Where’s the best place to go to get a UnionPay card? We’re heading to Italy for a year and need a card to take with us. I went to Raiffeisen — they say they don’t issue them, even though their website says they do. Where else should I try?
Mir–UnionPay co-badged cards have stopped working in Italy after the sanctions against the Russian system — down here in the south none of the ATMs accept them anymore. Plain UnionPay without Mir co-badging should technically work, but where to get one issued in Russia right now is another question. Raiffeisen most likely issued Mir–UnionPay cards, so that’s why they were declined.
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Thanks — now it’s clear why Raiffeisen refused. Does anyone know banks that issue pure UnionPay cards without co-badging with Mir right now? Zenit or MTS, maybe?
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I’m not sure about Zenit. In Italy, UniCredit and Intesa ATMs work fine with UnionPay-only cards — you’ll see the UnionPay logo on the machine. Keep in mind there are double limits — your bank’s limits and the Italian ATM’s own restrictions. That’s how we withdraw cash down south when we need it.
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It’s better to carry several different cards with you — sometimes a card won’t work at a particular terminal. In my experience, Russian UnionPay cards in Italy mainly work for cash withdrawals at a few specific ATMs that display their logo; they’re almost never accepted for cashless payments. I also remember Pochta Bank (Почта Банк) warning its customers abroad to withdraw cash with UnionPay — something was changing with their settlement/payment processing platform. So it’s best to check the status of your card with the specific bank before your trip.
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Rosselkhozbank has just announced the resumption of UnionPay abroad — it operates in 70 countries.
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MTS was hit by sanctions; its cards haven’t worked abroad for a long time. Among Russian cards people actually use Gazprombank and RSHB (Rosselkhozbank), but both sometimes have issues at specific terminals. I personally treat a Belarusian card as a backup — with CIS banks the situation is, so far, more stable than with Russian UnionPay.
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If you’re going for a year, get a Belarusian card before you leave — it’s honestly easier than trying to sort out Russian UnionPay once you’re there. A plain UnionPay card will work for cash withdrawals at UniCredit ATMs — there’s the logo and the withdrawals go through — but nobody accepts it for payments in shops, neither supermarkets nor ordinary cafés. So you’re limited to cash from ATMs; cashless payments won’t work with it.
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