A friend is doing genealogy on several of his relatives for which very little information is known, as they were orphans in the late 1800s in Russia. He has exhausted every avenue for information.
His remaining hope for finding info is in the Russian state archives which have recently been digitized and are available online. These archives charge a minimal amount for research access (very reasonable, something like $4/week). Despite the low fee, my friend was hesitant to enter his credit card info, for fear of his card becoming compromised.
I offered him use of a $100. PenFed Credit Union VISA gift card* to use for payment in lieu of a credit card. The gift card was declined, with a comment (in Russian) "their system had rejected the method of payment".
*BTW, I just took a closer look at the Pen Fed gift card. I noticed in small print "Valid only in the United States", so that may be the issue.
I'm wondering if anyone here might have a suggestion or two on how to make a payment to access the archives in Russia without incurring a huge expense to do so or exposing their credit to a potential security risk?
omni
His remaining hope for finding info is in the Russian state archives which have recently been digitized and are available online. These archives charge a minimal amount for research access (very reasonable, something like $4/week). Despite the low fee, my friend was hesitant to enter his credit card info, for fear of his card becoming compromised.
I offered him use of a $100. PenFed Credit Union VISA gift card* to use for payment in lieu of a credit card. The gift card was declined, with a comment (in Russian) "their system had rejected the method of payment".
*BTW, I just took a closer look at the Pen Fed gift card. I noticed in small print "Valid only in the United States", so that may be the issue.
I'm wondering if anyone here might have a suggestion or two on how to make a payment to access the archives in Russia without incurring a huge expense to do so or exposing their credit to a potential security risk?
omni