How to open a TBC Bank account/card in Tbilisi and access the mobile app as a foreigner?

In September 2026, when someone asked which branch is most likely to issue a card to a non-resident, a participant replied that his card was opened at the TBC branch at 140G Davit Agmashenebeli Avenue and shared a map link.

In September 2026 a participant wrote that TBC was issuing Visa cards, which can be topped up through the Multitransfer money-transfer service; he had also sent money to an account at Credo Bank.

The simplest way is to open a TBC card at a branch. In July 2026 a traveler went in the evening to the branch near Freedom Square: staff asked for a passport and a local phone number and set up mobile banking in under half an hour. The staff were very polite, and the whole conversation was in English.

The local number needed for the application is free from the operator Cellfie. According to the same traveler in July 2026, registering the eSIM and the Cellfie app also came with 8 GB of mobile data.

Timing according to the branch staff (July 2026): the virtual card activates within 3 days, and the physical card is issued about 2 days after applying. In August 2026 another customer wrote that right after collecting the physical card it did not appear in the app and ATMs returned errors, so the card may not work immediately after it is handed over.

In summer 2026 several people complained that they could not log into the TBC app from abroad or with a foreign number: login SMS codes did not arrive, even though calls and messenger messages reached the same number. A similar question came up about the BOG mobile bank, which also uses SMS codes for login. The traveler who opened a card at a branch gave a local Cellfie number from the start.