Taking an additional service when purchasing currency.

06/22/2019 I bought 300 (three hundred) US dollars (bank, Dmitry Donskoy Boulevard, 11) I was unlawfully charged an additional amount for the service (TV operator) 300 rubles. When asked why, the answer was “call the hotline” . The “hotline” confirmed the illegality of the operator’s actions, but they said that they could not do anything and I needed to demand...

Nail, Moscow

Boorish attitude

I urgently needed to exchange dollars. I went to the nearest bank. When accepting money from me, the cashier looked at me like I was an ****. She did not accept one 50 dollar bill, she said that it was worn out, and if she accepted it, 10 dollars would be deducted from her salary. I asked to show me the rules for accepting currency. She pointed me to a folder where there were no sheets with this item. And she told me that it wasn't hers...

Ksyusha Zakharova, Moscow

Cash currency exchange

11.10.2018, 12.10 h. Additional office (Nizhnyaya Krasnoselskaya 45/17) Extraordinary thanks to cashier A-oh O.G. Competent, very friendly, plus detailed, intelligible information on the nuances of transactions with cash hard currency. Rating 5+. Thank you. Keep it up...​​

Oleg, Moscow

Cash currency exchange

10/11/2018, 12.50 h.Additional office (Moscow, Nikolskaya st., 25).Cashier (full name of the employee is not indicated anywhere) refused to sell cash (in stock) hard currency in the amount of less than 1,000 USD. (different from US dollars and Euros), citing the refusal of the so-called. “remaining” of the bank for the physical presence of currency in the office, sufficient for sale to the client “without an order.” Her colleague, a cashier, carried out...

Oleg, Moscow

Employees are not interested in updating information

The website contains out-of-date information on currency exchange (specifically, Norwegian kroner); VTB Bank does not deal with the purchase and sale of kroner. The contact center employee quickly clarified the information, which was a plus, but after indicating that the information on the website was not current, she simply hung up without saying goodbye. The conclusion is that employees are not concerned about updating information in order to...

Olga, Moscow

On the compare website, one course is indicated. In fact, it is lower

12/20/17 on the Compare website the exchange rate for dollars is 59 rubles. When contacting the bank, the exchange is made at the rate of 58 rubles. 15 kopecks (the Pokryshkin branch is 1 to 1). Please indicate the correct information. It doesn’t matter which portal.

Anastasia, Moscow

300 rubles!! for a currency exchange transaction!

Yesterday I exchanged 100 US dollars for rubles. The rate at the bank was already low (compared to other banks). They charge 300 rubles for a currency exchange transaction!! The bank is not interested in such operations?!! I won't go there again.

Lina, Moscow

Today at the VTB 24 Bank branch on Myasnitskaya we bought 20,000 yen, the certificate states that it was issued...

alas, we discovered this already at home, we ourselves are to blame for our inattention - you can’t make any complaints, but the very fact of this is outrageous!

Elizaveta, I bought Moscow for the New Year at VTB-24,500 euros, everyone gave me a piece of paper about the purchase and everyone left happy.

Time passes (I wasn’t able to go on vacation) I decided to hand over the euro, and on one of the bills they found an icon in the form of the letter “r”. everyone says we won’t take these 500 euros for anything (and I took them from this bank in this very branch), they say: we don’t write the banknote numbers on the receipt when we sell them, so goodbye. I’m stubborn, I say I’ll write a complaint, the operator and the manager are going somewhere...

Currency exchange is a boring and standard process that everyone goes through for one reason or another. It seems that technically there is nothing special to do there. VTB24 does not think so - we, as a bank, are aware of several hidden currency exchange problems that can be encountered suddenly and at the most inopportune moment. And they were solved with the help of IT. What problems and how exactly they solved them - read under the cut.

VTB24 has come up with a new currency exchange service - having fixed the exchange rate online, you can come to the office and exchange currency. The exchange rate can be recorded on the bank’s website or in a chat bot in Facebook messenger. The service allows clients to fix the currency exchange rate for two business days, not counting the day of the order, and make a cash currency exchange, even if the market rate changes.

The service is available to customers with a card from any Russian bank for both the purchase and sale of cash currency with the rate fixed online 24/7.

How did we come up with this idea?

There were several prerequisites for the formation of the idea and creation of a new service.
These are the most common questions among the population during the holiday season: “Where can I change currency? Where is the best course? How can I change profitably?”, as well as dynamic changes in exchange rates and the desire for greater certainty on the part of clients.

More and more purchases are taking place online, so banking services are also changing, even for such a conservative market as cash currency exchange. Innovations come, as is usually the case, from customer needs.

When a client needs to exchange cash currency, he, as a rule, goes to the bank’s exchange office, and no one is ever sure that there is a sufficient amount of currency in the bank’s cash desk, especially if it is large. At best, an advanced client will try to call the bank and inquire about the availability of currency. At the same time, everyone understands that the bank can sell currency to another client who came earlier, or give it to a depositor, which are often a priority for many banks. In addition, the bank can change the rate at any time - sometimes this happens 5-6 times a day. All this creates discomfort for the consumer.

Therefore, it was decided to implement the idea of ​​an online store in which you can fix the exchange rate in real time and at the same time exchange cash currency.

Thus, the new service solves two problems:

1. gives the client the opportunity to fix the rate online and come with the transaction amount for cash exchange later at a convenient time.
2. guarantees the client the availability of the required amount of currency or rubles for exchange at the bank’s cash desk.

Someone will say that you can exchange currency in the Internet bank, but you must take into account that the transaction is made cashless and the covering amount must be in your account in advance. Many people prefer to deal with cash and not limit their choice of bank to those with an account and Internet banking.

We decided not only to implement the service on the website, but also to make it available through popular social networks - for example, a chatbot on Facebook.

VTB24 is one of the first banks to implement this in its branches, and for the client, interaction with a well-known banking brand with state participation is convenient and reliable.

Technically the process looks like this. The user goes to the website obmen.vtb24.ru or a chat bot on Facebook and sees the exchange rate, which he can fix for 2 days.

Next, he enters his data - last name, first name, patronymic if desired, and contact phone number - and, of course, e-mail. The chatbot saves these parameters for new orders until the user asks it to delete them. After entering the amount of currency, the bot specifies in the chat the period by which the currency must be exchanged, and the amount (10% of the transaction amount) reserved on the client’s account as a guarantee of exchange until the transaction - in case of refusal or delay, the bank withholds it. Travelers make similar reservations by booking hotels on the Internet or renting a car, while providing funds on the card as a security deposit.

After confirming the order, the client goes to the payment page, enters the card details, and if the fund reservation operation is successful, he will receive an order confirmation (number and parameters) on the next page. An order receipt will be sent by e-mail.

From the point of view of updating rates, the bot and the website are connected to the bank’s front office system, which provides currency quotes in real time (real time - based on ticks from the exchange, that is, once per second).

How did we deal with this?

To develop the website and chatbot, we attracted partners from EPAM and InspiredGames and
asked them to comment on the technical features of the project.

Word InspiredGames:

“Our studio took on the task of implementing a bot for all major instant messengers to provide banking services in the field of currency exchange operations. It would seem – nothing complicated, almost an ordinary online store.

• The bank gives very dynamic rates. During business hours, they reflect real-time quotes on the stock exchange; at night (and the service, of course, is 24/7) they are also correct. The bank transmits these quotes to the bot’s “engine” using its unique service.
• we implemented the preparation of a reserve and payment (more precisely, blocking of funds) by bank card directly from the bot with a transition to only one web page of the payment system (of course, we are also working on new payment opportunities in instant messengers).

At the same time, although the bot is an interface, functions usually associated with the back-end part are also implemented (the above-mentioned receipt of current rates from the bank, workstations for its authorized employees, calculation of order data, transactional actions with the payment system, reminders, audit ...).

The problem was successfully solved, the service is working, and we would like to talk about several approaches that we applied. Of course, we will be glad to verify these approaches and any opinion.

So, first of all, the choice arose: should I use any frameworks or constructors? Microsoft Bot Framework is great, but there is no connector to Viber, and even less so to VKontakte. Other designers (at least the ones we found) did not have the flexibility we needed. Therefore, we decided to do everything ourselves. As for the infrastructure solution, we thought that our usual and familiar use of the RESTful Web API, respectively IIS, and for convenience, MS SQL as a DBMS (with all views, access sharing, a couple of stored procedures and triggers) would be best.

This is all clear. But there are two things that were not obvious to us from the very beginning, and which we did not see in the bots we got acquainted with.

First: modularity.

The engine (“core”) of the bot “communicates” both with instant messengers and with other systems (a specialized part of a bank’s back office, a payment card system) not directly, but through specialized modules – “connectors”. In addition, the data service is also separated. So there is:

Second: the concept of “text-context-subtext”.

In short, within the framework of this concept, the response of the bot core depends not only on the text (semiotically, the geolocation transmitted by the user is also text) of the user’s message, but also on the context (in what state the user is _now_ in the dialogue with the bot, “ what the user is talking about now"), and, further, from the subtext (_history_ of the dialogue, and not only of this particular user - “what was the conversation about before”).

Probably, someone has already guessed that such a concept can be implemented in terms of a Mealy finite state machine (text-context-> new context-response) with infinite memory (subtext). But if you don’t go into details, it’s easiest to explain with examples.

The user sends the bot a message “order”. Text = “order”, but it’s not enough to know the text. The kernel accesses the data service and gets the current context of that user. (For reference, we currently have just over 200 contexts, and they can be configured without programming).

If the received context is “the user sends a message to a bank employee,” then subtext is not needed, you just need to send a message to the bank, reply to the user that everything has been sent and they will contact him after some time, and get into the new context “main menu.”

If the resulting context is the “main menu,” then subtext is also needed. Namely, the core receives from the data service a subtext consisting of a set of formal (as in a passport) last name, first name, patronymic and email address of this user. And now the bot’s response depends on the subtext. If such a subtext is not empty (which means that the user has previously informed the bot of it), then the bot will offer to use it (or change it if necessary) and place an order. If such subtext is empty, then the bot, as a condition for placing an order, will indicate the need to provide this data. And when the data is received, the necessary subtext will appear, and the order can be placed. The next context is “all user data has been received, we continue the order.” It is clear that with all this, history is accumulating (which, in turn, will be used to obtain new subtext).

Great, but where is NLP? That's right, NLP (Natural Language Processing) is a very fashionable acronym these days. But for now, even here on Habrahabr, natural language processing is sometimes confused with neurolinguistic programming. And, like NLP - “programming”, NLP - Russian processing now does not work as well as we would like. In addition, there is one more subtlety - in our opinion (and in the opinion of other experts), the user does not want to communicate with the bot as with a person. He understands that this is a program, and wants to get the UI as with the program - buttons, colors, pictures...

But if you have a lemon, you can make lemonade from it. That's why we:
- they preferred to make a “command” (rather than a pure chat) bot;
- we use the NLP service as a module (a service for the kernel, as described above), which allows us, along with the context and subtext, to parse through the text what the user wants. This module (depending on the context!) returns us an array of objects that are analyzed by the kernel. A simple example - if the context is “placing an order at the stage of selecting the main exchange parameters”, then for the text “500 dollars” this particular service will return an array:

( "deal_candidates": [ ( "direction": "buy", "amount":500, "ISOCode": "USD"), ( "direction": "sell", "amount":500, "ISOCode": " USD")] )
And based on this array, the bot core will ask “choose what you want.”

Summary of our experience:

• Convenient transaction bots for financial services can and should be done;
• There are proven approaches that such bots (and, accordingly, services) allow you to create quickly, efficiently and, most importantly, in a scalable and replicable manner.”

Why was not only a site chosen for the service, but also a chatbot:

• Messengers are used by a very large number of users; there is no need to separately search for and install a specialized mobile application; you just need to add the bot to your contact list and start a dialogue with it.
• Operations in the messenger mean working in a familiar interface - there is no need to relearn or search for the necessary functions, while convenient access to financial transactions is provided.
• When launching another bot, the bank takes into account the growing interest on the part of clients in new communication channels.

In the future, VTB24 plans to release chat bots in all available instant messengers (we will add Viber and Vkontakte, and we also hope to wait for the WhatsApp API to open).

Also, despite all the difficulties, we will continue to delve into the topic of NLP for a more convenient user experience. In your personal account on the bank’s website, there is already a chat bot with which you can communicate and get advice and help from it. The results of the work and training of this bot will be implemented in conversion chat bots in instant messengers.

We also plan to increase the range of financial services offered by chatbots, not only those related to currency exchange transactions.

Fixing an offline rate online is a new important channel for providing services to the public.

This is a real innovative service, another small step in the digitalization of banking services. The new service makes it possible to exchange cash currency “here and now”. At the same time, the bank becomes closer to consumers of the mass segment: it is not necessary to be a VTB24 client to use the service; it is enough to have a card from any Russian bank.

For VTB24, this is also an excellent opportunity to play and test new technologies in order to determine the direction of further development.

Conversion is the process of exchanging monetary units of one country for monetary units of another when performing any foreign economic financial transactions. You will learn about the features of conversion when using a VTB card in this article.

For those of its clients who often travel to other countries, VTB Bank has developed a multi-currency card. Its main difference from other cards is the linking of three accounts in different currencies at once: rubles, euros and dollars. You cannot open an account in other currencies, such as pounds. Here are a few reasons why you should open a VTB multicurrency card:

• Convenient travel. Abroad, in the area of ​​one airport, prices can be in both euros and dollars. By tracking the balance of funds on your VTB card, you can choose the most profitable direction of exchange.
• Access to different currencies. As mentioned above, three foreign currency accounts are linked to the VTB multicard. This is very convenient, as you don’t need to open several cards, which is quite troublesome and inconvenient. In a situation where, for example, you need to make a payment in dollars, but there is no dollar card, a multicard will be very useful. Moreover, if you run out of dollars on it, the existing currency will be converted automatically. If necessary, you can deposit dollars through an ATM.
• Practicality. Holding three cards at once is extremely unprofitable. After all, for each of them you will have to pay the bank for servicing and reissue. In addition, you will have to remember a lot of information: expiration date, passwords, security codes, etc.

Terms of use of the card

A multi-currency card from VTB can be classic or gold. The latter refers to VTB premium products.

Design rules

You can get plastic at the VTB office. You need to take your passport and a certificate with you that confirms your income level. The latter is necessary to open a line of credit. The requirements that are put forward to the applicant are age from 21 years and citizenship of Russia.

How does currency conversion work on a card?

There are three components involved in the conversion operation:

• transaction currency;
• payment system currency;
• plastic currency.

As soon as the card payment goes through, the first currency is compared with the second. If they are different, then conversion is carried out at the rate of the payment system. Next, Visa or MasterCard sends VTB a notification indicating the amount that needs to be debited from the account. VTB compares the payment system currency with the card currency. If they are different, then conversion occurs again, but at the VTB rate. At the end, the money is withdrawn from the account. Thus, when making one payment transaction, there may be a double sequential conversion. VTB charges a commission for each of them.

If a Visa card is used, the billing currency is the dollar. If a Mastercard is used, then, accordingly, it is euro.

Features of multicard conversion

The VTB multicard has a base currency. It must be taken into account when converting. The VTB multicard is based on the ruble. The supporting currency for Visa plastic is the dollar, and for MasterCard it is the euro. In practice this manifests itself as follows. For example, the plastic holder’s account has 500 rubles, 50 dollars and 50 euros. If the cost of any product or service is 500 rubles, then the amount will be debited from the ruble account. Foreign currency accounts will remain untouched. However, if the amount is, for example, 700 rubles, then the bank will forcibly convert dollars at the current rate. If the card is a Visa payment system, then an additional fee for cross-border transactions of 2% will be charged.

If the payment is declared in dollars, then first of all the funds are debited from the dollar account. The missing funds are converted from the ruble account and then from the euro account. Based on these conditions, it is best to keep an abundance of the currency in which you plan to make payments. If this is not possible, then you should give preference to dollars.

How to save on conversion

When paying by card, currency conversion may occur. Sometimes it can be disadvantageous for its holder. When converting funds stored on the card, the holder incurs conversion losses and pays a VTB commission. It is important to ensure that the transaction and invoice currency matches the billing currency. Then this will allow you to limit yourself to one conversion operation.

How to avoid overpayment abroad

When going abroad, you should definitely take a multi-currency card from VTB. It allows you to pay for purchases anywhere in the world. To avoid large losses during conversion, you should adhere to the following recommendations:

• Before your trip, familiarize yourself with the features of VTB plastic. The bank may limit some payments according to the terms of the tariff. The greatest opportunities open up for owners of Gold level plastic.
• To avoid blocking your card, you should call the bank branch in advance and inform the manager about your trip abroad.
• Connect to the Internet banking service. Using it, you can easily control payments while in another country. It shows transactions and requests, and also allows you to track the geography of all transactions made.
• Find out which ATMs are the most profitable to cash out, as well as which banks VTB operates through.

Despite the convenience of payments using plastic from VTB, experienced tourists recommend having cash in the currency of the country where you are planning a trip. This will allow you to protect yourself in many situations.

When paying for goods and services in foreign currency with a VTB card, currency conversion occurs. As a rule, dollars and euros are needed abroad, so travelers should apply for a VTB multicard. Its main feature is the linking of three accounts in rubles, dollars and euros at once. To minimize monetary losses during conversion, you need to monitor the exchange rate, find out which ATMs have the minimum commission, and also connect to VTB Internet banking.

When using a card in our homeland, we don’t think about how the process of debiting money from the account occurs, because the account currency is mainly rubles and the payment currency is also rubles, which means that it seems that no conversion should be made, but this is only at first glance. And when we travel abroad with a card in rubles, we become interested, firstly, how the conversion will take place, and secondly, and most importantly, how much we will have to pay for it. In fact, conversion always occurs, including when you pay with a card in Russia.

Converting currencies when paying by card - main nuances

In the entire conversion scheme, 3 currencies take part - the first is the account currency of your card, the second is the billing currency and the third is the payment currency.

Payment currency is the currency with which you ultimately pay for the product or receive it through an ATM. Billing currency is used for mutual settlements between the banking institution and the payment system, and finally, the currency of the card itself is the currency in which its account is opened.

When paying with a card, the following happens:

1) First, the payment and billing currencies are compared; if they are different, conversion will occur, and in this case it will be at the rate of the international payment system to which the card belongs. It usually takes about 3 days.

3) The issuing bank, in turn, compares the billing currency with the one in which your card is open; if it does not match, the conversion will occur again, but it will be according to bank tariffs, then the required amount will be debited from the card account. Therefore, having made only one purchase, you can pay two conversion fees, but in a situation where all currencies are the same, you will not have to pay for conversion.

• 0 - 15000 rub.
• according to your passport
• from 18 years old
• on the day of treatment
• by mail or
  by courier
• up to 8% on balance
• up to 2%
• Mastercard
• A debit card is intended exclusively for people with a good income, if one of them, then the card will be an excellent tool both in everyday life and when traveling. It is equipped with the latest technologies - PayPass, 3D Secure and chip.

• 0 - 990 rub.
• according to your passport
• from 18 years old
• on the day of treatment
• up to 10% on balance
• to 10%
• A debit card called “Benefit” issued by Home Credit will bring high income to its owner by accruing interest on the balance. The first 12 months of service are free. Also, this platinum card has a number of privileges and some unique features.

• up to 350,000 rubles
• up to 1080 days
• 0 rubles
• according to your passport
• from 20 to 85 years
• 0 rubles
• on the day of treatment
• Mastercard
• up to 35%
• up to 7.5% on balance
• More recently, an alternative to a credit card has appeared in Russia, the so-called installment card, which includes Halva. However, QIWI Bank was the first to promote a similar product, calling its card Conscience. Then, a couple of months later, the Halva card appeared, which had been issued in Belarus for a long time, where local residents managed to experience all its advantages.

• up to 300,000 rubles
• from 0% to 49.9%
• 55 days
• 590 rubles
• according to your passport
• from 18 to 70 years
• on the day of treatment
• 2.9% + 290 rubles
• by mail or
  by courier
• Mastercard
• up to 30%
• up to 12 months
  installment plan
• The Tinkoff Platinum credit card can be issued and received by you without a single visit to the bank; the application is sent online, and the card is delivered by mail or courier. Now the cardholder can buy goods in the bank’s partner stores in installments of up to 12 months.

For credit cards of the Mastercard system, the billing currency changes, maybe the euro if the payments were made in the Eurozone, or the dollar if in any other countries, but for cards of the VISA system this currency is always the dollar. In the case when the card was received in Russia and payments are made only on its territory, then the billing currency, by agreement with the payment system, is equal to our national currency and, therefore, the card owner will not pay a commission. However, currency conversion will happen in any case, it’s just that now all the costs associated with this are borne by the bank itself.

Currency conversion rate for VISA and Mastercard cards

The rate at which conversions are made in international payment systems is indicated on their website:

1) Conversion rate for VISA cards.
2) Conversion rate for Mastercard cards.
3) Conversion rate for American Express cards.

You can find out the currency conversion rate at the bank on the official website of this bank, as well as by calling the contact center or finding information on the Internet bank. Moreover, this rate will not necessarily coincide with the rate of purchase and sale of currency in this bank that is familiar to us.
It should also be taken into account that funds are not debited from the card immediately, but after several days, and accordingly, taking into account the sharply changing exchange rate of our national currency, the amount debited may increase or decrease, that is, it is difficult to predict.

Cross-border transaction fees

Some banks have a commission for cross-border transactions, which is charged for purchases or transactions made in foreign currency using a card with rubles in the account. Each bank sets the amount of such a commission in its own way: Sberbank charges 1.5% of the amount, VTB does not charge this commission for Mastercard cards, but for VISA cards it is 2%, Alfa Bank has set a commission of 1.7% , and let’s say that banks such as Tinkoff or Renaissance do not charge this commission at all.

In the table you can see the chain of conversions for payments in different countries with different currencies on the card account:

Account currency - Ruble

Several situations may arise:

1) If you pay with a card in Turkey, where the local currency is the lira, then two conversions will take place, that is, first there will be a transfer of currencies in accordance with the rate of the payment system - the lira will be converted into dollars, then the dollars will be converted into rubles at the bank rate, and your card will eventually be charged. In other words, you'll pay two fees for conversions and one for cross-border payments.

2) If you pay in US dollars, then the conversion will happen only once, because the chain now takes the following form: dollars - dollars - rubles, that is, as we see, only the account currency and the billing currency do not match. This is the only commission that the bank where you issued the card will withhold.

3) If you paid in euros, then there may be two options, with one or two conversions:
- for Mastercard credit cards, the conversion scheme looks like this: euro - euro - rubles, that is, due to the coincidence of billing and payment currencies, you will only have to pay one commission at the bank rate.
- for VISA credit cards: euros - dollars - rubles, that is, none of the currencies match, which means two conversions and, as a consequence, two commissions.

That is why, if you are heading to a country that is part of the Eurozone and are going to make payments there with your ruble card, then it is advisable that it was issued by the Mastercard payment system.

Account currency - Dollar

1) When you make purchases of goods using a dollar card in Turkey, the lira is transferred into dollars in which we have a card account, which means you will pay a commission at the rate set by the payment system. You may also be charged a bank commission for a so-called cross-border transaction, because the payment was made abroad, and not in the currency of any payment system, and also not in rubles.

2) If you paid in dollars, then no commission will be charged at all, because all three currencies involved in the payment (card, billing, payment) are American dollars.

3) If the payment was made in euro, the following happens:
- for Mastercard cards the scheme is as follows: euro - euro - dollars, conversion at the bank rate.
- by Visa cards: euros - dollars - dollars, only now the conversion commission will be paid by you at the rate of the payment system.
As you can see, in this case, there is no difference between payment systems.

4) When paying with a dollar card in Russia, only one conversion will be made, because the scheme looks like this: rubles - rubles - dollars, and as we mentioned above, the billing currency in Russia is the ruble. The rate for this commission will be set by the card issuing bank.

Account currency - Euro

1) You buy a product, for example, in Turkey, where the local currency is the lira. The scheme looks like this: euros are converted into dollars, and they, in turn, into lira, this means at least two commissions, plus a possible commission for a transaction made abroad.

2) Payment by card took place in the USA, therefore, the sequence of conversion operations will be as follows: dollars - dollars - euros, which means you need to pay one commission at the bank rate.

3) Payment for goods in euros. The conversion scheme will be as follows:
- by Matercard: euro - euro - euro, which means no commission.
- by Visa cards: euros - dollars - euros, that is, as many as two conversions and, accordingly, two commissions, therefore, when traveling to the Eurozone, having a card in euros with you, it is more profitable for it to work on the Mastercard system.

4) If payment is made in rubles, then there will also be only one conversion at the bank rate.

Best bank offers

Let me start with what the bank is not hiding. This information can be gleaned from support responses on various online resources.
1. When paying for your purchase, you receive an SMS indicating the amount of your purchase in the currency of the transaction, as well as the balance in rubles. This message should not be taken seriously, since only the purchase amount is correct. At the time of purchase, money is not debited from the card, but is only blocked at the bank rate in effect at the time of the transaction. Funds will usually be debited from the card within 1-2 days, but at the rate that will be in effect at the time of the transaction. You can only find out the actual amount written off in rubles from your account statement.

2. The fact that you make a purchase in EUR does not mean that your bank will receive a request for debiting in EUR from the payment system (Visa, MasterCard). This is a known fact. But the peculiarity of VTB24 is that having received a statement indicating that the transaction currency is EUR, it is impossible to say for sure that the request from the payment system and the bank came in EUR. VTB-24 employees explain that in the statement, the transaction currency refers to the currency of the transaction (the purchase itself), and you can find out the transaction currency only upon personal contact. This whole topic makes it very difficult to catch VTB-24 in dishonesty.

It so happened that I went abroad for a short time and made payments there using a ruble MasterCard from VTB-24. Upon returning home, I had the idea to calculate how much I saved by using plastic for calculations. The conversion rate figures I received left me confused, because... According to calculations, it turned out that on March 6, VTB-24 converted EUR at a price of 50.70 rubles. (the rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is 49.54 rubles), and from March 7 to 10, EUR conversion was carried out at the rate of 51.40 rubles. (rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation as of 03/07 is 49.59 rubles, as of 03/08 and all holidays 50.26 rubles).

That’s when I started thinking, are cards from all banks equally useful? And I went to explore the VTB-24 website in search of an explanation.
I read the rules, tariffs, and bank responses on the Internet. But the only useful information I found on the site itself was information about the EUR exchange rate for non-cash conversion at the moment. Those. It’s immediately clear - to check the correctness of the debits in previous days, if you haven’t prepared a notary inspection of the site (preferably hourly, because you don’t know either the date or time of the debit on the account), you won’t be able to.

But I could write a letter to the bank, I thought! And he wrote a letter asking to tell me where on the website there is an archive of EUR rates for non-cash conversions, and if there is none, then he asked to send me EUR rates from March 06 to 10. I won’t describe the vicissitudes of the correspondence with VTB-24, but the second time they admitted to me that there was no archive, and they could tell the exchange rate for a specific date only by calling the hotline. Then a bell rang in my head. It’s clear what’s written in the letter, you can’t refuse it, but over the phone... It’s clear that I won’t write the conversation.

I’m calling (well, you can get through in a couple of minutes!). The boy, at my request, read to me courses that were valid from March 6 to March 10. The exchange rate is not constant throughout the day, the boy was probably too lazy to read me all the changes in the exchange rate for the day, however, from his words it turned out that on March 06 the EUR rate was 50.05 rubles, then 49.95 rubles, on March 07 - 50.70 rubles. , then 51.40, and from March 08 to 10 - 51.30 rubles.

It makes sense to create a distraction here. You can see for yourself on the VTB 24 website the current rate of non-cash conversion of EUR. In general, it is always close to the rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, and if it deviates from it, then within 1% (this suited me, since it was covered by the bonus on the “My Conditions” card. Apparently understanding that during the holidays people would flock outside the border, VTB 24 raised the conversion rates in order to stupidly cut the coin. I don’t see any other explanation for this behavior of my favorite bank...

Well, yes, I will continue to describe the conversation with VTB 24. I tell the boy: something is not beating! I have a write-off on March 06 at the rate of 50.70 rubles, and your rate is no more than 50.05 rubles, and then, I have write-offs on holidays at 51.40 rubles, and your rate is 51.30 rubles... Here the boy lost interest in further conversation and translated me for a girl (as I understand, the eldest). The girl first confirmed to me the EUR rates told by the boy, and then, when we started dividing together, without any embarrassment she corrected herself that on March 6, LATE in the evening, the rate jumped to 50.70 rubles, and in the period from March 8 to 10, the rate was exactly 51.40 rub., and 51.30 rub. - it was he and the boy who were looking in the wrong direction (the two of them, as I understand it, were looking in the wrong direction)... Then a second bell rang in my head...

It should be additionally noted that the statement does not indicate the processing time of the transaction, but only the date, and therefore even knowing the conversion rates by hour for a certain date, you still will not be able to understand whether everything was calculated correctly. At this point we changed the topic of conversation, and I realized to myself that paying with VTB 24 cards abroad is more expensive for myself.

However, the next day I decided to do another test. On the Internet I found answers from VTB 24 that funds are blocked at the VTB 24 non-cash conversion rate (https://www.?responseID=5329840), but the blocked amount is visible in my SMS! Having picked up all the SMS received on the phone (I’ll say right away that out of 22 settlement transactions, I received information about blocking funds when purchasing abroad SMS only for 10 transactions), I received that on March 6, the funds on the card were blocked at the rate of 49.53 rubles. for 1 EUR (let me remind you that when debiting on the same day, EUR was converted to me at the rate of 50.70 rubles), on March 8, the funds were blocked at the rate of 49.67 rubles. for 1 EUR (when written off on March 8, EUR was converted at the rate of 51.40 rubles). So it turns out that the non-cash conversion rate, which objectively could be confirmed, and the non-cash conversion rate that VTB 24 employees say turns out to be different. And this difference is in favor of the bank.

If you are trying to evaluate the profitability of card payments abroad via SMS (and for a long time I did this), then the picture will be simply colorful. Of course, the calculations will be almost at the rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, but in reality VTB 24 will write off MUCH more from you.

Instead of an afterword.
I am not an opponent of VTB 24, I use the VTB 24 card for payments in the Russian Federation, I like their loyalty program and much more, but I repeat, when you pay with your VTB 24 card abroad, VTB 24 will rip you off like a stick.
Look for banks that conduct conversion at the rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, or do not hide information about the non-cash conversion rate for previous dates.

Administrator: Please tell me the time of conversations with the “boy” and “girl”. And we are waiting for a response from the bank representative.