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Hi, Is it easy to find machines to take Visa Travel Debit cards to get rubles? Will be staying at 5 star hotels.
LL
Visa Travel Debit cards in Russia
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You don't mention which city you will be staying: on the assumption it will be Moscow or St Petersburg then yes it is easy to find machines to withdraw funds using debit cards.
But those cards do give you crummy exchange rates and charges--assuming you mean something like the Visa TravelMoney card.
I'm referring to normal debit cards that are attached to your bank account. If Visa Travel debit card is something different then I don't know anything about it and have no idea why it would be necessary to have something different.
Normal debit cards should work just fine. In a 5-star hotel, there should be an ATM within the hotel. Sometimes, the phone lines are problematic, and your transaction cannot go through. If that happens, just try again later.
I was recently in both St Petersburg and moscow, no problem with ATM's they are all over. I did try to use ATM's in bank facilities when I could.
They make sense to withdraw larger amounts rather than small purchases because of the back charges VISA applies for the conversion. The rates from the machines themselves are better than the rates VISA or your bank gives. Due to the flat fee plus exchange fee, any withdrawal less than $100 would see a higher percent deduced than if you used one of the many exchange banks all over the city, which charge about $1 for a processing fee for any amount. There rates change throughout the day and are better than any bank will give.