countries.

When traveling in Europe with a ruble Visa card from Sberbank, the system will calculate the transaction in euros, then it will convert it into dollars, and only after that - rubles. A holder of plastic in France or Germany will pay for a double conversion, while in the USA - only one.

On a note. It is desirable for the traveler that the card account be opened in the currency that is accepted for payment in stores. In this case, there will be no need for conversion and the owner of the plastic card will be able to save.

It is also not recommended to cash out funds on the card. Experienced travelers believe that it is more profitable to pay for services non-cash than to withdraw money and pay with it.

Cash out fee

Any withdrawal of currency outside the terminals of your bank entails additional costs for the cardholder. And in many banking organizations, this percentage is quite high - up to 12-15 $ or €, regardless of the amount.

What unforeseen situations can happen abroad

Traveling in a foreign country, a citizen can get into trouble - lose a card or be robbed. In this case, you must immediately contact the banking support service and impose it so that the attackers cannot use it.

When traveling abroad, please adhere to the following guidelines:

1. never write down the pin code on a plastic carrier or on paper and do not put it in your wallet next to the card;
2. avoid paying by card at suspicious outlets, do not pay twice if the terminal did not issue a receipt;
3. track the amount collected by the cashier or the seller on the terminal screen;
4. try not to get your wallet out of your bag when there are crowds of people, keep it in an inaccessible place;
5. always have a cash reserve for small expenses;
6. set aside the "airbag" in case of loss of the card;
7. connect to control all plastic operations;
8. do not give the card to anyone, make sure that the payment takes place in your personal presence;
9. control . If the card is due to expire during your trip, order a new one in advance.

Each client of Sberbank who is going to travel abroad should decide in advance whether to take it with them. If you think you can get by with cash, take a card with a small balance for a rainy day. This video tells how to withdraw money from an ATM abroad:

Disadvantages of using Sberbank ruble cards abroad

Using a Sberbank card in Russian currency, you will lose additional money on conversion, as you will be forced to pay commissions to a local credit institution, and to Sberbank for the transfer. In addition, this is a rather slow process, as some banks still do it manually. Sharp jumps in the exchange rate are also possible, due to which the cardholder loses even more money.

Sberbank customers can open a plastic card in Russian currency, as well as euros and dollars. With such cards, you can pay for purchases without conversion and commission charges. For citizens who travel frequently and do not want to pay attention to currency, multicurrency cards are recommended.

Where is Sberbank represented outside of Russia

Subdivisions of Sberbank of the Russian Federation are opened in the Republic of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine. You can visit partner offices in China, India, Turkey, Germany and other countries. The first branch with a full range of financial services was opened in Germany in Frankfurt am Main, a few months later a Turkish representative office was opened.

Grows. More than 10% of all services provided by the credit institution are received by residents of 20 foreign countries.

Using plastic cards abroad is very fast and convenient, and with an identical currency it is quite profitable. If a citizen abroad needs large sums, it is better not to declare them when entering the country, but to keep them on a card that can be paid at any time.

If you are a holder of a bank card of the popular international payment system Visa or MasterCard, then you can be 99.9% sure that you can pay for it abroad at any point of sale where cards are accepted for payment. But it may turn out that your card is completely unsuitable for paying for purchases abroad due to the unfavorable conversion rate in your bank, the presence of an additional conversion commission and other fees that are not always found in official tariffs.

That is why when planning a vacation or business trip abroad, it is necessary to think over the issues of payment by card in advance. In this article, you will learn how conversion takes place when paying with a bank card abroad, and you will find useful tips and tricks on how to choose the right card so that conversion losses are minimal or completely absent.

Definition of terms

Issuing bank - the bank that issued the bank card.

Acquiring bank - a bank that organizes the processing of card payments at a point of sale (in official banking documents, various stores and services for the provision of various services are usually called trade and service enterprises (TSPs).

For example, with Corn (and many other cards), it is enough to call the hotline and warn about the upcoming trip, and for the Tinkoff card, the dates of the planned trip can be indicated in the Internet bank.

3. Your card must be with a chip (with embossed letters and numbers) and personalized. The chip makes card payments safer, especially since there are fewer and fewer devices in the world that support plastic with a magnetic stripe. An embossed card can, although in rare cases, come in handy if the seller makes a slip (an imprint of embossed bank card details on a check to confirm the operation) on the card. The absence of a first and last name can also be faulted.

4. It is advisable to use a credit card to book hotels, air tickets, railway tickets and other services (for example, car rental). In this case, the amount from the credit limit (in fact, bank loans) will be reserved (hold) on the card as a reservation. It will be possible to pay for the service on the spot with a debit card, after which the reservation will be canceled and the funds on the account will be released and will become available again.

Reserving funds on a credit card IS NOT a waste, so you will not have to pay interest on it. And if you used a debit card for booking, then the booking would make your funds unavailable (albeit temporarily), which can be used for more necessary purposes.

As a payment abroad, you can use both debit and credit cards with equal success, just do not forget about choosing the right one to reduce conversion costs.

5. Always keep a sufficient supply of funds on the card- do not spend the entire balance "under zero" so as not to fall into (unforeseen credit due to debiting the amount from the account more than it had at the time of debiting the funds - for example, due to an increase in the exchange rate at the time the operation was processed).

6. If you are offered to pay for the purchase abroad in your native currency (in rubles), then REFUSE, and insist on paying in the currency of the country where you are located (local currency). The so-called system of instant currency conversion DCC (from English Dynamic Currency Conversion) is in operation. It can be "encountered" in Poland, China, Thailand and some European countries.

The client is offered to carry out the operation in his usual currency (the type of currency is determined by the card number, if specifically, then by the BIN - the identification number of the issuing bank, more about). As a result, exactly the amount in its national currency (in our case, in rubles) will be debited from the client’s card account, which he will see on the terminal screen.

It seems to be convenient - you immediately see the price in rubles and make a decision on payment. In addition, you insure yourself against the risks of paying much more if there is a strong change in the exchange rate at the time of the actual debit from the card.

But as a rule, the fee for the DCC service is much higher than the possible losses for the conversion on the part of the issuing bank, and can reach 5-6%. That is why on all respected banking forums and websites it is recommended to refuse such a service (real reviews to help you - google it yourself). In some cases, for "convenience" you can overpay a not very large amount - 1 or 2%, but if the currency of your card matches the currency of the transaction (for example, dollars), which does not imply any conversion on the part of the issuer, then your losses will be significantly higher.

7. Do not neglect the rules of safe use of the card and modern payment technologies. are the same in any country in the world and it is better to follow them so that your card or its details do not end up in the hands of a fraudster, and it makes sense to say a few words about technologies. It will be good if your card supports PayPass / PayWave () instant contactless payment technologies. When paying, you will use a card to a minimum and not dial a pin code (up to a certain amount) - this is fast and convenient.

Even better, if your bank is able to work with payment services such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and others, and your smartphone has an NFC contactless payment chip built into it. When using such services, when paying, the card number and other data are not transmitted - a certain virtual sequence of numbers (token) is transmitted in encrypted form, which is decrypted by the payment system. The use of such technologies () allows you to make payments many times safer than the classic payment by card.

A big plus of the bank is the ability to open online (aka a safe account), where you can store your funds (they will also charge interest for this) and quickly (via a mobile bank) transfer part of the funds to the card. If the card is compromised, the fraudster will not get to your account.

If possible, issue additional cards to the main account and use them, and hide the main card away and do not “shine”. If the bank allows you to set limits on transactions (withdrawals and transfers), then reduce them to reasonable limits so that the card in case of theft does not become a source of large income for the fraudster.

Summing up

After analyzing the provided information, you will be able to more thoughtfully approach the choice of a payment card for payment with its help abroad. It is better to take care of this issue in advance and issue a profitable card for yourself than to bite your elbows later because of wasted thousands, “thanks” to bank commissions and an unfavorable conversion rate.

Magician (Hieronymus Bosch)

During my last trip to Mallorca and other islands, several times I came across the fact that when paying with a bank card, they were charged more than necessary. By the way, this scam on withdrawal of funds is quite legal. Although I know about this problem, but European banks tricked me 3 times when paying at Booking, Europcar and Burger King, I tell you how!

4 episodes, 3 of which I lost.

Episode 1. Europcar cheated on €2.51

According to the documents, renting a car for 4 days in Formentera came out to €106.86, and they charged me €109.37 in terms of euros, that is, €2.51 more than necessary. How so?

Upon receipt of the car, without asking me, $ 500 in dollars was blocked on the card (I took it without SCDW insurance). I signed in the electronic terminal for this transaction. To be honest, I don’t remember in what currency the final amount was displayed. After returning the car, 5 days later, the blocked amount was returned to my ruble credit card. Immediately afterwards, €125.53 was withdrawn. That is, their bank converted euros into dollars for some reason, earning a pretty penny. Then Tinkoff Bank converted dollars into rubles at its own rate, and also earned a pretty penny. The exchange rate of the Central Bank on April 10 is 76.68. As a result, I was charged 8,498₽ = €110.82.

The final overpayment amounted to almost €4.

I always make sure that they are debited in the currency in which they were counted, that is, in euros. I look at checks, through an extract in the Tinkoff application. But here they wrote off without me.

I turned to the Russian support of Europcar - they washed their hands and sent them to Spain. In Spanish, I have not been answered so far, I wrote to different addresses.

I contacted Tinkoff Bank support, they said that I confirmed the first withdrawal of $500, and the second was done in the same currency. That is, they could not help.

Episode 2. Booking cheated by €7

Just don't laugh that we decided to eat burgers. Really, there are very expensive cafes in the city of Ibiza, but I wanted to eat :-) We went into the realm of gluttony and unhealthy food.

The total amount was €14.20. Paid with a euro card. I specifically started a Tinkoff Black card in euros so as not to pay for conversions. I immediately looked into the application, looked at the statement - € 15.15 was withdrawn! I think it is. I saw the write-off in dollars in detail, that is, they wrote off €14.20 → $16.66 → €15.15. Magically, a Spanish bank cheated me by almost €1!

But you can’t fool me, I’m telling you right at the checkout to cancel the transaction and re-write off in euros. For about 5 minutes, all Burgerking were looking for how to write off in euros from an overseas card, but they couldn’t find it. Their Spanish bank hid this option somewhere very deep in the jungle of the terminal menu.

In the end, the payment was canceled and I paid in cash. But there is a continuation of the story!

A week later, they returned the money to me, but less, €14.49 instead of €15.15. The cunning Spanish bank decided to return the amount in dollars to me and recalculate at the new rate. That is, he took €0.66 from me on completely legal grounds.

Imagine what super-profits Spanish banks get out of thin air on millions of transactions of unsuspecting tourists!

Be more careful, connect SMS informing about debits on the card, use the application from the bank to keep track of expenses.

Episode 4

Of course, you know about this, but I will write just in case. When withdrawing money, the ATM sometimes offers to convert the local currency into dollars or rubles at its overvalued rate. Always choose to withdraw in the original currency, and your bank will already convert at a more reasonable rate into rubles.

In this example, the Euronet ATM offers to change €150 → $186.55 when withdrawing to a euro card, and then Tinkoff will once again change dollars to euros and write off anyway in euros. Nonsense huh? But look at how diligently they impose this service on me, one wrong answer and they will write off in dollars. These ATMs are available throughout Europe, Russian is available in the menu, and they do not charge a commission for withdrawal. Through them I withdraw cash euros without commission.

Conclusion

I hope that I have not dissuaded you from using cards abroad. Here €1 will be written off, there €3 will be written off – as a result, it can result in a decent amount. Personally, I almost never pay in cash, it’s more convenient with a card, they accrue various bonuses and then it’s easy to calculate expenses.

The main thing is to look in what currency they are debited before confirming or entering a pin code or painting on a check.

What adventures did you have with bank cards?

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