Personal experience: Raiffeisen, Alfa-Bank and VTB24

I work as a financial analyst at the ChronoPay payment company and write here about all sorts of theoretical things - like the history of a Visa card or the birth of a Chargeback . But in the end, finances are practical, domestic. Yes, and Aristotle ordered to alternate long lectures with everyday stories. That is why this time I decided to write about my experience of using cards of three banks in Moscow - Raiffeisen, Alfa-Bank and VTB24.

And so, №1 - Raiffeisen

I’ve been a client of this bank for about 10 years. There were practically no complaints about the service. For all the work I remember only once when I could not pay with their card, but maybe it was a general failure of the NPCS. One of the pleasant moments when Raiffeisen donated tickets to the circus Dusol. Although I do not like the circus, especially as I live in Moscow, and the tickets were in St. Petersburg, it was still nice.
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The moment of truth, when I decided to change the bank, was the case of challenging a transaction for 1 thousand rubles.

I added a phone to the card on the MTS website, got the wrong number. MTS refused to transfer money to the correct number. I went to the bank, wrote a statement "The service is not provided." Of course, I understand that the case is not ordinary, and maybe I was wrong about myself. Only after the statement I did not hear Raiffeisenbank for a month and a half until I decided to call myself. And they told me the following: “We tried to get through the whole day and say that the challenging application was rejected”. It was then that I realized that I did not buy the insurance from fraud , which means I punished myself. Such is the attitude!

Frustrated by this attitude, I went to Alfa-Bank and opened an account there. Although later Raiffeisen gave me six months of free use of maps, if I suddenly decide to return, the sediment still remained.

№2 - Alfa-Bank

At Alfa-Bank, I really like the mobile application and the ability to fly cards to any account on the fly. The monitoring service is also quite punctual - I just tried to pay for the Apple developer account, as they already call and ask: “What kind of suspicious transaction is it from an unknown company Apple US”. There are no complaints.

Of course, it would be much more convenient if I received a question in the same mobile application “ Confirm Yes / No ” instead of a call. But unfortunately, banks are tied both by the rules of the IPU (limiting the response time to an authorization request) and, in general, the entire payment infrastructure in the world is not designed for "user response time." The Samsung Pay card got attached without any problems.

But I was happy exactly until I looked at the account statement.

It turns out that if you withdraw money from an Alpha or its partner’s cash machine in a currency other than the card’s currency (for example, you have an account in dollars, and withdraw money in rubles), Alfa Bank doesn’t like to say 5% (in my package of services) .

I do not know what it is - petty fraud or remnants of the 90s. But I still can’t understand the logic if you exchange dollars for rubles in a mobile application (as in the example above) and withdraw in rubles, there will be no commission. Moreover, if you withdraw money in a “foreign” ATM in any currency, you pay only 1%. The most interesting thing is that the discharge commission can come in 1-2 days, while SMS is naturally not sent.

Having counted a decent amount and I was very annoyed, I dialed in support and politely asked: “I put you money that you can invest in something else, give loans. And you still charge me a commission for the fact that I withdraw my money. ” Having left the application, I, as it should have come to life, received the answer the next day: “I am guilty myself, I need to read the contract”.

I will read it, and you will lose the client - the logic is not clear to me either. Because any person who has got on such a commission once will not repeat such a mistake again. And I would say that tariffs at Alfa-Bank are not cheap, the same transfer from card to card costs 1.95%.

How are things with disputing transactions I do not know. But I got vparvali insurance.

№3 - VTB24

Having stood in the queue for 2 hours, I ordered a VTB24 Visa card. The card certainly has a credit limit (authorized overdraft), because they simply don’t have others. Offered a card and with a refund, I took the usual simple. I rarely use, keep as a backup.

I decided to add to Visa and MasterCard. Card issue, by the way, for a long time. The girl who gave me the card started telling me about investing a pension in their bank. I wanted to leave quickly. As a result, there is no SMS confirmation, no 3D-Secure on MasterCard. But insurance is also sold for a sweet soul. For Samsung Pay card is not attached. But I did not call support anymore.

findings

As a result, I am most interested in what is the point of offering cards with a return of 1-1.5% of purchases, accumulating bonus miles, etc.? After all, the only really strong deterrent is the fear of fraud. When at least one bank comes first to give the Russian market Zero Liability , then this will not only greatly increase its issue, but will increase card circulation. After all, people will no longer be afraid to pay with a card everywhere. In the end, the acquirer pays for fraudulent transactions (without EMV pin code and 3d-secure).

So far, our banks prefer to make money “easy” by selling “insurance against fraud” and tell how 3D-Secure protects cardholders. Just do not understand where the holders and from what it protects them ...