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From October 5, the National Bank of Ukraine decided to prohibit Ukrainians from transferring funds from hryvnia bank cards to currency cards issued by foreign banks.

Representatives of the Central Bank explain the decision with the fact that after providing this opportunity among citizens, the cases of transactions that are not intended to support relatives - refugees abroad, but to speculate on the difference in exchange rates, began to become more frequent, reports UNIAN.

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At the same time, the expert community and local business representatives believe that this decision is not timely, since these transactions remain insignificant and therefore cannot allow Ukrainians to withdraw significant amounts of currency from the country.

On the other hand, this payment method serves as an important tool and makes life easier for those citizens who want to support their relatives and friends abroad with money transfers.

There is currently no direct option for citizens to buy dollars and euros for hryvnias using a more favorable non-available exchange rate.

If in April it was possible to send money abroad from one card in the amount of 100,000 hryvnias (2,700 dollars) per month, then from July this limit was reduced to 30,000 hryvnias (800 leva).

Now that possibility is completely gone.

There is currently a difference in the price of real and virtual currency.

Since the beginning of the war, the difference has reached 10 percent.

So, if 1 cashless dollar is now worth 38 hryvnias, then 1 cash dollar is worth 42 hryvnias.

The National Bank allowed Ukrainians to buy hard currency, but only through the mechanism of a quarterly deposit.

Currently, there is no direct opportunity for citizens to buy dollars and euros for hryvnias using the more favorable exchange rate.

In the end, the National Bank banned such operations at the end of February.

That is, citizens in the absence of sufficient cash in banking institutions and the impossibility of carrying out non-cash operations in connection with the decision of the Central Bank should turn to street exchange offices, which take advantage of this situation by introducing an undervalued exchange rate of the hryvnia against foreign currencies.

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Currently, Ukrainians can continue to transfer money abroad from their Ukrainian currency cards, as these operations are not subject to the ban.

In addition, it is possible to transfer funds between hryvnia payment cards of Ukrainian banks, regardless of the client's country of actual residence.

That is, if relatives or friends abroad have hryvnia cards issued in Ukrainian banks, they can easily pay with it almost anywhere in the world.

During such operations, the bank automatically converts the hryvnia into the currency in which the payment is made.

Since the beginning of this year, the country's gold and foreign exchange reserves, despite unprecedented credit and grant support from Ukraine's allies and partners, have declined by 12 percent to $25.4 billion.

And the reduction may continue due to the significant costs of maintaining the national currency, financing the foreign trade deficit, as well as the costs of paying the country's external and internal credit obligations in foreign currency.

Ukrainians still have the opportunity both to accumulate savings in foreign currency using convertible deposits and to help relatives abroad by transferring funds from Ukrainian currency cards or hryvnia cards to relatives.

At the same time, a list of exceptions is provided for education, treatment and some other important things during currency transactions from cards to bracelets.

However, unfortunately, it does not cover all the urgent needs of Ukrainians, so the National Bank will still have to work on supplementing and clarifying it, UNIAN commented.

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