SPB trip May 24 Money question

[viking]

I will be leaving for my trip to SPB shortly. With the exchange rate on rubles falling every day what are your recomendations about changing some dollars into rubles before I leave? I have seen posts about taking some new 50's and 100's, American, with me, but at some point the change from purchases will result in my carring around rubles and the exchange from a resturant may not be as good. Thoughts?

[Jet]

As far as I know rublee can only be purchased in Russia. Some may advise against it  but debit/checkcards are the way I prefer to exchange money. There are ATMs all over the place in the larger cities.

What you might look into is changing dollars for Euros then hitting a bank once there to convert to rubles if you MUST carry cash :noidea:

[jb]

You can purchase Rubles in a few banks outside of Russia, but to get the discount, you are talking many thousands of dollars at a time.  It's the way of International commerce, but I doubt anyone will sell you a few hundred dollars worth of RU on a one-time basis. 

As Jet suggested, use the ATM machines as your primary source while in Pieter, however I also suggest you take some cash money with you in clean, crisp, fresh bills, perferably in $50's and $100's.  Be sure to remember that Russia controls the money coming in and going out pretty carefully, so you will have to declare how much cash you bring in when you arrive and you will have to account for it when you leave.  If you get extra cash from the ATM while you are there be sure to save the receipts so you will have a record of where you got it, and thus be able to account for where the money came from when you leave.  The customs guys at the airport have never failed to ask me how much money I had left when I was ready to board my flight home.  They can put two and two together as well as any other cop and if you try to leave with more money than you arrived with, well,,, in their mind you will have been up to no good.  The Russian criminal mafia tries to smuggle dollars out of the country all the time, so be prepared for the question.

Just a word to the wise.

[al-c]

Hi Greg,

Been there and done that, so I can give you some tips.

Hotels have ATMs, but they all make money on you, same for bank ATMs.  Not a lot of money, maybe a dollar or two.

I have heard that some ATMS are not on particulary secure networks and that the hotel ones are the most secure.  When I was there two weeks ago, I used only the hotel one.

As for currency exchange, go to a bank.  You get 28 rubles to a dollar there.  If you use a commercial exchange, you get more like 26.8 rubles or so.  Just make sure to bring a Russian speaking person to the bank for interpretation.  I had Olga with me for the talking part.  And bring your passport.  They can't exchange money for you if you can't present a passport.

I have been to Russia three times and was never asked how much currency I was carrying.  I just declared on the way in that I had less than $3,000.00 (which was true), and that was the end of it, each time.

Good luck to you, and I hope your trip turns out the way you were hoping.