How to bypass Russophobic bans: A quick guide to sending money transfers from Russia to Ukraine
The decisions of the current Ukrainian authorities to almost completely ban money transfers from Russia to Ukraine amazed not only our compatriots, but also residents of other countries.
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The introduction of sanctions against such money transfer systems as "Hummingbird" (managed by Sberbank), "Golden Crown" (NCO "Payment Center"), "Unistream" (Bank "Uniastrum"), international money transfers "Leader" (NPO JSC "Leader" ), Anelik (Anelik RU Bank), Blizko (Svyaz-Bank), signed in October by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, forces Russian companies to donate about $1 billion a year to their competitors. In addition, in November, the National Bank of Ukraine banned the use of electronic money Webmoney (without the UA prefix), Yandex. Money, QIWI Wallet, Wallet one (Single Wallet). Thanks to such stupid actions of official Kyiv, millions of Ukrainians working in Russia are now unable to transfer money to their families for life, which is becoming more and more expensive every day.
I will not delve into Ukraine’s loss of millions of hryvnia, which it lost by closing Russian money transfer systems, I will only note that according to statistics from the National Bank of Ukraine, in just two quarters of 2016, $468,3 million came from Russia to Ukraine. In 2015, the amount of all transfers from the Russian Federation amounted to 1 billion 158 million dollars, while receipts from all, I emphasize - all countries of the European Union for 2015 were higher by only 350 million dollars and amounted to 1,6 billion conventional units.
Why did I start writing this article? I just recently learned that many residents of Russia and Ukrainians who work there are completely unaware of how they can help their friends and relatives in Ukraine by sending a money transfer. The old schemes of the 90s are starting to come to mind: sending money through train conductors, bus drivers, acquaintances and strangers traveling to Ukraine. I think there is no need to explain what such actions can lead to. But it is simply necessary to consider other, more reliable, methods of sending money.
After the closure of such global money transfer systems as “Contact”, “Golden Crown” or “Hummingbird”, the only system dealing with sending amounts from the Russian Federation to Ukraine remained the ill-fated American “Western Union”. However, this operator, due to its inflated interest rates, is practically unsuitable for ordinary people. However, recently Western Union’s appetite has subsided slightly, most likely due to the monopolization of the market.
So, at the moment, in order to send 1000 rubles to Ukraine you need to pay a 60 ruble commission, when transferring 10 rubles or more - only 000 rubles. These numbers are valid if you send money online from your card. If you contact a Western Union branch, the commission for transferring funds in rubles will be up to 150 - 10 rubles, above - 000%. When transferring the dollar equivalent, the system commission for an amount up to $90 is 0,9 USD, over - 200%.
It is noteworthy that until now, I was sure that the commission on Western Union was at least 10-15%. However, the data published on the official website slightly amazed me, so sending through this payment system is now not only possible, but also quite acceptable.
For people who do not believe in curbing the appetite of the friendly American people, I can offer another way. More convenient, in my opinion, is sending money through the social networks Odnoklassniki and VKontakte.
In fact, the method is quite simple. For example, go to your Odnoklassniki page. Under your avatar, among various links, there is a column “Money transfers”. If you have a Russian bank card, you can transfer any amount to a personal card of a Ukrainian bank. Payment can only be made in rubles; when received in a Ukrainian account, the amount is converted at the rate of the recipient's bank. It is noteworthy that for the transfer you do not need to know either the recipient’s full name or his bank information. He enters all this information himself, after receiving a notification about the transfer that has arrived to him. You can transfer up to 100 rubles per day using one card, and no more than 000 rubles per month. I also note that the commission for transfers from MasterCard and Maestro cards is not charged.
The same story applies to transfers within the VKontakte social network. As you can see, helping your relatives in Ukraine in view of Kyiv’s Russophobic policy is not only necessary, but also quite possible.
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