T Bank: A Cautionary Tale of Poor Customer Service

Hello everyone who's made it to my review!

I'm hoping this review will help you avoid the mistakes I made and clear up any doubts you might have about staying with this bank - trust me, it's not worth it.

I'm not a millionaire's wife, but I do have some savings. For a long time, they were just sitting on various bank accounts and deposits, including one at Tinkoff Bank.

I don't want to write about Tinkoff Bank because I didn't invest anything there, and all the money on my account has been there since the days when Oleg Tinkov was in charge.

Since a new owner took over, the bank has been slowly but surely going downhill.

As someone who's not a fan of change, I put up with the changes to their loyalty programs for a while, but it finally got to me over the weekend.

Credit Cards

I've been using my Tinkoff All Airlines card for years, and they'd give me miles for every purchase, which I'd then use to pay for my phone bill, flights, or gas when we'd drive somewhere in Russia.

I made a huge mistake with those miles, though - I should've used them up as soon as I got them, instead of saving them up. That way, maybe I wouldn't have gotten kicked off the program for 'abusing the privilege system'.

But I have to give credit where credit is due - back in the day, I was great at using those miles to fly, fill up my tank, and not abuse the system at all.

I mean, I just couldn't abuse the system because there's a limit on how many miles you can earn, and I'm not exactly the type of person who'd buy five ice creams and a case of beer just because it's free.

So, when they took away my miles for gas (around 80,000 miles, which was equivalent to 53,000 rubles in gas money), I pretty much stopped using their cards and just left my accounts and deposits there.

But now, that's not even an option anymore, and things have only gotten worse (and I thought they couldn't get any worse).

I used my All Airlines card super rarely after that, mostly just to pay my utilities because it's been set up for autopay since forever.

My utilities usually cost around 50,000 rubles a month, sometimes more, sometimes less. Here are a few screenshots of my utility expenses.

And finally, last month:

I used to get 1% miles back for paying my utilities, but since they blocked my loyalty program, it didn't really matter which card I used to pay them with – none of the banks give you anything back for utilities anyway.I'll attach some screenshots, and you can see I'm just using my credit card to pay for utilities, and it's also linked to some deliveries, which I haven't detached yet.

Yesterday, I noticed that I didn't get any miles back for August, despite over 30,000 being deducted for utility payments. I was curious about what happened and, of course, I couldn't spend them anyway, but I was wondering why I wasn't seeing any miles back for utilities, so I reached out to support.

They told me that, sorry, but as of July 16, 2025, there were some changes to the program, which they had notified users about in advance by posting the information on their official website.

Do you regularly check the bank's official website, where your money is held? I don't, to be honest. I mean, I never do.

Considering how many times a month they call me to offer me credit, I was surprised that no one called to warn me about the changes to the loyalty program.

And what's with the date – July 16? Right in the middle of the year, the middle of summer, the middle of the week?

But I do want to say thanks for not sending me a telegram to my registered address or a letter via Russian Post.

Okay, fine, my pride wouldn't let me beg for those mythical points for purchases anyway – it's just not worth it.

So, what do we have so far?

The customer is expected to keep track of changes to the program on the website themselves.

The bank reserves the right to exclude you from their loyalty program based on their own judgment, which they don't have to share with you.

"We received negative information about your account activity. A thorough review confirmed that your account behavior had signs of abusing privileges to get bonuses.

According to section 6.3 of the General Terms and Conditions of the Loyalty Programs, we're forced to exclude you from the bonus programs. Details can be found in our support chat."

The information from the support chat was as follows:

Section 6.3: The bank has the right to not provide the Client with Bonuses as part of the Bank's Loyalty Programs and/or disable the possibility of compensating purchases with Bonuses in the Bank's Loyalty Programs in cases where the Client uses the Credit Card exclusively for the interest-free period for 4 (four) consecutive calendar months.

Translating that into plain English - basically, the bank owes you nothing, especially if you're paying your credit card bills on time. You should also keep an eye on the loyalty program changes and try not to pay your credit card bills on time.

Debit cards

I have a T Bank card - Tinkoff Black. It's been collecting dust with the rest of my junk because the bonuses aren't being added anymore, and I don't even bother with it anymore.

T-Mobil

(Not exactly about the bank, but their product, so I'll mention it briefly)

Today, September 1, 2025, I tried to log in to my T-Mobil account to top up my mobile phone and change the tariff plan for my kid (they have a tariff plan constructor).

I've been unable to log in to my account for several months due to unknown reasons.

A few months ago, I received an SMS about the virtual number becoming paid. (It's interesting that they couldn't send an SMS about the loyalty program changes.)

However, I couldn't disable the paid charges for the virtual number because I couldn't log in to my account. In the end, this virtual number stopped being mine because I couldn't pay for it, I couldn't log in to my account, and I couldn't disable the charges.

I've got to say, the bank is really apologizing to me, understanding my frustration, but they can't do anything about it.

Accounts

I've got a couple of accounts that I'll be closing now, of course.

The Central Bank's interest rate is dropping, and there are better options out there right now.

Deposits

I messed up here, too - I forgot to turn off the automatic renewal on my deposit, so I've got one of those as well. I'll close it as soon as I can withdraw the interest.

I'm not even going to mention the amount of the deposit right now - the screenshot shows the last three months' top-ups. You can probably guess the amount with a few quick calculations.

I'm hoping that my deposits and accounts are actually insured under Federal Law No. 177 "On Insurance of Deposits in Banks of the Russian Federation".

In the event of a bank license revocation

The Agency for Deposit Insurance will pay out 100% of the amount, but not more than 1.4 million rubles per person in one bank.

1.4 million is the maximum amount of insurance payout that applies to all products in one bank (credit cards, deposits, accounts).

I used to have significantly more than 1.4 million at one point, but I'm not making that mistake again.

Loans

The bank is more than happy to give me a consumer loan for around a million, and a mortgage loan for several million - what a blessing! I should totally take advantage of that.

Impressions of the bank

Of course, if it weren't for the bank's past good deeds and their credit cards with free maintenance, I would have switched to a different bank a long time ago.

I won't be using my credit card anymore, except for the free travel insurance. There's no point in paying for it.

But now, of course, I'll be closing all my accounts and deposits, and I'll definitely be changing my mobile operator. A bank that treats customers like this, who have millions on deposit, is just trash!

Conclusion

Unfortunately, T-Bank has become even worse than Sber in terms of conditions. I thought there was no worse bank than Sber, but it turns out there is.

Considering everything I've said so far, I wouldn't recommend using any product from T-bank, because at any moment the bank can just cut you off from getting cashback payments for the simple reason that they don't really want to pay you rubles in exchange for those mythical miles or points.