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Online Purchasing Issues - US / Russia

By Valsu in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus

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Valsu Explorer

Valsu   1

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Filed: Country: Philippines
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Ok, so, my wife's grandparents still live in Russia. We both live in the United States.

We want to purchase books from a website in Russia to send to her grandfather for his birthday. However, when we go to check out, neither my card or paypal will work and are declined because of originating from the USA.

Anyone have experiences dealing with foreign purchases? We cannot figure out how to make an online purchase from the US and have it shipped to his Russian residence.

MrsCrabs Explorer

MrsCrabs   24

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Russia
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Posted

Or maybe someone in Russia can help and you just transfer money? And transfer would need bank payment though...

Shawn and Olga married in Russia May 7th 2013

IR-1 process

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10/8/015: IV package sent to NVC

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10/11/2015: submitted DS-260 and got confirmation

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vbtwo Rising Star

vbtwo   54

Posted
Filed: Citizen (pnd) Country: Ukraine
 Timeline
Posted

I tried using cards with some Ukrainian services. The only card that I have ever managed to get working is a Chase Freedom card. They require that your card have Verified by Visa (or whatever the MasterCard analogue to that is). The only ones that have that in the US that I know of are Chase cards. Not all of them have it either, but those are the only ones that I have every managed to work. If it doesn't have Verified by Visa, then they won't even try to charge it but come back as declined right away. I guess this is due to the amount of fraud that goes on there.

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Dashinka Grand Master

Dashinka   24,654

Posted
Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Russia
 Timeline
Posted

I have a similar experience every time I try to by airline tickets from S7. Like many areas around the world, they do not accept AMEX, and my Visa wouldn't work either even when doing the verification step. I am not sure if it is on our end, or in Russia, but the only way I was able to get the tickets was to call the airline and buy them over the phone. I am not sure if that will work for books, and of course you have the potential security worry and may need to make sure you have authorization from your financial institution, but it might work.

Overall, I agree with the earlier suggestion of buying them here and sending them. We do that for small gifts we send back to family in Russia. We usually use the USPS and over the last year, it has only taken 2-3 weeks to arrive in Krasnoyarsk. The Russian postal service even sends them to the local post office now instead of the main office in the center of the city.

Good Luck!

Visa Received : 2014-04-04 (K1 - see timeline for details)

US Entry : 2014-09-12

POE: Detroit

Marriage : 2014-09-27

I-765 Approved: 2015-01-09

I-485 Interview: 2015-03-11

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I-751 ROC Submitted: 2016-12-20

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N400 Filed:  2018-01-13

N400 Biometrics:  2018-02-22

N400 Interview:  2018-04-10

N400 Approved:  2018-04-10

Oath Ceremony:  2018-06-11 - DONE!!!!!!!

Valsu Explorer

Valsu   1

Posted
Filed: Country: Philippines
 Timeline
  • Author
Posted

We can't have it shipped to us if we can't pay for it in the first place. The sites are Russian and these books are not available in the United States. So purchasing them is the issue--not shipping.

My wife even set up a russian paypal, and i sent her the rubles, and she has a ruble balance in her russian paypal and the error message is the same on the seller's sites. There are 6 different vendors which have the books, and the same error message is on them all.

So annoying. The only option we have, I suppose, is sending cash to a friend in russia, but not even sure where to start on that process.

Dashinka Grand Master

Dashinka   24,654

Posted
Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Russia
 Timeline
Posted

We can't have it shipped to us if we can't pay for it in the first place. The sites are Russian and these books are not available in the United States. So purchasing them is the issue--not shipping.

My wife even set up a russian paypal, and i sent her the rubles, and she has a ruble balance in her russian paypal and the error message is the same on the seller's sites. There are 6 different vendors which have the books, and the same error message is on them all.

So annoying. The only option we have, I suppose, is sending cash to a friend in russia, but not even sure where to start on that process.

If you have a friend you can trust, the quickest way to send any money is through Western Union. They can get it fairly quickly at many banks in Russia.

Good Luck!

Visa Received : 2014-04-04 (K1 - see timeline for details)

US Entry : 2014-09-12

POE: Detroit

Marriage : 2014-09-27

I-765 Approved: 2015-01-09

I-485 Interview: 2015-03-11

I-485 Approved: 2015-03-13

Green Card Received: 2015-03-24 Yeah!!!

I-751 ROC Submitted: 2016-12-20

I-751 NOA Received:  2016-12-29

I-751 Biometrics Appt.:  2017-01-26

I-751 Interview:  2018-04-10

I-751 Approved:  2018-05-04

N400 Filed:  2018-01-13

N400 Biometrics:  2018-02-22

N400 Interview:  2018-04-10

N400 Approved:  2018-04-10

Oath Ceremony:  2018-06-11 - DONE!!!!!!!

  • 2 weeks later...
Corey-Mariya Enthusiast

Corey-Mariya   14

Posted
Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Russia
 Timeline
Posted

We can't have it shipped to us if we can't pay for it in the first place. The sites are Russian and these books are not available in the United States. So purchasing them is the issue--not shipping.

My wife even set up a russian paypal, and i sent her the rubles, and she has a ruble balance in her russian paypal and the error message is the same on the seller's sites. There are 6 different vendors which have the books, and the same error message is on them all.

So annoying. The only option we have, I suppose, is sending cash to a friend in russia, but not even sure where to start on that process.

Try to purchase those books on eBay. Anything and everything is sold there!

 
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