Yandex.Money introduces a new service for multi-currency accounts and cards.
In addition to rubles, the service allows users to keep money and pay in 10 foreign currencies: US dollars, euros, British pounds, Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, Swiss francs, Czech korunas, Polish zloty, Belarusian rubles, and Kazakhstani tenges. Yandex.Money is the first company in Russia to offer cashback for payments in 10 currencies at once.
Users won’t have to switch currencies in order to pay for a purchase abroad with the card, as the service will independently determine which one to use for the payment, allowing for convenient and favorable payments in different countries with one Yandex.Money card.
“We expect the Yandex.Money multi-currency cards to be popular with a wide variety of users. People residing or vacationing abroad will feel comfortable in any country, saving on currency conversion and not wasting time on switching between accounts. Users who want to save money can earn cashback for paying for purchases from the account of any currencies available from the service. Further on, freelancers will be able to receive earnings in foreign currency from foreign clients in the usual manner, to e-wallets,” says Alla Savchenko, Director of Products at Yandex.Money.
Before Yandex.Money started working with foreign currencies, users had to pay with service’s cards abroad in rubles. In 2018, 37% of foreign card transactions accounted for cash withdrawals at ATMs worldwide, 17% for services, 16% for payments in stores, 15% for food and beverages, 4% for apparel. In ruble equivalent, the average amount withdrawn by users from foreign ATMs with Yandex.Money cards was 8,000 rubles ($123) at a time. Customers spent an average of 2,600 rubles ($40) at a time on various services, 1,800 rubles ($28) on shopping, 650 rubles ($10) on food and drinks, 3,000 rubles ($46) on apparel.
In total, Yandex.Money serves 46 million registered wallets and around 800 thousand physical cards and 17 million virtual cards of the Mastercard payment system. Physical Yandex.Money cards can be used for online and offline payments, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, and Garmin Pay support, as well as for cash withdrawal both in Russia and abroad. Identified users can withdraw money without a commission at any ATMs around the world within the limit set by the service.
At first, the new service will be available to a limited number of users: those who would like to be a part of the test group will need to submit an application. After that, multi-currency accounts will be available to all identified users of the service. Users will be able to open an account in any foreign currency for free, and add money to it from a ruble account—convenient when you need to save money in foreign currency, for example, for a future trip abroad. To spend money from foreign currency accounts, users will need to activate the “Multi-currency card” service. In this case, all Yandex.Money cards linked to the e-wallet will have multi-currency support. Cashback for payments on purchases in foreign currency will be charged the same as for payments in rubles, up to 5 points for every 100 rubles ($1.4) spent. The service calculates cashback for currency payments at the rate provided on the date of purchase.