@traveladdict Agreed. Also keep in mind that US citizens/residents cannot yet use the app. I had to verify my identity using a passport and Tax ID from other countries.
PS It’s also sketchy that @Tsar_Vlad replied to the another thread but didn’t answer our question about fees. Seems like a paid promoter
@NomadicHedgie He did create his account for what seems to be only talking about PiR.
@NomadicHedgie Hi guys, it’s definitely not my intention to come across as sketchy…
Before I started using Pir, I was using other services like Paysend and Ymoney, and everything worked fine. Then, all of a sudden, Ymoney stopped working for me, and I could no longer top up my balance from abroad. That’s when I started looking for other people who were having the same issue.
Eventually, I heard about pir and to be honest, the AI website didn’t inspire much confidence at first, even though a friend of mine had been using it successfully for various payments. Since he recommended it and helped me with my first transaction, I decided to give it a try. In the end, I found the whole process very straightforward and easy to use.
So no, Im not a paid promoter or anything like that. I use a lot of forums for different topics, and when people help me, I appreciate it. Naturally, I try to do the same whenever I can. Also, to be honest, I thought this thread was already dead…
As for the fees, I recently topped up my balance with 10,000 rub (about $135 usd) to buy a gift for my girlfriend.
One more thing, when you top up your balance, the platform shows you the exact amount in USD that you’ll pay for the selected amount in rubles before you confirm the transaction.
I would be careful using PIR (payinrussia), since there are - at least in Europe - many reports of banks closing accounts when there is the slightest suspicion that the client could be transferring money to Russia or Belarus.
As far as the original subject of this thread is concerned, the Russian central bank issued a “clarification” of Decree 377 a couple of weeks ago that largely waters it down. This followed a spate of reports in the Russian media ridiculing the Decree because of all the instances of small retail depositors whose accounts had been frozen.
The Russian central bank clarification redefines the 10 million rouble cap to apply to every individual depositor (not to all a bank’s impacted clients collectively, which is what the central bank had previously said with regard to this cap). This means that only very large depositors will be impacted. The central bank also said that the Decree should only apply to banking contracts classified as actual deposits (вклады), not savings accounts (накопительные счета).
So this Decree is no longer a big problem for most people who want to open a savings account at a Russian bank (just don’t put a very large sum, e.g. proceeds from a property sale, into a bank deposit). I would still be very cautious about holding significant sums in a Russian bank, though: for one thing, existing restrictions make it impossible to transfer money out the country (if you are a Western citizen not employed in Russia).
@phoebe you smell like a clown
@Cal Two weeks later and the clown arrives back.
Awwww, lets be friends. You seem like such a nice person.
This just in from Tinkoff:
“Savings are available again
Previously, Presidential Decree No. 377 imposed restrictions on deposits and savings accounts for citizens of unfriendly countries. Effective August 4, 2026, these restrictions were lifted by Decree No. 550.
Here’s what’s available to you now:
— open deposits and savings accounts;
— deposit and withdraw money from accounts;
— receive interest.”
@donFlorero Do you really think other ways of paying won’t have these kinds of issues? The app works, and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters if you’re planning a trip to Russia.
Pay In Russia is working great in Russia at the moment. No jumping through hoops to set up a local card. I was super happy with it.
@tomh Of course any way of transferring money to Russia which depends on Western banks is going to have the same kind of issues that “pay in Russia” has: your account in a Western bank can be blocked without further explanations. That’s one of the reasons people in this forum talk about other methods of transferring money.