Samsung Pay enables virtual Troika transit card system in Russia

On December 16, the Troika Virtual Card was officially launched – the result of a joint venture between VTB, Moscow Metro, Google, Samsung and MasterCard. Now the modern, convenient and fast one-touch payment method is available to all travelers of the capital’s transport – the popular transport card instantly on the smartphone.

Virtual Troika is a transport card whose problem and use is handled using a smartphone without the use of a plastic carrier. The card can be purchased at the Moscow Metro mobile application. VTB Bank issues and uploads a virtual troika to Google Pay or Samsung Pay mobile device wallet. The virtual version of the card can be used on metro, buses, trams, electric buses, MCC, MCD and monorail.

The process of paying for a trip with Virtual Troika is similar to paying with a bank card: bring your smartphone to Turnstile or Validator installed on Public Transport in Moscow and mark it with a special sticker about the possibility of accepting bank cards.

In this case, you do not need to unlock the phone by entering the password or using biometric data – the ticket will be counted automatically. All you have to do is choose Google Pay or Samsung Pay as the main method for contactless payments in your smartphone settings.

All the benefits of innovation can be appreciated by mobile device owners with the Android operating system installed and applications that have downloaded Google Pay or Samsung Pay with NFC. Details on how the service works are available here.