Visa and Mastercard cards issued in Russia may experience difficulties when paying for online purchases. This was warned by the National Payment Card System (NSPC) amid the transition of its websites and payment services to Russian security certificates.
This refers to international system cards that left Russia in 2022 but continued to operate within the country through the NSPC infrastructure. The company advises gradually replacing them with "Mir" cards: these cards can be used without changes for payments both in stores and online.
Currently, Mir accounts for about 75% of card transaction volume. At the same time, old Visa and Mastercard cards still remain functional within Russia, but the further infrastructure is increasingly being rebuilt to support the domestic payment system.
In parallel, NSPC proposes to gradually reduce interbank commissions for Visa and Mastercard operations: to 1% from the beginning of 2027, and to completely zero them out from 2028.
Read more on the topic:
- Not a ban, but a reset: how Visa and Mastercard will be phased out
- The share of banking operations with Mir cards reached 75%: Visa and Mastercard plastic cards are gradually being withdrawn from the market
- Cards are gone, plastic remains: Central Bank believes it's time for Visa and Mastercard to exit the market