YooMoney (Formerly Yandex.Money)

This method refers to the Russian e-wallet originally launched as Yandex.Money, which was rebranded to YooMoney in 2020 after a change of ownership. It functions as a digital wallet for online payments and transfers within its home market. International and gambling availability is limited and concentrated in Russia.

Yandex.Money is no longer part of Yandex: Sberbank bought it out in 2020 and it was renamed YooMoney, operating as a licensed Russian non-bank credit organisation focused on the Russian market.

Registering and Funding a YooMoney Wallet

To use it you first register a YooMoney account — the service was renamed from Yandex.Money in 2020 — using your phone number. YooMoney says an anonymous wallet takes a couple of minutes to create, that all that is needed is a phone number, and that the number is required only for sign-up and confirming payments. You can then add money to the wallet from your card and start paying.

About YooMoney (Formerly Yandex.Money)

YooMoney is used by individuals and companies to transfer money to other people and receive payments.

It remains a Russian wallet for shopping, services and transfers — YooMoney's own site lists paying for mobile, internet and home utility services and transferring money to a company or sole proprietor within Russia — but it is sanctioned by the US Treasury as a Sberbank subsidiary, so its usefulness outside Russia is very limited.

Even though Russian gaming laws are not gambling-friendly, YooMoney itself is a mainstream Russian payment service: its own site says that YooMoney for Business, its payment-acceptance service, is used by more than 40% of all online platforms in Russia.

YooMoney is what we call an "e-wallet" due to its role as a secure place to store money online. Its own site describes it as an electronic wallet and bank cards for payments and transfers — paying bills, transferring money and paying in stores — and says that if you don't have a card you can add money to the wallet in cash. For comparison, see other e-wallets.

After you load your YooMoney account with currency, you can then use your wallet to make payments online and receive payments from other users.

Basic Overview

• Website: yoomoney.ru

• Phone support: +7 495 197-86-86

• Email support: web form

YooMoney (formerly Yandex.Money) is recorded for two markets on our own country pages: Belarus and Russia.