Russians most often go to Uzbekistan to issue Visa and Mastercard payment cards they can use abroad, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) reported on Thursday. For this purpose, they also go to Armenia, Belarus and Serbia.

"Right now, together with tour operators, you can go to four countries to get a foreign Visa or Mastercard card: Armenia, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Serbia. <…> According to the observations of tour operators, Uzbekistan is the leader of "card tourism" in Russia. Armenia is slightly behind as the political tension in that country has already scared away part of the tourists," the report says.

According to Intourist, you can get a card in Uzbekistan during the day, any tourist can add such a service optionally when choosing a tour. According to Vedi Group, in Uzbekistan, customers receive a payment card in one hour. In Belarus, it takes one working day to issue a bank card, PAC Group reported. In Serbia, the recommended duration of the tour is six nights if you open an account with Raiffeisen and 14 days if you open an account with Apibank.

On March 10, Visa and MasterCard suspended their operations in Russia. All cards of these payment systems issued earlier by Russian banks continue to be in service on the Russian territory as before but it is not impossible to make payments with their use overseas, TASS reports.