Why I'm Still Paying for T-Bank Pro Despite Its Decline

Hello everyone!

I've had this subscription for a while now, because back in the day, it was actually pretty sweet. It gave me extra interest on my savings accounts and boosted the cashback amount I could get back. But times change, and now it's not as relevant to me. Still, I haven't cancelled it yet. Today, I want to talk about the T-bank Pro subscription. It's super easy to sign up - just find it in the T-bank app and click the 'connect' button. The cost is 299 rubles a month. If you pay for a whole year upfront, you can save some cash and it'll only cost you 1990 rubles for the year, which breaks down to 166 rubles a month. That's a pretty significant saving - 1598 rubles a year. Mine gets deducted monthly, since I'm not sure if I'll cancel it anytime soon.

T-Bank Pro Subscription Now that I've got the basics covered, let's dive into the nitty-gritty of what you get with this subscription. I'll break it down point by point, because, let's be real, it's written in a pretty sweet way. T-Bank Pro Subscription If you're wondering who this subscription is for and who it's suitable for, you can check that out on the website. Okay, so now I'll run through each point and give you the lowdown on each.
When you sign up for the pro subscription, your cashback limit increases. For me, this was especially relevant back in the day, because I used my T-bank card for most of my purchases. Then I opened up some other cards and started using my Raiffeisenbank card on a regular basis, and my T-bank card took a backseat – I only used it for purchases that qualified for higher cashback rates. Cashback increases from 3,000 rubles to 5,000 rubles. You also get to choose from more categories – you can pick 4 out of 8, whereas without the subscription, you're limited to 3 out of 7. To be honest, I've been using my other card for ages now, because it doesn't require me to choose categories, and it gives me 1.5% cashback on everything, plus 3% on certain categories with the subscription. T-bank used to offer 1% cashback on all purchases if you didn't choose any categories – that was a no-brainer, but now they've added it as a separate category, so you get 4 categories out of 8.
You can transfer money from your card without incurring any fees up to 50,000 rubles. This used to be a big deal for me before contactless payments became a thing, but now it's not as relevant, because I mostly use contactless payments to transfer money to my other cards. This point is pretty much obsolete for me.

T-Bank Pro Subscription Also, the interest rate on my savings account is bumped up to 15%, instead of the usual 14%. To be honest, this isn't a huge deal for me, since Sberbank is now offering 16% interest on their savings accounts without any extra conditions. And other banks are offering welcome interest rates ranging from 19% to 20% for a few months. So, I don't keep my money in T-bank because I prefer savings accounts that allow me to withdraw and deposit funds, and the interest rate here is lower than what other banks are offering. The interest rate on my deposits is 21%, but that's not a big deal either, since interest rates are all over the place in the banking world. And I can find a similar interest rate at other banks without having to sign up for a subscription. Plus, some banks are offering welcome interest rates on their savings accounts that are way more appealing to me.
I'm getting a higher cashback rate on movie, theater, and concert tickets. Instead of 3%, I'm getting 15%. To be honest, I only bought tickets once, so this isn't a huge deal for me.
I'm getting a higher cashback rate on my T-Insurance policies, 5%. I've never actually used this feature.

T-Bank Pro Subscription I'm getting a higher cashback rate on travel, 10% on hotels and up to 7% on flights. I'm not really sure what kind of flights this applies to, since I recently booked a flight and only got 2% cashback. But without the Pro subscription, I would have only gotten 1%. So, I'm not really sure what kind of flights qualify for the 7% cashback. Unfortunately, the flights we booked didn't qualify, so this sounds nice on paper but isn't really a big deal in practice. And to make matters worse, the cashback didn't even show up for a while. I'm getting a 30% discount on my phone plan from T-bank. I've been with MTS for ages and never really considered switching, so I'm not really sure what other options are out there. But I do know that this could be way more cost-effective than what I'm getting with MTS right now. The thing is, I'm not really sure if the coverage would be good everywhere, so I haven't actually tried switching yet.

The voice assistant features and all that automation stuff just aren't that important to me, so I'm not even going to bother going into detail about it.

If you're a freelancer, you'll get access to top-ups or withdrawals of up to 100,000 more on your card. This is definitely a perk for freelancers.

The free SMS notifications, which aren't really a big deal anymore, since I've got online banking and can track everything in real-time without any SMS messages.

TB-Bank Pro SubscriptionTB-Bank Stocks. Personally, these stocks aren't really my thing. I've got some gift stocks from TB-Bank that I don't even use, so it's not relevant to me.
The baggage insurance is an interesting service, but it only covers up to $1,000, which is still better than nothing. I'm glad I haven't had to use it yet, because losing your luggage is the last thing you want to happen.
The 180-day interest-free period for transferring balances from credit cards, not just 120 days, only applies to closing credit cards in other banks. For regular transfers from credit cards to your account, the interest-free period remains the same.
TB-Bank Pro SubscriptionAnd of course, there's the list of partners that offer you free services for a certain period:Ivy - 30 days free. Not really relevant to me, since I've got a free Okko subscription from Sberbank with Sberbank Prime Plus.My Book - 14 days free. It's a great app, I used to read on my iPad through it all the time.Kaspersky - 30 days free.

TB Bank Pro SubscriptionWhen I first got my TB Bank Pro subscription, the services that really stood out to me were the increased cashback and the ability to choose from a wider range of categories, plus higher interest rates on my savings account. But things have changed a lot since then, and right now, the one service that's really important to me is the fee-free transfer of up to 100,000 rubles from my TB Bank credit card. If you don't have a TB Bank Pro subscription, you can only transfer 50,000 rubles, and there's no commission. With the subscription, you get to transfer 100,000 rubles, and there's still no commission, plus you get a grace period for credit repayment that applies to transfers too. If you manage to pay off the money during the grace period, you won't be charged any interest. It's not every day you find a bank that offers a grace period on cash transfers, so for me, that's a major perk, and that's why I'm not canceling my subscription yet. To be honest, all the other benefits have become pretty irrelevant now that I've got other cards with better cashback conditions and higher interest rates on my savings account. The 299 ruble monthly fee is still deducted from my credit card, though. TB Bank Pro Subscription In reality, the TB Bank Pro subscription has become pretty uninteresting to me, and the only reason I'm still keeping it is so I can transfer 100,000 rubles from my credit card without any commission. All the other perks have become pretty uncompetitive compared to other banks. I'll probably cancel it as soon as I stop using my credit card. I wrote about other subscriptions here and here.

Sberprime Plus from Sberbank.Raiffeisenbank Subscription.Thanks for reading, it's been Lena.

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