For Russian tourists in Turkey, such an alternative could be letim mobile application created by Turkish developers. It was announced on Thursday, August 3, 2023, and was downloaded more than 1000 times in less than a day.
Letim App is authorized by the Central Bank of Turkey. It allows you to remotely open an account in a Turkish bank, make deposits to it from Russian bank cards using SBP, pay for purchases in Turkey, and even withdraw cash. All this happens through the virtual bank card of the Turkish payment system Troy created in the application, which allows you to carry out financial transactions using a QR code.
All this is true, but, as some experts note, this application is damp and not without flaws .
First, it does not create an actual Turkish bank account – it's just that an electronic wallet is created in the application, from which you can carry out transactions with money.
Secondly, there are many ambiguities regarding the security of money deposited to this wallet. Who will be responsible if the financial transaction freezes or the wallet is blocked? There is no data anywhere about which legal entity is responsible for the safety of finances.
Thirdly, there are enough technical bugs. For example, it is far from always possible for the application program to recognize a photo of a potential client, and without it it is impossible to pass identity verification and start using an electronic wallet.
So, Russian tour operators advise their clients not to count on this application, but to stock up on enough cash for the duration of a tourist trip to Turkey.