Alla is no longer accepting payment in dollars

I am travelling to St. Petersburg in May and was just notified by Alla that they will no longer be accepting payment in dollars and that they will only accept rubles or charge rubles to your credit card. I have posted their message below.

Are the other Russian tour services implementing this policy as well?

"Starting this tourist season, we have to make some changes to our payment policy. Due to some changes in the foreign exchange control and regulation, we can no longer accept payment in foreign cash (USD, EUR, GBP etc.) here in St. Petersburg.

We understand this change in payment procedure may cause some inconvenience for you, however, this is beyond our control and we ask for your understanding.

To make payment easier for you, we are working on a new payment option, ONLINE PAYMENT, that will be available in our message system within few weeks.

Meanwhile, you are welcome to pay with a CREDIT CARD (Visa or Master Card) upon your arrival to St. Petersburg.

Please note that your total will be charged in RUSSIAN RUBLES. Alla Tours does not charge any fees for paying with credit card - these fees are imposed by Visa/MasterCard Europe and/or your bank.

We recommend you to call your bank and notify them that your card will be charged from Russia. This will help to guarantee a successful transaction with no delay.

Those of you, who will be arriving soon and who are planning on paying with cash, are welcome to pay in RUSSIAN RUBLES upon your arrival. Please note that the exact price in Rubles will depend on the exchange rate set by the Russian State Central Bank for the day of the payment.

Here are the ways to purchase Russian rubles:

1. You can order Russian rubles at your home bank. This way you will get a good exchange rate and, more importantly, you will not spend your time searching for ATM machines in order to get the local currency upon your arrival in St Petersburg. The last won’t be too complicated but will help to use your time for sightseeing only.

2. You will be able to exchange US Dollars to Rubles onboard your ship. However, they will have the least favorable exchange rate.

3. You can use ATM machines in the port and on your tour route. So you will definitely have a chance to get some rubles if needed.

We are sorry for any inconvenience caused and hope on your understanding.

Please feel free to contact us if you have question or concerns. We will be happy to help. "

What do they mean, the exact price in Rubles will be determined by the exchange rate? The price in Rubles should be fixed. They should be able to give you that price now and stick to it. If they will not stick to the US price, they need to set a firm price in Rubles.

With my experience in cyber security, I would suggest not to put your credit card info onto any Russian payment system as a precaution.

What do they mean, the exact price in Rubles will be determined by the exchange rate? The price in Rubles should be fixed. They should be able to give you that price now and stick to it. If they will not stick to the US price, they need to set a firm price in Rubles.

The tours are priced in US$; at least they have been in the past. When I toured with them about 3 years ago, the last stop was the mandatory souvenir shop where you paid up. They had the wireless terminals so common everywhere but the USA, they converted the amount in US$ to ROU and ultimately the rate they used was fair.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the bad blood currently between Russia and the West?

With my experience in cyber security, I would suggest not to put your credit card info onto any Russian payment system as a precaution.

And so what happens if your credit card is compromised. Not that this is a delightful experience but it happens all the time. Most likely the bank will notify you some suspicious charges have come through, you'll tell them if they are fraudulent. If they are, they are removed from your account, a new card with a new number is issued and you're back in business. The most inconvenient thing is notifying all your automatic debit merchants of the new number.

But it probably will not be a problem with reputable firms such as Alla as the terminal is theirs and really not subject to skimming or anything like that.

It is for the reason that there's always a possibility of one's credit card being hacked that one should travel wth at least 2 or 3 different cards just as a precaution.

With my experience in cyber security, I would suggest not to put your credit card info onto any Russian payment system as a precaution.

Why not? There is no hazard to the consumer/cardholder. The CC company assumes all liability.

There is, I admit, a measure of inconvenience with issuing and receiving a new card.

Thank you for posting this. I am scheduled with Alla for June and I have not received a notification about this yet. Perhaps they are going in order of dates??

I guess getting rubles in advance is not a big deal but they really should give a fixed price in RUB. If they cannot except any foreign currency they should no longer quote their prices in one. Unless they plan on charging the RUB equivalent of the fixed price based on the day's exchange rate so that the price equals the quoted rate in USD regardless of many many rubles it takes to get to that amount.

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I am travelling to St. Petersburg in May and was just notified by Alla that they will no longer be accepting payment in dollars and that they will only accept rubles or charge rubles to your credit card. I have posted their message below.

 

Are the other Russian tour services implementing this policy as well?

Yes, the other tour companies are implementing this policy - it is my understanding that this policy actually began with SPB tours & the other independent companies are now obliged to follow the new rules. You can clearly read on SPB tours website:

Method 3 - Cash upon arrival

• Cash payment can be made on site in St. Petersburg in Russian Rubles (RUB) only.
  
• The outstanding balance in USD will be paid in Rubles according to the exchange rate on the day of the tour as set by the Russian State Central Bank (https://www.cbr.ru/eng/).
  
• Your entire package is to be paid in St. Petersburg.
  
• Especially on busy days, on site payment collection can be time consuming. Our suggestion is to pay with Method 1.
  
• On-site credit cash payment is only available in St. Petersburg, not elsewhere.
  

Method 2 - Credit card on site in St. Petersburg

• Credit card payments made on site in St. Petersburg are settled in Russian Rubles (RUB). We can accept Visa or MasterCard upon arrival in St. Petersburg.
  
• Your entire package is to be paid in St. Petersburg, even if it is not your first port with us.
  
• Your balance in USD will be charged in Rubles according to the exchange rate on the day of the tour as set by the Russian State Central Bank (https://www.cbr.ru/eng/).
  
• The exact amount that appears on your statement may vary slightly (+- 3%) ! SPB-Tours do not guarantee the price will match your confirmation exactly. If you want to pay the exact price, please prepay according to Method 1.
  
• We do not charge credit card fees
  
• Especially on busy days, on site payment collection can be time consuming. Our suggestion is to pay with Method 1.
  
• On-site credit card payment is only available in St. Petersburg, not elsewhere
  

SPB, ALLA, and TJ all offer the option of paying for your tours after you have booked & before your cruise commences. Check with them if you are booked on tours with any of the above companies.

Thank you for posting this. I am scheduled with Alla for June and I have not received a notification about this yet. Perhaps they are going in order of dates??

 

I guess getting rubles in advance is not a big deal but they really should give a fixed price in RUB. If they cannot except any foreign currency they should no longer quote their prices in one. Unless they plan on charging the RUB equivalent of the fixed price based on the day's exchange rate so that the price equals the quoted rate in USD regardless of many many rubles it takes to get to that amount.

 

 

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It is my understanding that it is illegal to accept payment in Russia in any currency other than the official currency (the ruble). Honestly, I don't know how the tour operators were able to accept USD or Euros for so long but now it looks like the Russian authorities have cracked down on this practice and it is no longer possible. ALL of the major independent providers provide their fixed tour prices in USD - probably because it is easier to calculate than rubles (don't know for sure though). Alla, SPB, TJ tours, Best Guides - their prices are all fixed in USD. My guess is that if anyone is still accepting payment for tours in any currency other than the national currency they may find themselves in trouble with the Russian tax man assuming they are caught. I certainly would not be willing to break the law if I were one of the independent tour operators!

I received my notification from Alla today for a tour in late May.

They make no mention of gratuities but SPB advise that cash in any currency can still be used and I 'think' the same applies for Alla:

"Gratuities to the guide and driver are not included in the tour price. We recommend 10% (of the tour cost) to the guide and 5% to the driver, to be given separately. We can not charge any gratuity to your credit card. Please have some cash with you (USD, EUR or RUB) if you intend to tip your driver and guide."

Jim

I received my notification from Alla today for a tour in late May.

They make no mention of gratuities but SPB advise that cash in any currency can still be used and I 'think' the same applies for Alla:

 

"Gratuities to the guide and driver are not included in the tour price. We recommend 10% (of the tour cost) to the guide and 5% to the driver, to be given separately. We can not charge any gratuity to your credit card. Please have some cash with you (USD, EUR or RUB) if you intend to tip your driver and guide."

 

Jim

That makes it a little easier since you can't put the tips on a credit card. Hopefully they will accept USD for the grats (or GBP or EUR).

I can understand the reasoning behind only accepting rubles as it is their currency and here in the USA we would expect dollars for all services and nothing else. However prices would be quoted in dollars as well. Ah well, at least we will now earn points on the purchase since we have to use a card. Sucks they won't take Amex though as they have some of the best consumer protection features should something go wrong.

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I received my notification from Alla today for a tour in late May.

They make no mention of gratuities but SPB advise that cash in any currency can still be used and I 'think' the same applies for Alla:

 

"Gratuities to the guide and driver are not included in the tour price. We recommend 10% (of the tour cost) to the guide and 5% to the driver, to be given separately. We can not charge any gratuity to your credit card. Please have some cash with you (USD, EUR or RUB) if you intend to tip your driver and guide."

 

Jim

Yes, I checked with Alla and the gratuities can be in cash in any currency. It is just the payment for the tours that must be in the national currency. There should be no issues whatsoever if you are planning on paying via credit card - I'm sure that most people pay via credit card. I've visited Russia multiple times and have never had a problem using my Visa card (it carries no foreign transaction fee) in Russia or other countries in Europe. Strangely enough, the only time that I have had my CC info stolen/hacked was in the USA. :rolleyes: In any event, the charges were immediately flagged and I was contacted by Visa - so no liability whatsoever for me.

I wonder if this is just specific to alla? I have a tour booked with SPB and it was priced in dollars so I have already got my dollars to pay for it . Will be a bit annoyed if they can't accept them.

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We are touring with TJ in September. I haven't received notification of any change in policy regarding not being able to pay in USD (yet). I do know that they accept AMEX. In the event their is a change, I am very glad for that as I find AXEX customer service to be far superior to any other credit card I have ever had. I recently cancelled a Jet Blue MasterCard issued by Barclays Bank due to their horrendous customer service. They alerted me to what they deemed fraudulent activity on my card, when I called & confirmed we went through other recent charges (Amazon) that were also fraudulent (I hadn't used my card in 2 months so I knew they weren't valid immediately). About 5 days later I got a letter from Barclays advising that they found the charges to be valid!!!! I immediately called Amazon who was able to confirm that the charges were indeed posted to a dummy account they were monitoring. They shut down the account & sent me an email confirming the fraudulent activity. They said Barclays never filed a formal dispute for the charges & needed to do so in order for my account to be credited. I called Barclays, advised them & cancelled my card. If their policy is such that they are not fighting for me, I don't need their credit card!

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Yes, I checked with Alla and the gratuities can be in cash in any currency. It is just the payment for the tours that must be in the national currency. There should be no issues whatsoever if you are planning on paying via credit card - I'm sure that most people pay via credit card. I've visited Russia multiple times and have never had a problem using my Visa card (it carries no foreign transaction fee) in Russia or other countries in Europe. Strangely enough, the only time that I have had my CC info stolen/hacked was in the USA. :rolleyes: In any event, the charges were immediately flagged and I was contacted by Visa - so no liability whatsoever for me.

Thank you for checking; this is good news. I will likely get rubles anyway for small purchases [and I always like to save a little foreign money as a souvenir from any new country I visit haha] but it is easier to pay the tip in USD as the 15% is easy to calculate in advance and set aside the exact amount rather than worry about fumbling through rubles at the end of the tour trying to figure out how much to give.

We are touring with TJ in September. I haven't received notification of any change in policy regarding not being able to pay in USD (yet). I do know that they accept AMEX. In the event their is a change, I am very glad for that as I find AXEX customer service to be far superior to any other credit card I have ever had. I recently cancelled a Jet Blue MasterCard issued by Barclays Bank due to their horrendous customer service. They alerted me to what they deemed fraudulent activity on my card, when I called & confirmed we went through other recent charges (Amazon) that were also fraudulent (I hadn't used my card in 2 months so I knew they weren't valid immediately). About 5 days later I got a letter from Barclays advising that they found the charges to be valid!!!! I immediately called Amazon who was able to confirm that the charges were indeed posted to a dummy account they were monitoring. They shut down the account & sent me an email confirming the fraudulent activity. They said Barclays never filed a formal dispute for the charges & needed to do so in order for my account to be credited. I called Barclays, advised them & cancelled my card. If their policy is such that they are not fighting for me, I don't need their credit card!

 

Lucky you that they take Amex! I agree that Amex customer service and resolution of disputes is second to none. Usually things are done with a "no questions asked" attitude which has kept me as a loyal customer since I was 18. Failure to accept Amex is the only fault I have found with Alla so far; everything else in dealing with them has been wonderful.

 

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I wonder if this is just specific to alla? I have a tour booked with SPB and it was priced in dollars so I have already got my dollars to pay for it . Will be a bit annoyed if they can't accept them.

 

 

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I have emailed SPB Tours to ask if they no longer accept $. Here is the response:

This is unfortunately the case. Due to recent changes in the regulations concerning transactions with foreign currency, we are no longer able to accept foreign cash on site. This has caused a very recent change to our payment policy. A mass announcement will be forthcoming.

You are welcome to pay in advance with credit card as this will not be considered a foreign transaction. Prepayments with credit card are settled in USD.

If this is also not possible, we can suggest setting up a bank transfer, but this is not a preferred method of payment as it is quite inconvenient for everyone.

I look forward to your reply.

Best regards,

Anthony

SPB-Tours

I have decided to take over enough Rubles to cover the tour and tips and any incidental spending. Depending on the conversion rate on the day, I might need to add some $ towards the tip amounts. OR I might have extra rubles which I will use to buy vodka.:halo:

Yes, I checked with Alla and the gratuities can be in cash in any currency. It is just the payment for the tours that must be in the national currency. There should be no issues whatsoever if you are planning on paying via credit card - I'm sure that most people pay via credit card. I've visited Russia multiple times and have never had a problem using my Visa card (it carries no foreign transaction fee) in Russia or other countries in Europe. Strangely enough, the only time that I have had my CC info stolen/hacked was in the USA. :rolleyes: In any event, the charges were immediately flagged and I was contacted by Visa - so no liability whatsoever for me.

That is what I would do, pay with my credit card. I have several with no foreign transaction fee. Those who have credit cards with no transaction fee are going to get a better exchange rate than getting Roubles.

I have emailed SPB Tours to ask if they no longer accept $. Here is the response:

 

 

 

This is unfortunately the case. Due to recent changes in the regulations concerning transactions with foreign currency, we are no longer able to accept foreign cash on site. This has caused a very recent change to our payment policy. A mass announcement will be forthcoming.

 

You are welcome to pay in advance with credit card as this will not be considered a foreign transaction. Prepayments with credit card are settled in USD.

 

If this is also not possible, we can suggest setting up a bank transfer, but this is not a preferred method of payment as it is quite inconvenient for everyone.

 

I look forward to your reply.

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

Anthony

 

SPB-Tours

 

 

 

I have decided to take over enough Rubles to cover the tour and tips and any incidental spending. Depending on the conversion rate on the day, I might need to add some $ towards the tip amounts. OR I might have extra rubles which I will use to buy vodka.:halo:

 

 

 

 

I am very annoyed by this.

We are from the UK and as the tour was priced in dollars and they specified there was a 3% charge for credit card transactions I went ahead and obtained dollars to pay for it - they actually recommended we pay in dollars.

I am going to email them now.

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I have a had a response from SPB.

Basically they have said I will be able to pay for my tour in dollars.

I stated we were from the UK and had already purchased dollars to pay for it (it is a private tour and is over $1600 ) and to change it back to GBP would cost us money. Now I don't know if this an exception for me or a general policy but the inference was that they would continue to accept cash dollars and that the policy now stated on their website was more to look as if they were complying with local government rules.

Either way I am happy and have printed out and stored said email just in case there is any confusion when we get there.

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We are also from the UK and are using TJ Travel in two weeks time for our two day tour in St Petersburg. Some people on our 7 May Silly thread mentioned this problem. I emailed TJ Travel last Thursday and this is their response:

'I'm not sure why there're rumours like that, you can pay us in the morning of the tour either in dollars, euro or rubles.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Warm regards,

Maria

T J Travel

I am surprised that TJ Travel is treating this as a rumor! I thought this was a done deal and will need to pay in rubles!

I guess I'll wait and see.

I wonder if this is just specific to alla? I have a tour booked with SPB and it was priced in dollars so I have already got my dollars to pay for it . Will be a bit annoyed if they can't accept them.

 

 

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Wow - I can't believe that SPB tours has not apprised you of the fact that ONLY rubles are accepted for payment in St. Petersburg. Perhaps SPB expected that you would read the payment information in their FAQs.

See post #8 above - it specifically states on SPB's website:

• Cash payment can be made on site in St. Petersburg in Russian Rubles (RUB) only.
  

So, I am happy for you that SPB tours will accept your USD but, if they do accept USD and get caught, I suspect that they will be in a lot of trouble with whomever is in charge of tax collection in Russia. Same for TJ travel.

There are some credit/debit cards that will limit the amount of money that can be charged while away in a certain country. That might be one way to protect yourself while travelling to countries where credit card security is an issue.

As others have said above, there is nothing you need to do to protect yourself against having your credit card account hacked. Both by federal law (and I am sure elsewhere) and the reluctance of the banks to alienate their customers, every credit card issued in the USA comes with zero liability for fraud. While certainly everybody is entitled to their opinion and I don't put down anybody who has a contrary opinion, one of the benefits of sung credit cards while travelling is not worrying about exchange rates and not having to hit ATM's or carry around cash. I don't understand when people advice things like not to use credit cards especially for small purchases because the more you use a card, the greater is its chance of being hacked (which is true enough but so what). At the same time, because of this possibility, it is always recommended that one bring more than one card with them while on holiday just in case (I bring 3 or 4). The banks make an immense amount of money on their plastic card (now metal sometimes) operations and don't want to do anything to discourage you from using them.

I've heard from Alla as well. My Chase card will not guarantee that the payment will be accepted even though I told them I would be in Russia, so that card is out. My bank card has already been compromised by someone that was using it for taxi's in Russia so I got a new card a year or so ago. I'm not real sure my bank will be pleased either. My only other option is to cancel through Alla and rebook through Viator where you pay online ahead of time. I'm leaning more towards that.

I've heard from Alla as well. My Chase card will not guarantee that the payment will be accepted even though I told them I would be in Russia, so that card is out. My bank card has already been compromised by someone that was using it for taxi's in Russia so I got a new card a year or so ago. I'm not real sure my bank will be pleased either. My only other option is to cancel through Alla and rebook through Viator where you pay online ahead of time. I'm leaning more towards that.

No credit card will guarantee that payment will be accepted. That is why I always carry a back up.

TJ Travel will take payment online ahead of time. I wouldn't be that OCD though and pay ahead of time.