Would like to know if recent visitors to St. P have had success or problems using US bank cards in ATMs to get rubles. My bank wouldn't accept a travel notice for Russia, Estonia, or Latvia but I was told my destinations would be noted on my account.
Thanks for your help.
Our son had his junior semester abroad in St. Petersburg Jan-May 2013.
No issues whatsoever using our CapitalOne ATM card there, nor our CapitalOne credit card for purchases.
This included his spring break trip to Istanbul.
There were no fees from the ATMs he used, we had instructed him to use bank-owned machines, no fees from CaprialOne omn this account, and exchange rate was about .7 to .8 of 1% above daily published rates as part of the Cirrus/Plus Interbank systems..
Travel was noted with CapitalOne, and no problems with another card on the account being used here while he was there.
I had no issues using a credit (Capital One) or debit card (BofA) last Summer.
My bank wouldn't accept a travel notice
I had the same problem with my bank when I went to China back in January. It simply means you have to use an ATM machine when you arrive in Russia, it will be declined, you then call your bank and after they confirm your identity and you are in Russia, they will set up the account for future ATM use for your travels. It's a new anti-fraud measure. So bring about $200USD in emergency cash stored in a money belt to hold you over until you can straighten things out.
I was in St Petersburg about two weeks ago and had no problem using ATM. My bank is USAA.
