Card: "Take me with you!"

Hello, hello!

Outside the window - the heat, the holiday season is in full swing ... Therefore, we decided to postpone the post a little to transfer the statement, as they say, from Russian to Russian and tell you about the currency conversion on the card account. Now this topic is more relevant than ever.

If you keep money on a card and often pay it for goods and services, and even get a little lost from paying in cash; if at the same time (which is very likely) the account of your card is ruble, it means that you probably know a little anxiety before traveling abroad. Some alarmists are even ready to run to an ATM, withdraw cash from a card and exchange them for the currency of the country to which they are going. In fact, there is nothing to worry about - and, after reading this post, you will see for yourself.



The first (and most important): with a card with a ruble account, you can travel to any country and spend your money there, as you please (to pay with a card or withdraw cash). Just find out in advance whether there are many ATMs in this country and whether cashless payment is sufficiently developed. It’s at least strange to go with money on the map to where an ATM or a store with a POS terminal is during the day with fire. In general, it does not matter at all what category your card is, in which bank it is open, and what is the currency of the account - there should be no problems with conversion.

In essence, conversion is buying and selling currencies. Participating in this process are: the cardholder, the acquiring bank (the owner of the ATM or POS terminal), the issuing bank (which issued the card) and the payment system. Best of all it will be clear on an example.

You have arrived abroad. Suppose in Japan. And they decided to try real Japanese sushi. So, the ruble account of your card (for example, SMP Bank) will in no way prevent you from doing this, because there is a conversion (hurray!). The sequence of actions is as follows: the payment system reimburses the funds to the acquiring bank (in this case, the bank owning the POS terminal) => the issuing bank reimburses the funds to the payment system and deducts money from your account. Thus, the conversion process often takes place twice: first from local currency into payment system currency (Visa - dollars, MasterCard - euro) (at its exchange rate), and then from payment system currency - into your account currency (at your exchange rate). Bank; sometimes - at the rate of the Central Bank, but in this case, as a rule, a commission is charged). The rate at which the currency is converted (at the rate of the issuing bank or the Central Bank of the Russian Federation) must be specified in the rates of your bank.

The same thing happens when withdrawing cash from an ATM in local currency.

Still, the best option is to have cards with different account currencies so that when converting you do not lose money on the difference in exchange rates.

SMP Bank wishes you a pleasant and carefree holiday!