Originally Posted by
stormpelt
Does anyone know if I can use US credit cards in Russia? I specifically want to use barclay arrival plus to book an airbnb in Russia, but a barclay representative told me that there are sanctions in place between US and Russia which might prevent me from booking any sort of travel in Russia... Is this true? So I can't use any US credit cards to book any kind of travel or lodging in Russia?
I don't think the sanctions are in place.
I recently had a problem paying for my ticket (on Aeroflot website) and hotel online using my US credit card.Despite calling to my bank and asking not to flag these transactions, the payment never went though. I called Aeroflot and was told "what do you expect, we have sanctions.."
When I tried another US card, with different bank, my payments went through just fine.
Using card in person shouldn't be a problem. Just make sure your bank is aware of you traveling for these dates and you should be fine. I would recommend to have a back up card in case something will go wrong and first card will be temporary blocked. Keep in mind transaction fee some backs are charging is something that make you rethink the usage of credit card over there,