No advertising, just tips based on personal experience.

P.S. This was relevant until February 2022, but let's hope that someday these tips will be useful again... wishing everyone the best.

USD as default!

Forget about paying in rubles. At least on AliExpress, Banggood, and foreign online stores. Dollar prices are fixed. Today the dollar is 73 rubles, tomorrow 81. The price changes everywhere if your account settings have RUB/Ruble as the currency. Yes, sometimes sellers change prices during sales to create the effect of a big discount, but that's a different matter. Also, when communicating with pilots from other countries, discussing prices in dollars is much easier than everyone converting from their currency to the other person's currency.

What do you need for this?

In your profile settings, there's usually a country/language selection and a currency selection. Simply change the currency to USD ($).

When shopping at Russian stores, this obviously won't work, but we're talking about how to save money, right? In that case, we try to get the maximum benefit and first go to foreign stores (visit their websites).

To Pyaterochka or Magnit?

This is about price comparison tools that allow you to compare prices between different stores in the selected parser's database. One I know of is rcsearch. Perhaps the most convenient search engine at the moment in my opinion - it not only shows options from most current stores but also offers discounts, displays new items on the main page, and sorts by categories. Isn't that nice?

What are the downsides, why doesn't everyone talk about this resource?

The simple obvious answer is that this parser doesn't just search for options - it also converts product links to referral links - named links where the author receives a percentage for recommendations when you make a purchase.

Bloggers, as many know, partly earn their bread from referrals. Obviously, linking to someone else's referral links isn't profitable for them. Some try to write their own bots and post good deals with their referral links in channels. This is a standard situation; everyone wants to eat, and there's nothing shameful about it. Everyone decides for themselves whether to use a referral link (it doesn't affect you - the product price doesn't change, but the author gets a small commission), whether to create referral links themselves and try to earn something (the percentages are tiny, you'll have to work a long time to get anything significant) - just know that such search engines exist and they're quite convenient.

So I set a different currency, and now Sberbank charges for conversion, there's no savings.

Hold on, no Sberbank. I'm not a Sberbank hater, I just suggest taking a calculator and calculating what price comes out on AliExpress for a certain product when displayed in rubles (in fact, the ruble price on Ali is the same dollar price at AliExpress's ruble exchange rate - they have their own conversion), when displayed in dollars at the Sberbank (or any other bank) buying rate, and if calculated at the Central Bank (CB) rate. Surprisingly, it comes out more expensive in rubles on Ali, cheaper at the CB rate. Among banks, Tinkoff Bank has the minimum commission, but still there's one - a ruble or three difference from the CB dollar rate.

What do I care about your 100 rubles, you ask? Why not consider that all equipment, all aircraft, and other stuff from China could have been paid at the CB rate with the same success? And there the savings are already significant, right? "From the world a thread, for me a shirt" or "don't have 100 rubles, have 100 friends, each will give 2 rubles - I'll have 200" fits here. For me, having spent about 1.5 million rubles on Ali alone (and I don't shop only there... and yes, such a sum is scary), the savings seem significant. But the choice is yours.

So how do you pay at the CB rate? (no, not an ad) Svyaznoy (still) has a theme with the Svyaznoy Plus bank card, formerly Kukuruza (https://plus.svyaznoy.ru/). You can get it for free, or you can buy it for about 350 rubles. But free ones are brought to Svyaznoy branches in small quantities and are grabbed instantly. You have to buy. Maintenance is free, and the money for paying with the card is credited as points to the card, which can be spent within a month to buy accessories from Svyaznoy - cables, card readers, cases, and other small items. So, this card converts any currency different from rubles at the CB rate. At the time of purchase, it reserves 5% of the purchase amount in case the rate changes significantly. Within 5 days of the reservation, funds are debited, if the rate hasn't changed - the 5% returns, if it changed up or down - the difference returns (or not), don't worry! Points are also credited to the card for the purchase for several months, they can also be spent, sometimes paying almost 100% of the purchase at Svyaznoy. Over all this time, I've already received for free or for a pittance about 10 various cables, smartphone screen protectors, card readers, adapters, and more. You should have heard the voice of the operator who called to clarify the order contents and cost when for items worth 4000 rubles I paid only 500 rubles... Overall, convenient.

Also, multi-currency cards are now popular. You buy dollars from the bank in advance, keep them in your account, then pay when needed. Besides buying from the bank, you can buy them on the exchange, in the same Tinkoff Investments (not an advertisement) and withdraw to the card without commission. The price there fluctuates, differing from the CB by +/- a ruble. But it's still more profitable than paying in rubles on Ali 😃 This way, withdrawing to a card with a dollar account, you can pay without conversions.

Besides saving on payment, you can use browser plugins that return cashback on purchases, which can then be spent or withdrawn. I haven't studied the topic in detail since I mostly buy from mobile apps, and cashback is also credited to my bank card.

When do prices drop?

Prices are best from November to March, as both platforms like Ali and sellers give out coupons for holidays. And the holidays during these dates are 11.11, Black Friday, New Year, Christmas, and Chinese New Year. During the rest of the period, there are also coupons, but not as "generous" as in the described period. So you can plan ahead what you'll need in the future, fill your cart, and wait.

Regarding coupons - it's also simple. There are many resources that post coupons and terms of use. Easy to Google - "AliExpress coupons" etc.

What about large purchases?

Also an important point. If there's a way to split a purchase over 200 euros into parts - I recommend doing so, for example, if you're getting kit sets or lots of batteries, etc.

What 200 euros? "To receive a purchase from a foreign online store, a Russian citizen must pay a fee if the purchase value exceeds 200 euros or its weight is more than 31 kg. The fee is 15% of the amount exceeding the value threshold and at least 2 euros per 1 kg of excess weight. This condition has been in effect in Russia since January 1, 2020."

Some sellers, on request, can write a smaller amount on the package. But it doesn't always work. If you bought on AliExpress - it will send a declaration with the price shown in orders to customs. One of the lifehacks is to ask the seller to help avoid the tax; they'll offer to buy the product for a cent, then send your order under its guise.

BUT: this won't work if you ordered to a pickup point (parcel locker/self-pickup) instead of Russian Post delivery. Customs brokers of suppliers delivering to parcel lockers check packages very carefully. In addition to the customs fee, they can also send the package back to the sender or even dispose of it if "this product is not intended for personal use." This often happens if the product name contains "drone/quadcopter," the contents include a micro camera, transmitter module, or similar... So when buying hobby items, I recommend ordering exclusively by post, there's a better chance it will go through, although it will be slower, and in the way described above, it can also save you additional funds.

Be attentive, look for pitfalls, ask the community for tips, help others, and everything will be fine 😃