All countries that currently accept MIR cards – as well as existing they contain restrictions and problems that tourists may have, RIA Novosti was voiced by a representative of this payment system. His words were confirmed in one of the major Russian banks. According to them, nine countries are currently ready to work with MIR, but most of them have a number of difficulties, since only some partner banks accept the card.
The countries accepting the MIR card are as follows: Abkhazia, Armenia, Belarus, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, South Korea and South Ossetia. “Banks independently decide on the acceptance of MIR cards in the network of their devices. In the devices of local banks, cards of Russian banks that are not under sanctions can be served, ”said a representative of the payment system. At the same time, the banking expert named two countries that used to accept Mir, but now it will not work – these are Uzbekistan, as well as Turkey. In Uzbekistan, card service has been suspended “for technical reasons” since September, and Turkish banks in the same September were afraid of threats of sanctions from the United States, although they are trying to solve the problem in a workaround.
There are no bans for other countries, but there are details and service restrictions. So, in Vietnam, Mir cards work only at VRB (Vietnam-Russia Joint Venture Bank) ATMs and their payment terminals at the box office. Before buying, you need to ask at the checkout which terminal is used in the store. In Kazakhstan, cards also do not work everywhere: only CenterCredit, Sberbank and VTB ATMs continue to accept them. In Kyrgyzstan, MIR is accepted only by banks connected to the Elcart national payment system, however, in October 2022, some banks participating in the payment system stopped servicing cards. In Tajikistan, MIR cards continue to be accepted by the state-owned Amonatbank.
“The acceptance and servicing of MIR cards in a particular country depends on the position of foreign banks. It is important to remember that they may stop accepting these cards. In order not to get into such a situation, it is better to play it safe and withdraw cash from an ATM in advance,” the expert said.
At the same time, the representative of the system also noted that in one way or another the desire to accept MIR was announced in a number of countries. There are also tourist ones among them, and the full list is as follows: Iran, Indonesia, Cuba, Myanmar, Egypt, Thailand, India, Venezuela, Mauritius, Nigeria and Ethiopia.
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