In an unfortunate development from the uncarrier, T-Mobile will no longer give the autopay discount to those whose linked autopay payment method is a credit card beginning in May 2023. You’ll need to link a bank account or debit card to qualify for the Autopay discount moving forward.
This is disappointing news because many plans come with an autopay discount of $5 per line for using AutoPay. In my case, I have 9 lines on my T-Mobile plan, though only 4 of my lines are paid lines, so I believe that my AutoPay discount is only $20 per month if I remember correctly — although I also get Home Internet for $30 per month with AutoPay thanks to being on Magenta Max. The short story is that those AutoPay discounts add up over the course of a year or years.
However, I prefer paying my cell phone bill with a card that offers cell phone insurance. I have unfortunately had to make claims for purchase protection and cell phone insurance a few times. If I pay my bill with a bank account or debit card, I would forgo the best credit card protections. I also have a couple of Business Platinum cards in my household and I certainly want to take advantage of the monthly $10 statement credit for wireless service.
Doctor of Credit wonders aloud whether manual pre-payments will still work if you have a bank account or debit card linked for your AutoPay discount. I wouldn’t be surprised if that works. I certainly hope it does :-).
If that won’t work for the AutoPay discount, I guess I’ll need to be on the hunt for the debit card with the best cell phone insurance protections. T-Mobile, if you’re listening, this seems like a great opportunity for the T-Mobile Money debit card . . . .
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Aspiration debit card has cell phone insurance
This is such a stupid move by T-Mobile. Millions of customers who have been blindly paying their bills via autopay will now be forced to look at their bill, and some will inevitably ask whether maybe they should just switch carriers, whether for this or any other reason (e.g. T-Mobile’s recent data breach). That’s exactly what I’m doing: switching to Google Fi. Same network, same free international roaming (and with faster speeds).
I can’t imagine that the money they’ll save on credit card processing fees will make up for the customers they’ll lose because of this.
Another alternative: US Mobile (T-Mobile or Verizon – your preference) offers premium unlimited plans with free international roaming for $45/month + taxes/fees for one line, with lower rates for each additional line (e.g. $30/line for 4 lines).
I don’t have t-mobile, but our electric company just did a similar thing by no longer allowing credit card payments. Are the fees going up by that much? or does this have to do with the bill that is in Congress? Wondering what is next? Bummer to loose all those UR points.
I may try to pay ahead and get the points.
You still have to worry about the data breach, credit card has the protection, debit card or banks don’t
After reading T-Mobile FAQs and looking at the payment page. You can make a partial payment with your credit card and leave the balance for auto-pay. Do you have to pay your complete cell phone with the credit card to keep the protection? I didn’t see anywhere about how much of the bill needs to be paid with debit card to trigger the discount.
My guess for the change is T-Mobile doesn’t want to pay credit card processing fees.
Considering their multiple security breaches recently, it is not wise to disclose even more information to them. Once money gets extracted from a bank account it’s very very difficult to ever get it back. With their lax approach to security as clearly demonstrated by repeated leaking of customer information (including SS#s, DOB, etc), I’d stay away from giving any bank account. Of course I could just open a dedicated account for them and move only a small amount in monthly, but that seems like a lot of work to avoid their price increase. I may just leave them and have them remove all of my data. Really am concerned about the continuous data breaches they keep having over and over.
Nick as for the amount of lines, read your bill. I have one free line for a total of three and they state on the bill that I get $15 of autopay discounts. So in your case you’ll be hit with $45 in additional charges. Just download the detailed bill and it should show you.
So just set it up with bank account but pay with a credit card before the due date. Duh
Still didn’t solve the problem of data breach thru t-mobile and then the info gets no protection unless it’s credit card
No reason not to leave for google fi now. Will end up being cheaper for my 2 lines (Tmobile was $80 for 2 lines, now $90), and google fi is $80 for 2 lines. Plus its far better for travel, I can upgrade to their unlimited plus plan instantly for a full month for $30 total for both lines, then downgrade when I return from my trip. Cheaper than getting international sim cards/service, and far more convenient.
FWIW, I believe Verizon (which has had a similar policy for a long time) removes the autopay discount if you make a manual credit card payment online, so I’m not optimistic this strategy will last long. Then again, it’s T-Mobile, so who knows.
You continue to get the discount if you pay in the store via kiosk before the autopay runs.
You are talking about Verizon – that if you pay at a kiosk with a credit card before the autopay date, you still get the autopay discount?
Yes
Thanks – do you know if the trick works for fios too?
Which card has mobile phone insurance??
So many, most cards having the master card world or elite network, or VISA infinite network (that is Chase Freedom Flex, lots of the Wells Fargo card that Carries the MC world logo, Chase Sapphire Reserve, US Bank Altitude Reserve, Capital One Venture X, those that Carry the VISA infinite logo).
I HAVE BEEN TOLD IT IS GRANDFATHERED (autopay discount)
Source?
As far as I know, all indication is this applies to everyone with the autopay discount.
It is true, though, that many older T-Mobile plans (including Simple Choice) don’t have the autopay discount, and for those customers this might not have any impact. A very strong reason to think carefully about moving off a grandfathered plan.
Thanks for this. I have a simple choice plan and pay $170 for 4 lines and didnt think I had an AutoPay discount.,
Will this be true for business accounts as well?
Not exactly a price increase but an increase in cost so they will continue to claim price is locked in for life. Wonder what they will increase next?
Lawsuit?
I don’t think so. Technically they did not change their rate. They discontinued a discount of the actual rate.
Not a great post. I thought you’d have some sort of resolution or action to take. You just state the question.
Sorry about that. My crystal ball is on the fritz again, so I have no ability to fast forward to May and say what works and what doesn’t. The purpose of this post was to alert readers who are T-Mobile customers to the change so they are aware since I know that T-Mobile is somewhat popular since it provides free international coverage for those on T-Mobile Max.
Nick: Don’t you have a backup? What does your 8-ball say?
*shake shake shake*
….”Reply hazy, try again.”…