"Of course, if you live in Turkey or visit there often, own real estate, etc., then a local card will be useful and even necessary. If you are not tied to the country, then the only advantage is essentially the ability to link a Russian SIM card to an account," says the expert.
And, of course, the tourist popularity of Turkey itself, where Russians often vacation. If a person is already on vacation in this country, it may be easier to open an account and get a card at the same time, rather than going specifically for it, for example, to Kyrgyzstan or ordering from intermediaries.
Pitfalls of Opening Turkish Bank Accounts in 2025
The main problems that Russians encounter when opening accounts in Turkish banks are the following:
problems with outgoing SWIFT payments. However, they usually taiyuan mobile number database concern players in foreign economic activity (investors and businessmen), and not private clients;
disloyalty to Russian clients. The attitude towards Russian clients in general remains not very good. It is not about nationalism – Turkish banks are very much afraid of secondary sanctions and often play it safe;
constantly changing rules of the game. In particular, Deniz Bank was very popular among Russians for a long time, but then everything changed. In 2022, the bank introduced strict limits on outgoing SWIFT transfers, and since February 2024, it began asking its clients for documents confirming their right to reside in Turkey. And there is no guarantee that Vakif and Ziraat will not demand the same tomorrow;
weakness of the Turkish lira. The conditions for foreign currency deposits leave much to be desired, and the rapidly depreciating lira is certainly not the best option for savings. However, at the moment, deposits in liras may make sense. After a long period of an extremely high key rate (50%), the Turkish Central Bank has partially achieved at least some control over inflation and has moved on to a cycle of rate reduction, which has already dropped to 45%. In this situation, deposits in liras at 45% give a chance to outpace inflation. By the way, by freezing a large (from 500 thousand dollars) deposit in a Turkish bank for 3 years, you can even obtain Turkish citizenship.