UnionPay cards issued by Gazprombank stopped working abroad

Payments are rejected in Kazakhstan, Turkey, UAE, Qatar, Vietnam, Thailand, Hungary, Germany and other countries. In support of Gazprombank, Kommersant was informed that the issuance and issuance of UnionPay cards has been suspended. Before that, the bank came under US sanctions

Photo: Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

Updated at 22:00

UnionPay cards of the Gazprombank allowed to work abroad. Already having problems he hit owners of these cards in more than ten countries. The number of countries where UnionPay plastic from Gazprombank will not be accepted may increase.

On Thursday, November 21, the United States introduced restrictive sanctions against Gazprombank and six of its foreign subsidiaries. After this, the credit institution warned that there could be problems with the operation of UnionPay payment system cards abroad. The bank advised overseas customers to withdraw funds from their UnionPay cards.

Muscovite Sergei, who is on vacation in Thailand, did just that. As it turned out, just in time:

Russian tourist Olga in the Emirates had a similar problem:

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Among the countries where it is no longer possible to pay with UnionPay cards from Gazprombank and where it is impossible to withdraw money from them at an ATM are Egypt, Turkey, India, Qatar, Hungary, Germany, China and Kazakhstan.

A massive shutdown of UnionPay cards from Russian banks took place last year, when MTS Bank, Tinkoff (now T-Bank), St. Petersburg banks, Zenit, Solidarity, Uralsib and others were allowed. The general opinion on the market, which has not been confirmed, however, by official statements, is that the Chinese payment system itself blocks cards of approved banks in case of secondary sanctions.

Until recently, there were no problems except with the cards of three Russian banks, including Gazprombank, through which payments for Russian gas supplies are made. With the introduction of the latest sanctions, only one small Asia-Pacific regional bank remains, whose UnionPay cards still work in other countries. Also, users in the “UnionPay in Russia” chat report that in some countries they still accept cards from Rosselkhozbank, which has been under US sanctions for a long time. It seems that the cards of these two banks will work outside of Russia in the near future. What happens next will depend on the new US administration. The Chairman of the Board of the non-profit partnership “National Payment Council” Alexander Linnikov continues:

Alexander Linnikov Chairman of the Board of the non-profit partnership “National Payment Council”

It turns out that when you travel abroad, you have to bring money with you, dollars or euros, depending on which country you stay in. This is the only reliable option. You can also bring Visa MasterCard cards issued by banks of friendly countries. But the Russians have no such plastic.