Skip to content Short answer for anyone in a hurry: a bank transfer from an Uzbek account to our German account almost never arrives, Wise does not work with Uzbekistan at all, and a card payment through our Revolut payment link goes through. We send the link by WhatsApp or email, the payment takes a minute, and the truck rolls on.
We have been working with Uzbek hauliers for years, and the payment question comes up on almost every job. Below is what fails and why, and more usefully, what works.
Why a transfer from an Uzbek account does not reach us
The problem sits with currency control on the sending side, not with our bank. To send euros abroad, the Uzbek bank checks the reason for payment and converts som. It asks for a contract, an invoice, sometimes a deal passport. A driver standing on the A2 near Magdeburg with a blown tyre has none of that with him.
Then there is time. Even when the paperwork exists, SWIFT runs through a correspondent bank, and that takes days rather than hours. In our experience such payments either bounce back or land a week later with losses on rate and fees. The repair, meanwhile, is needed now.
Uzcard and Humo are a separate matter. Inside the country they cover everything, outside Uzbekistan they are not accepted, because they are national payment systems without international acquiring. Plenty of drivers find this out on the hard shoulder, talking to us.
Wise is not the answer here
Wise does not support Uzbekistan as a sending country. A resident there cannot open an account, cannot get the card, and cannot hold som. That is the provider’s own restriction, not a setting on our side. It is spelled out on their country availability page.
We do hold a Wise account, and for customers in Poland, Lithuania or Germany it is a convenient channel. For Uzbekistan the door is shut from the other side. So if your company sits in Tashkent, Samarkand or Namangan, do not waste an evening trying.
What works: card payment via a Revolut link
We accept payments through Revolut, and this is where people usually get confused. You do not need a Revolut account of your own, and residents of Uzbekistan would not be given one anyway. Revolut sits on our side as the payment acceptance. You get an ordinary payment link and pay by card, exactly like in an online shop.
To the payment system this looks like a routine card purchase, not an international transfer between accounts. Currency control does not examine it and does not ask for a contract. That is precisely why it clears where SWIFT stalls.
This is how customers pay for our mobile truck tyre service, for towing and for work done by the mobile truck workshop. The procedure never changes, only the amount does.
Which card will work
You need an international Visa or Mastercard issued by an Uzbek bank and enabled for online payments abroad. Most large banks in the country issue them, often calling them currency cards or international cards as opposed to a plain salary card.
Three things are worth checking before the trip. Whether online payments are switched on, because many banks disable them by default and you enable them in the app with one toggle. Whether the card holds foreign currency, dollars or euros, since the charge comes in euros. And where your 3-D Secure confirmation arrives, because an SMS sometimes fails to reach you while roaming, whereas approval inside the banking app travels over the internet and always lands.
A card issued to the company rather than to the driver is fine too. We invoice the company and the corporate card pays.
How the payment goes, step by step
You call or write, we quote the price before the van leaves. The technician drives out and does the job. After that we send the payment link by WhatsApp, Telegram or email, you open it on your phone, enter the card details and confirm. We see the money instantly and the truck is released.
On larger jobs we sometimes ask for a partial payment up front, mainly when a spare part has to be sourced. We agree that beforehand and never spring it on anyone.
Invoice, paperwork and tax
You get an invoice either way, a German Rechnung with our details, a number, a date and a description of the work. Accounting departments accept it, and it serves for reimbursing trip costs on the Uzbek side.
Tax treatment depends on your company papers. Paying as a private individual means German VAT at 19 percent on the invoice. If you are a company, send us your registration details before we issue it, and we will draw it up under the rules for a business from a third country. Exchange rates and currency rules are published by the Central Bank of Uzbekistan.
If the card is declined
Usually it is a limit or online payments left switched off, and a two minute call to your own bank fixes it. Sometimes a second card helps, yours or the director’s. If it still refuses, call us. We do not leave a truck on the motorway over a banking problem, and we will find a way, from instalments to payment by your partner inside the EU.
What to tell us when you call
Four details are enough for a firm answer. Your location, ideally the motorway and kilometre marker or the last exit. What happened, so tyre, engine, electrics, air in the system. The axle and tyre size if it is a tyre job. And how you intend to pay, so we can prepare the link right away.
Saying on the call that you are from Uzbekistan and paying by card saves a whole round of questions. The dispatcher then knows he is not waiting on a bank statement, and the technician sets off sooner. In practice that is half an hour saved.
Questions drivers ask
Do I have to pay before anyone comes out? Usually not. For standard work such as a tyre change or a jump start you pay afterwards. Only when an expensive part has to be ordered do we ask for part of it in advance, because a cancelled job leaves that part sitting with us.
Can my boss in Tashkent pay while I am stuck on the motorway? Yes, and that is the most common case. The link is just a web address. We send it to whichever number you give us, and the company card is entered thousands of kilometres away.
What about cash? We take cash, but the amounts on truck repairs are often more than a driver carries, and that money is still needed for the rest of the trip. The card is the calmer route.
Who this matters to
Uzbek trucks are on German motorways more often every year, nearly all of them on long haul routes through Poland. For a driver breaking down in Germany for the first time, the payment question frightens more than the breakdown does. The language is missing, the bank is far away, the dispatcher is asleep in another time zone.
That is why we keep a line open around the clock and speak Russian. The number and messengers are on our contacts page. Tell us where you are standing, what happened and which card you have on you, and we take it from there.
