How to send money to Russia in 2024 (my personal experience) (2024)

Last Updated on June 9, 2024 by Irena Domingo

In this article I tell you my personal experience sending money to Russia using some methods that are currently working such as Bybit, Profee Volet or BestChange.

Methods that work (and those that don’t)

With the economic sanctions imposed on Russia, it has become increasingly difficult for me to send money to my relatives in Russia. This has meant that I have had to look for alternatives.

If before the conflict with Ukraine I used money transfer services such as Wise, after the sanctions I started using services such as Bybit, Profee, Volet or BestChange.

In this article I will explain the methods that I have tried and that currently work to send money to Russia. And I emphasize “currently” because what works now may not work tomorrow, so I will try to keep this article updated.

I will begin by summarizing the current situation. Methods that DO NOT WORK to send money to Russia:

• Traditional money transfer methods such as Western Union, MoneyGram, Ria Money, etc. do not work.
• Western online payment services such as PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Wallet, Skrill, PaySend, Revolut, Payoneer, etc. do not work.
• The YooMoney (formerly Yandex Money) payment system does not work, as a Russian (or some countries of the former USSR) bank account is required to top up the account.
• Koronapay no longer works to send money to Russia
• P2P financial services such as Wise, Azimo, WorldRemit, Xe Money Transfer, SendNomad, etc. do not work.

Currently WORKING methods to send money to Russia:

• Sending money by bank transfer. Despite the fact that most Russian banks have been banned from the SWIFT system, there are still some Russian banks to which it is possible to make transfers, such as Raiffeisenbank, UniCredit, Citibank, OTP Bank, Renaissance Bank, Asia-Pacific Bank, Credit Europe Bank, BBR Bank or BKS Bank. In many cases, these are credit institutions that are subsidiaries of foreign banks, so no sanctions have been imposed on them. The problem is that they apply abusive commissions that can be up to 50%. It is best to check the current rates beforehand. For example, rates of Raiffesienbank and Unicredit. There is also the risk of the transfer being blocked.
• Sending money using cryptocurrencies (USDT) with Bybit. It is the method I am currently using and the one offering the best exchange rate.
• Send money with Profee. I have used it and it works in some Russian banks.
• Send money using Volet electronic payment system. One of the best options for sending money but as of the end of February 2024 it does not work for sending money directly to bank cards or bank accounts in Russia. However, it is possible to send money in rubles if the recipient in Russia opens an account with Volet in rubles and then withdraws the money to their bank account or card.
• Electronic money exchange services such as Bestchange also work.

I will explain each of the methods that I have tried and that have worked for me, as well as those where I know people who have used them successfully.

Option 1: Cryptocurrencies

Currently this is the option I use to send money to Russia, since most of the other options I used to use have stopped working. At first I thought it would be complicated, but it really isn’t that complicated once they explain it to you. It also offers a very favorable exchange rate.

The first thing is to choose an operator that allows you to buy cryptocurrencies and then sell them in exchange for rubles. I am currently using Bybit. Neither Binance nor Commex currently allow sending money to Russia.

The procedure consists of two steps:

First step. Buy some cryptocurrency whose value is stable and does not fluctuate as much as others like Bitcoin such as, for example, USDT. What I do is buy USDT on Bybit with Apple Pay, although you can also use your bank card. In the example below I am buying 1,000 euros in exchange for 1,056.6121 USDT (at an exchange rate of 1 USDT = 0.94642 EUR).

To be able to perform operations you must first do the following:

• Register on the platform and verify your account via email and SMS. You will also be asked to authenticate yourself to access your account with the Google app “Authenticator”.
• Verify your identity (process called KYC) by sending a scan of your ID and a selfie.
• Add a payment method for USDT purchase.

All of the above only needs to be done the first time.

Second step. Once you have USDT in your Bybit account you can sell them in exchange for rubles. This can be done on the Bybit P2P market. In the Bybit menu: “Buy Crypto > Trading P2P”.

It is a secure and intuitive peer-to-peer trading platform, through which you can sell your USDT to other individuals at an agreed exchange rate in exchange for them transferring the amount in rubles into a Russian account (which can be your Russian bank account or card or the Russian account or card of a family member or friend).

Choose an individual who has good reviews, has already placed many orders and has as payment method the Russian bank (or Russian card) to which you want to send the money. Some buyers require a minimum of USDT to make the purchase.

In the example I am going to sell my 1,056.61 USDT (which I bought in the first step) in exchange for rubles. In the sanctioned banks in Russia the name of the bank is not displayed but the color of its corporate image. As you can see, I have chosen as a payment method “Local Card (Green)”, which corresponds to a Sberbank card (Yellow card corresponds to a Tinkoff card). You can also choose Raiffeisenbank, CitiBank, OZOn Bank, MIR card, Payeer, Unicredit, etc.

In this example I choose an individual (called “-SOLO-”) who has 99% positive feedback and offers 89.70 rubles per USDT, i.e. I will receive 94,777.91 rubles after selling my USDT. When you click on sell USDT a screen appears with the summary of the transaction where you will have to add a payment system. In my example I add a Sberbank card “Local Card(Green)” in the name of a family member so that the payment is made to that card (you can also put a Russian card in your name to receive the payment yourself).

Once you click on “Sell USDT” the buyer will have 15 minutes to complete the payment and a chat will be opened to communicate with the buyer.

Once you receive the rubles on your Russian card or account or once your family member receives the rubles on their card you can click “Release Now”. You will be prompted to enter your Google two-factor authentication code as a verification step.

Finally, it is also possible to use the Telegram wallet app to send money to Russia using cryptocurrencies with a system similar to Bybit, although I have not tested it yet.

Option 2: Profee

Profee is another method I have found to send money to Russia nowadays. It’s a payment system that I discovered a few months ago by chance through a thread on Reddit and that allows sending money to Russia from your card in euros, dollars or punds to a Russian card in rubles. The company is domiciled in Cyprus.

The good thing is that Profee applies a good exchange rate euro/dollar/pound/ruble, does not apply commissions (at least for the first transfer using this link) and money arrives instantly. The bad thing is that the list of banks to which you can send money is limited. To test it the first time I made a transfer of 100 euros to a Pochta Bank card and the money arrived immediately.

You must create an account following the registration process in which you will have to verify your phone number, your email and send a photo of your ID or passport. You must also take a selfie. If you follow all the steps the verification is done instantly.

The recipient of the money does not need to have a Profee account in order to receive the money. The money will be sent to their Russian card. Please note, however, that currently it is only possible to transfer money to Visa, Mastercard and MIR (Russian payment system) cards issued by some Russian banks, such as:

• Raiffeisen Bank
• Pochta Bank
• UniCredit Bank
• Home Credit Bank
• Citibank
• Renaissance Credit
• Credit Europe Bank
• Ozon Bank
• And other banks

On the other hand, it is not possible to send money to cards issued by the following Russian banks

• SberBank
• Tinkoff
• VTB,
• Alfa-Bank
• Gazprombank
• Russian Agricultural Bank
• Otkritie
• Uralsib
• Credit Bank of Moscow
• Bank Saint Petersburg
• Sovcombank
• MTS Bank
• Rosbank
• SMP Bank
• Russian Regional Development Bank
• The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development
• Rossiya Bank
• Novikombank
• Moscow Industrial Bank
• ZENIT Bank
• And other banks such as Forabank.

Please note that the above list is not exhaustive and may change from time to time.

Therefore, the recipient of the transfer must have a card from one of the above-mentioned Russian banks.

Option 3: Volet (formerly Advcash)

(UPDATE: From the end of February 2024 it is not possible to send money directly from Volet to bank accounts or bank cards in Russia. I will update this article when it will be possible again. However, it is possible to send money if the recipient in Russia also opens an account with Volet in rubles and then withdraws the money to their bank account or card -similar to sending money between PayPal accounts and then withdrawing the money-. It also allows sending cryptocurrencies). Note that Volet works in most countries around the world, except the USA and UK.

You must register by choosing a personal account. The account verification process is quick and consists of sending a copy of your ID or passport and taking a selfie. To extend the money limits of the account you are also required to send proof of your address by sending a utility bill.

When I signed up with Volet the verification process took about 15 minutes.

The advantage of Volet over other methods like Profee is that it allows you to send money to any Visa or MasterCard issued in Russia. It also allows you to send money to any MIR card. And, of course, you can also send money to any European card. The downside is that the process is done in two steps (first you have to top up the account and then send the money) and that fees are applied at each step.

Volet accepts the following currencies: Euro (EUR), Dollar (USD), Pound (GBP), Russian Ruble (RUB), Ukrainian Hryvnia (UAH), Kazakh Tenge (KZT), Brazilian Real (BRL), Turkish Lira (TRY) , Vietnamese Dong (VND) and the Azerbaijani Manat (AZN).

As I said, the process of sending money is done in two steps:

First step. You have to top up your Volet account. You can do it in three ways;

• By SEPA transfer: it costs 3.50 euros and takes 1 to 3 business days.
• Through your Visa, MasterCard or UnionPay card: the cost is 3.5% and the recharge is instantaneous.
• Through cryptocurrencies: in this case it is free for Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies.

However, depending on the country in which you create the account, the payment systems for topping up the account may be different. Thus, Volet allows many methods, depending on the country, among which are the following: Wire transfer, Paypal, Revolut, AliPay, Skrill, MoneyGram, WebMoney, AlfaBank, Binance, BitTorrent, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold. BitCoin SV, 0xproject, Algorand, Augur, Avangard, BAT, Capitalist, Cardano, Cash, Chainlink, China UnionPay, Contact, Cosmos, Credit Card, Cryptex, Currency Exchanges, Dai, Dash, Dogecoin, Eos, Epay, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Exmo, Forte Bank, Garantex, Gazprombank, Global24, Goldencrown, HUMO, Halyc Bank, Home Credit Bank, ICON, IOTA, Idram, Jisan Bank, Kaspi Bank, Komodo, Kukuruza, Kuna Exchange, Lisk Litecoin, MTS Bank, Maker, Mir, Mobile Balance, Monero, MonoBank, NEM, NEO, Neteller, NixMoney, OmiseGO, Ontology, Openbank, Oschadbank, PUMB, Pax Dollar, Paxum Ewallet, PaySera, Paymer, Payoneer, Polkadot, Polygon, Post Bank, PrivatBank, Promsvyazbank, QIWI Wallet, Qtum, RNCB, RSBank, RaiffeisenBank, Ravencoin, Ria Money Transfer, Ripple, Rosbank, Russian Agricultural Bank, Sberbank, Solana, Stellar, TCS Bank, TRON, Tether, Tezos, TrueUSD, UNI, USD Coin, UZCARD, UkrSibbank, Uniswap, VTB, VeChain, ValesPay, Verge, WU, Waves, WhiteBIT, Wrapped Bitcoin, YooMoney, Zcash, ecoPayz, etc.

Second step. Once you have money in your account, you can now send money to a Russian card. It is not necessary for the recipient to have an account with Volet. You can send money to any Russian card. The fee is 50 rubles plus 2.5% of the total amount sent. For sending 600 euros to a Russian card, I was charged 15.50 euros. You can send your Volet balance to another person in Russia who has a Russian Volet account and has passed the verification process in Russia. You can also send money directly from your Volet account to a bank account or card in Russia through an exchanger such as Swapcoin, as you can see in the screenshot below:

Option 4: BestChange

BestChange is a web that facilitates the exchange of currencies as well as cryptocurrencies. The portal is in English and Russian. You can use the platform to perform currency exchanges either between different payment processors as well as between different types of currencies.

For example, if you have money in euros or dollars on a Visa card or PayPal account and want to transfer it to a ruble account or card, BestChange will show you a list of exchangers with the best rates. Clicking on the name of a specific exchanger will open the corresponding website to perform the transaction.

All exchangers go through a verification process by the portal administration, which prevents scams.

For example, I have recently used the services of the Swapcoin exchanger to send rubles to a MIR card. To do this, I previously recharged my Volet account (formerly Advcash) and through SwapCoin I was able to send money from Volet to a Russian MIR card.

I hope you found this article useful for sending money to Russia in the current situation.