T-Mobile launched their “Un-contract” guarantee back in 2015 during their Uncarrier 9.0 event. It was a commitment that a customer’s bill would never go up unexpectedly. That promise, which applied to all customers since then, has now effectively been ended. In its place is a new program called “Price Lock”.
The new guarantee is nearly identical to the old one, with minor changes. Documents shared with us here at The T-Mo Report indicate that accounts activated after April 28th, 2022 are included in this new Price Lock guarantee. Accounts opened on or before the 28th are subject to the previous Uncontract guarantee.
What’s new
Below are two images detailing each program.
The changes are slightly difficult to follow, because T-Mobile has changed and added things to the Uncontract document as well as introduced the new Price Lock document.
There is one major difference, and it’s hard to spot. With the new Price Lock guarantee, customers who add a line to their existing account will be subject to the monthly price of a new line at the time the line is added. Prior to this, adding a line to your account would cost the extra line price for that plan at the time it was activated, regardless of the current line price.
For example, if a customer opens an account on Magenta today, and a few years from now adds a line to that account, if T-Mobile has raised the pricing on the Magenta plan, that customer will pay the new rate to add that line, not today’s rate.
Impacts on existing customers
Unfortunately, it seems the change above is being applied to Uncontract customers as well. Under “Account changes” in the Uncontract document, the first and second bullet points now state the following:
These pricing promises applied to published price on date of activation for each added line, not original price paid when the account was opened.
Additional lines added after 4/27/22 are not covered by the Un-contract promise.
This means that all customers, grandfathered or new, will pay the current price of adding a line moving forward, not the price of adding a line when the account was opened. Existing lines added before the 28th will not be affected, only new lines added after that date.
Other details
There are a few more important things to note about Price Lock.
First, if a customer signs up for a plan with Price Lock and later changes to a plan that does not have Price Lock, they will lose the Price Lock guarantee. For example, if a customer signs up for a Magenta plan today, then changes to a theoretical future plan from T-Mobile that does not include the Price Lock guarantee, the customer will lose that guarantee.
Second, T-Mobile offers a little-known promise to customers in the event of a price increase. If T-Mobile were to raise prices on your existing plan, without you having made any changes, they will pay off your final month of service if you choose to leave T-Mobile within 60 days of the price increase.
This payoff promise is listed in the documents above as applying to the Uncontract guarantee. The new Price Lock document does not specifically mention this benefit, however on the T-Mobile website you can find this benefit listed in the “See full terms” section of the “Savings” tile at the bottom of T-Mobile’s compare plans page, as seen below.
Final thoughts
It’s unclear why T-Mobile decided to re-do this pricing guarantee at all. Since the guarantees are so similar, it would have likely made more sense to just modify the existing Uncontract promise. It’s possible that these changes indicate an upcoming price increase for T-Mobile plans, but as of now that isn’t set to happen.
In addition, changing the new line pricing for grandfathered accounts is likely to be seen as an unpopular move. It’s possible there are missing details or mistakes in these documents since they are not publicly facing, but it’s unlikely. At the moment, most of the popular grandfathered plans, like T-Mobile ONE, have identical pricing to Magenta. If you’re thinking of adding a line soon, you may want to do it before prices go up.
