How to pay as a foreigner

Travel to Russia
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Just returned from a Russian trip along the lower Volga from Astrakhan to Kazan. Bloody brilliant!!!

Since foreign credit cards are not available, you might be wondering how foreigners can pay for things. Here are some tips that I can share:

  1. When in Russia, book hotels with ZenHotels mobile app. You can pay with your home credit card.
  2. When in Russia you can book train tickets on the Kazakhstan web site tickets.kz, using your home credit card. You can check the route on RZD, then just put into tickets.kz. Some place names are spelled differently. I think it’s also possible to buy bus and plane tickets this way.
  3. Install Yandex Go and Yandex Maps It’s a life saver for transport, taxis, etc. You can’t use your home credit card but you can set it to cash.
    Also install WhatsApp and Telegram. Both are popular in Russia. I also used VPN extensively (as do many Russians).
  4. You can easily exchange cash. I think USD would be best, but I exchanged Kazakhstan Tenge at the border for an excellent rate.

With major expenses such as transport and accommodation covered, you will not need so much cash.

I pretty much only used cash for food and drinks, museums, and local bus rides. I am pretty frugal, probably spent less than US$20 cash per day.

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@MikeF Hi Mike,

Thanks so much for sharing your experience! I had no idea about tickets.kz — that’s a great tip. It looks like it only works for trains though, not for booking flights or buses within Russia. Still, super helpful for getting around the payment restrictions. By the way, which VPN did you use, and how well did it work for you?

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You can equally get a Russian bank account from banks such as Raiffeisen. (Beware that you then might be subject to US sanctions)