(EXPIRED) Switch From Verizon To T-Mobile & Get Up To $650 Per Line While Keeping Phone

T-Mobile has launched a promotion called Get Out Of The Red that’s offering Verizon Wireless customers up to $650 per line when switching to them. While up to $650 per line is a fairly common incentive that phone carriers provide, this specific offer seems to be better than normal. That’s because you not only get to keep your device, but you also receive the payment as one lump sum after 15 days of T-Mobile service rather than via monthly statement credits on your cell phone bill.

The Deal

• Switch from Verizon to T-Mobile with an eligible device and T-Mobile will pay off what you owe them, up to $650 per line.
• Direct link to offer.

Key Terms

• Device must be one of the following:
  • iPhone SE, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, X, XR, XS, and XS Max.
  • Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 3, and Pixel 3 XL.
  • Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+, Note8, S9, S9+, and Note9.
• Must remain an active T-Mobile customer for at least 15 days.
• Reimbursement up to $650 per line for up to 5 lines via a virtual prepaid Mastercard.
• Only Verizon device payment plans will be reimbursed. Third-party device payment plans (such as Apple or Google Play Store) aren’t eligible.
• This offer is for customers switching from Verizon who have never participated in Carrier Freedom program in the past.
• It needs to pass the device protection visual inspection if you choose to add the $15/month Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) feature.
• The device payment agreement you have with Verizon must be at least 90 days old.
• You’ll need to port in your phone number to T-Mobile.
• If you’re on a Magenta plan, you need to add the $15/month PlusUp feature, or the $50/month Global Plus feature, or be on a Magenta Plus family plan.
• If you’re on a T-Mobile ONE plan, you’ll need to add the $15/month T-Mobile ONE Plus feature, or the $50/month Global Plus feature, or be on a T-Mobile ONE with ONE Plus Family plan when you activate your account.
• If you choose T-Mobile Essentials, you’ll need to add the $10/month 4G LTE mobile Hotspot to your device’s line when you activate your account.
• If you are an existing Simple Choice customer adding a line, you don’t need to add on any features.

Quick Thoughts

Phone carriers offering up to $650 per line for switching is something you’ll hear pretty frequently on their ads. Those deals come with a lot of requirements (as does this), but this deal appears to be better than those for a few reasons.

First, the (up to) $650 per line only requires that you maintain service for 15 days. Other phone carriers seem to require 30 days of service or more, so this cuts that requirement in half.

Second, payment comes as one lump sum, rather than as statement credits reducing your monthly bill. Maxing out this deal means you’d get back $3,250; that would be a large expense if you were having to pay your former carrier that amount upfront and subsequently only receiving that money back over the course of 12-36 months like other carriers offer.

Third – and potentially more importantly – you get to keep your device. All the past switching incentives I’ve seen have required that you trade in your phone and buy a new one. While that can be a good deal if you’re after a new phone, it can be an expensive proposition if you’re content with your existing phone, especially if you only got it recently.

Up until last November’s amazing Google Fi deal, I’d been a T-Mobile customer for several years and had been extremely happy with the service. Our plan was reasonably priced, T-Mobile Tuesdays often had good deals and coverage was much better than expected. We spent January to November visiting South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Ohio, Vermont, Canada, Wisconsin, Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas before moving over to Fi. There were very few instances around the country where we were without T-Mobile coverage, with data speeds also being good.

The T-Mobile feature I miss most of all is Binge On. This offers free video and music streaming that doesn’t count towards your data allowance. Our plan didn’t include unlimited data but with Spotify, Netflix, YouTube, etc. not counting towards our data allowance, we nearly always stayed within our 3 GB per line data limit before they started throttling the speed. Our data usage on Fi has been much higher than that, which has meant Fi service is costing more than expected. We’ve managed to find a few workarounds, like downloading Spotify playlists to use offline on an old cell phone for while we’re driving, but it’s not the same as being able to listen to music or watch videos without having any concern for data usage. We’ve therefore been discussing recently about switching back to T-Mobile as it should end up being cheaper once my Fi referral credits have been used up.

A reader called Greg gave us the heads up about this deal. He shared that he’s taken advantage of the offer and was paid close to the maximum allowable under the offer, so it doesn’t seem like there are additional hoops to jump through.

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