T-Mobile's new Simple Choice plans cut my monthly 5-line plan by $80
Summary: T-Mobile must be making other carriers nervous as it shines the light on the subsidized phone pricing racket currently in place and moves to a model that offers fairness and high value to consumers.
I have been a T-Mobile customer for over 10 years, and stick with it because I get great coverage where I live, work, and play. With its new Un-Carrier plans, I just called up and saved $80 per month over my old grandfathered MyFaves plan and got more features.
I held onto my old 3,000-minute grandfathered plan because I liked the idea of 5GB of high-speed data and didn't really find much need for unlimited minutes. However, after reviewing my data usage over the last year, I found I hit maximum months of 3GB to 3.5GB of data usage while my wife and daughter (I had three lines with data) hit 100MB to 400MB.
I was paying $200, plus taxes, for these five lines with 3,000 voice minutes, unlimited text, 5GB of data on one line, and 2GB of data on two lines.
With the new T-Mobile plans, I will be paying $120, plus taxes, for unlimited voice minutes, unlimited text messaging, 500MB of 4G data on four lines, and 4GB of 4G data on my line. Each line also supports mobile hotspot functionality. The data is advertised as unlimited because if you exceed these limits, you do still get extremely slow 2G data. I can always add 2GB to a line for another $10 if it gets to be an issue and still be way ahead in savings.
It is refreshing to have a family plan with so much provided at such a low cost, and I hope T-Mobile sees a resurgence in customers. I've been extremely happy with the company for years, and dropping my monthly fees this much just makes me want to stay at least another 10 years.
I imagine I will be buying a new phone or two on T-Mobile soon as well, and love that T-Mobile doesn't continue to steal your money after the phone is paid off like the other carriers do. T-Mobile may just open the eyes of the consumer and finally shed some light on the fact that subsidized phones are not a good deal for buyers.
When you buy a new phone on T-Mobile, you will be paying full price, but the upfront cost is lower than most all subsidized phones and you pay a monthly fee for 24 months to pay for the phone. Other carriers still charge you a monthly fee, on top of the subsidized upfront cost, and then continue charging you the monthly fee after the full price of the phone is covered. Will people finally wake up with T-Mobile's spotlight on pricing?
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Talkback
Yes, their plans are great
yeah, sounds like the phone needed to be reset.
I think this is also why companies embraced the Visual Voicemail app on the iPhone because it solved a problem other customers never had. As long as I could remember, voicemail was always included on Sprint and TMobile. It wasn't an add-on feature that had an add-on fee.
I had a similar problem with a pager years ago. If the pager was off, it didn't get messages, and had to be reset by a professional when it was overloaded with messages.
I'm still a fan of the internet plan
Are you sure it's 24 months?
Their previous plans financed the phone over 20 months. Did that change with these new plans?
Saved $90/mo
I'm not overly concerned with the phone subsidies or payment stretching over 2 years. I intend to use my Google Nexus 4 FOREVER! :)
Yeah but
I will reserve judgment until I see it in action in areas that the old T Mobile never worked.
I would love
Expensive phones...
Big price drop for me too