Why VTB Plus Subscription for Salary Clients is a Total Waste of Money

I've been a VTB bank salary client for a while now, and I've been using their services. One of the perks of being a salary client is getting a welcome interest rate of 23% on my savings account. It was when I was setting up this savings account that they convinced me to sign up for "VTB Plus". Not exactly right away, but to sign up for it later. Let's get into that.

Our colleague from VTB bank came to work to tell us about their products, and there was a great interest rate on a deposit with a welcome rate of 23%. I decided to open a deposit.

At the same time, I opened a savings account. The welcome rate only lasts for 3 months, then it stops, and the interest rate on the account will be 11%. But, if you meet certain conditions, you can increase it. One of the conditions was to sign up for "VTB Plus", and then you'll get an extra 2% added to the interest rate. As a salary client, that's a plus 2%, and then there are the extra 3% for expenses. In total, it was 18% for the savings account, which you can withdraw and top up without any restrictions. That's pretty good, so I agreed.

Why didn't I sign up for it right away? Because the representative warned me that the interest rate on the subscription doesn't get added to the welcome rate, so it's better to wait until the welcome rate expires and then connect "VTB Plus".

I patiently waited for the welcome rate to expire and then signed up for the subscription. How much does it cost to connect "VTB Plus"? It's 349 rubles a month, but I was able to get a 60-day free trial (I think it's because I'm in the "Close friends" group), and I love free stuff.

Signing up took just a couple of seconds – I just had to click a button, and the subscription was set up. What does this get us? Honestly, not much for me, but let's dive in.

You can get up to 10% cashback with Yandex services - that's the main benefit of VTB Plus, and it's the reason I signed up in the first place.

Is there a benefit to VTB plus subscription? I'm not a fan of using Yandex services, to be honest. I just don't have the option, even if I wanted to - that's a major minus for me.

By the way, for those who do use Yandex services, the cashback is a pretty sweet deal - you get real money deposited onto your card, not points that you need to exchange for cash. And the best part is, there's no minimum amount to reach, so whether you spend a little or a lot, you'll get the cashback by the 20th of the following month. The only catch is that the maximum cashback is 3,000 rubles, but that's still a nice bonus.

VTB plus subscription - is it worth it? Let me break it down:

Using the Wildberries wallet is a no-brainer, I got an 8% cashback on my purchases, and even without calculating, it's still more beneficial than not using the wallet;Cashback on gas stations isn't my thing since I don't own a car and don't need to fill up;Cashback on pharmacy purchases is pretty good, but the thing is, I don't buy meds every month, and I'm not exactly sure when I'll get sick, but in theory, this category is the most promising, and I always opt for it when it's available;Cashback in the home and repair category would be awesome, but I don't do repairs as often as I get sick, and it's easier to predict when I'll need to fix something than when I'll get ill, but still, it's not something I'd prioritize if the category isn't available;I mostly buy clothes and shoes on Wildberries, and it's just more convenient for me, which is a big plus, as I mentioned earlier;So, the extra cashback is a no-go, although there's another loophole – I can choose an additional cashback category on weekends, but so far, nothing exciting has popped up.

Wildberries Plus reviewWhat else? Well, now I get free SMS and push notifications, which is nice, I guess.

Wildberries Plus reviewThanks, I guess, thanks for that, at least somewhere! Although... what am I even talking about? As a salary client, I already get free notifications... Oh well!So, Wildberries Plus offers me four points where I could potentially benefit, even if I didn't bother calculating the specifics, and I can see exactly what I'm getting from each point.

VTB Plus Subscription - ReviewWhat's disappointing is that, based on my own calculations, I'm not really getting any benefits. Thanks, I guess, even though I didn't end up paying for the subscription - although VTB does offer to make it free if you keep at least 50,000 rubles on your cards. Yeah, I'm not quite there, since I keep my money on a savings account, which apparently doesn't count.

VTB Plus Subscription - Is There Any Value?At least it's easy to cancel the VTB Plus subscription - just disable auto-renewal and it'll turn off when the paid period ends, or in my case, when the free period ends.

VTB Plus Subscription for Salary ClientsI've already done that, of course.

VTB Plus Subscription - ReviewIt seemed like I'd covered everything, but it turns out there's an addendum! VTB has added a few more perks to the subscription.

VTB Plus Subscription - The PerksNow, on top of everything I mentioned earlier, the VTB Plus subscription also includes:

20% discount on VTB Mobile subscription feesone free international translation per month20% discount on insurance productsaccess to Wink online cinemaI'm not gonna sugarcoat it, but I'll give you the full story. To be honest, I already get a 20% discount on VTB Mobile subscription fees and insurance because I'm part of the 'Close ones' group. It's just that almost everything that's included in the VTB subscription, plus what I actually found interesting, is already available to me as a salary client. What I'm missing is just not something I'd be interested in. It would've been cool if at least some of these features didn't add up, so I'd get some actual benefits. By the way, I read that the subscription used to be 199 rubles, but they raised it to 349 rubles because of the new cinema access feature and so on. I've already cancelled my subscription, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone - it's just a waste of money.