T-Mobile Will Pay Early-Termination Fees For Families

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T-Mobile just announced that it will pay the early-termination fees for people on existing family plans with other carriers if they switch to T-Mobile. :eek:

The bold move is the next phase of T-Mobile's so-called "UnCarrier" strategy. The company says it will pay early-termination fees for family plan members when they trade in their devices with T-Mobile and sign up for T-Mobile wireless service. T-Mobile said the total value of the trade-in offer to switch carriers could be as high as $650 per line.
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Now if only they had 4G service where I'm looking at moving to, I'd make the switch off Verizon (who doesn't even have 3G service)
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
You just know that there will be a lot of fine print with this offer.
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Yea, I got excited at first, and then realized "what's the catch?" Does that cover any phone-related costs, since you're trading in another network's phone? I thought the networks charged you if you "cashed in" on a phone prior to your contract being up, but I could be wrong.
 
jflail2 said:
Yea, I got excited at first, and then realized "what's the catch?" Does that cover any phone-related costs, since you're trading in another network's phone? I thought the networks charged you if you "cashed in" on a phone prior to your contract being up, but I could be wrong.
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rtfa

T-Mobile will give $300 to offset the termination fees. They will also give up to $350 depending on the smartphone you hand in. Then you have to get another phone to use with T-Mobile.

The incentives are pretty solid if you're looking to switch. However you'd be paying a few hundred out of pocket if you want one of the top smartphones.

My question is: will you have to hand in the phone that you were using or will any smartphone do? To elaborate, what if I already have a high-end smartphone from AT&T and I don't want to trade it in for $350 when it's worth significantly more. Can I give T-Mobile some junk smartphone I find on Craigslist?
 
U.S. Cellular did this in my area a while back. They put a stop to it real quick after people started finding out about it. It's good for some quick publicity (clearly another shot at AT&T) but unsustainable long-term.

In short, if you were thinking about switching, do it now cause it (probably) won't last long.
 
w4ffles said:
rtfa

T-Mobile will give $300 to offset the termination fees. They will also give up to $350 depending on the smartphone you hand in. Then you have to get another phone to use with T-Mobile.

The incentives are pretty solid if you're looking to switch. However you'd be paying a few hundred out of pocket if you want one of the top smartphones.

My question is: will you have to hand in the phone that you were using or will any smartphone do? To elaborate, what if I already have a high-end smartphone from AT&T and I don't want to trade it in for $350 when it's worth significantly more. Can I give T-Mobile some junk smartphone I find on Craigslist?
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I dont see why not....
 
AT&T was offering money to get T-Mobile customers to switch, and now T-Mobile is doing the same. Why was anyone in favor of allowing them to merge when this is the very reason why we didn't want them too? Capitalism at it's best.
 
U-238 said:
U.S. Cellular did this in my area a while back. They put a stop to it real quick after people started finding out about it. It's good for some quick publicity (clearly another shot at AT&T) but unsustainable long-term.

In short, if you were thinking about switching, do it now cause it (probably) won't last long.
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You don't understand how business works.

TMobile is losing a small amount in the short term by paying you the ETF, but in the long run they make money off of you, much more. It will take them 4-5 months to break even, not to mention the fact that they are giving you a lower trade in value for the phone you bring in (all companies that take trades do this), so in terms they are able to sell the prone or refurbish it and make money on it, allowing a much shorter break-even period.

The benefit to you as a consumer is a lower rate plan, 35MB down and 15MB up network speeds in pretty much all major cities, so on and so forth.
 
Also in reply to U-238, its not a short term promotion, but part of an uncarrier phase which is here to stay. Go look at all the news releases.
 
I might just do it. I have Sprint and Tmobile can't possibly be worse. While paying for a new high end phone, they are about the same price. Don't know anyone with Tmobile but as I said, It would be hard to believe that they would be worse.
 
I don't think americans understand how cheap it is to run a mobile network.

T-Mobiles prices are still ridiculously expensive.
 
pgwalsh said:
Thanks for posting this Steve. T-Mobile has much better service in my area than my current carrier and I was itching to leave.
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I have been itching to get away from my Verizon family plan which has sky high rates, but sadly T-Mobile isn't an option. I live in Cincinnati(a major city) and yet my friend with T-maybe was barely able to get a signal from my house in the middle of the city. Another friend of mine switched back to Verizon a while back after he kept getting dropped calls.

Verizon is great, but man it gets expensive.
 
McFry said:
Indeed. Tmo is good for city dwellers, but if you travel between states, or even 100miles really prepare for some data drops.
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I just switched from verizon to tmobile due to poor service near my job. I can max iut dl speeds and get great service now but coverage in parts of nj and upstate ny are spotty. I had no reliable service while on vacation unless i was near a wifi hotspot to use wifi calling. At wleast thats an option.

Im sticking with tmobile for now.
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
You just know that there will be a lot of fine print with this offer.
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^^^this^^^..........

You had better read ALL of it before moving...lots of little "gotchas" buried in there :)

Plus, Tmo STILL has crappy/non-existant coverage in *A L O T* of areas, even around big cities......you really have to zoom in on their maps to see whats what too...
 
It's a shame that Tmobile has such a crappy service in my area. Even though I've had a lot of issues with them in the past, it's nice to see them ruffling the feathers of AT&T and Verizon. Current smartphone plans are a huge waste of money.

I'm really loving straight talk lately. 2.5GB/mo of AT&T LTE mobile data for 45.00 is hard to beat. Their reliability has been rock solid lately as well.
 
My wife & I will be switching over due to this offer in February. Good bye Verizon Wireless! :D
 
yeah, if T-Mobiles service were even halfway decent in anything but a few local markets, I might take them up on this, but as it stands, VZW is the only acceptable alternative based on my travels.

While the other guys have their strong spots where they work well, VZW is the only network where I can get reasonable service everywhere I go, and that makes it very difficult to choose any other carrier.
 
I will probably switch from Sprint when the new HTC One comes out. I could probably write a novel at this point, but I've been paying too much money for too long for garbage reception ( even just calls ) and nonexistent 4G.
 
w4ffles said:
rtfa

T-Mobile will give $300 to offset the termination fees. They will also give up to $350 depending on the smartphone you hand in. Then you have to get another phone to use with T-Mobile.

The incentives are pretty solid if you're looking to switch. However you'd be paying a few hundred out of pocket if you want one of the top smartphones.
Click to expand...

But with Tmobile the front for a no contract phone doesn't have to be paid immediately. It can be broken down into smaller payments over a period of 2 years.

Unlike past contract plans when you do the math an off contract phone paid for this way costs less than the subsidized phones because you can choose cheaper plans than the ones bundled into subsidized phones.
 
I like. I don't think I'd save much moving from unlim. Verizon @ $84/month, but it's still cool.
 
I Would save about 85 a month with more data (6gb on VZN now) for my family plan. This is pretty damn tempting.. I was using a T-Mobile MVNO before switching to Verizon & it was pretty good in town, but outside of town the service sucks.. Im just going to have to decide whether the 85 bucks a month is worth the loss in service while outside of town..

On the plus side all of the best phones end up on Tmo so that would be a big bonus for anyone who wants to use an unlocked phone or that wants to change phones often.
 
I just went to the T-mobile store near me and got the lowdown from them. According to this store, you MUST trade in your current smart phone, and you MUST buy a new phone from T-mobile. No bringing your own unlocked/T-mobile phone. Negates a lot of the savings for me.....
 
They need a catch to keep you there so that is why they are making you buy a phone from them. With that kind of investment, they doubt you'd leave soon.
 
257Tony said:
I just went to the T-mobile store near me and got the lowdown from them. According to this store, you MUST trade in your current smart phone, and you MUST buy a new phone from T-mobile. No bringing your own unlocked/T-mobile phone. Negates a lot of the savings for me.....
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If it sounds too good to be true......
 
ravx25 said:
If it sounds too good to be true......
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To be fair to Tmobile, they put those terms up right away when they announced this.

Tmobile does give you trade in value at least. For my Galaxy S4 they would pay me $212 out the door, on top of paying off my ETF, so it wasnt terrible.
 
Cali3350 said:
To be fair to Tmobile, they put those terms up right away when they announced this.

Tmobile does give you trade in value at least. For my Galaxy S4 they would pay me $212 out the door, on top of paying off my ETF, so it wasnt terrible.
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You could get more money selling that S4 on CL.
 
It sucks that the fine print is you have to Pony Up the money to ATT up front, and then wait up to 8 weeks to get a mastercard/visa/etc with your switch money on it.
I was hoping they would do an account credit, me and the wife are still chewing on it.
How was the experience for anyone here who has switched yet?
 
SSimmons05 said:
It sucks that the fine print is you have to Pony Up the money to ATT up front, and then wait up to 8 weeks to get a mastercard/visa/etc with your switch money on it.
I was hoping they would do an account credit, me and the wife are still chewing on it.
How was the experience for anyone here who has switched yet?
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I plan to switch tomorrow at lunch. Currently trying to decide if I want a iPhone 5s or Nexus 5. Ill let you know how the process goes.
 
jflail2 said:
Yea, I got excited at first, and then realized "what's the catch?" Does that cover any phone-related costs, since you're trading in another network's phone? I thought the networks charged you if you "cashed in" on a phone prior to your contract being up, but I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

My guess is they have no way of knowing what phone you had activated and ATT or the other carrier is not going to be any one bit happy to share that information with them. lol
 
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