Once again, our fears have been realized. As we predicted yesterday, T-Mobile has announced price increases for select legacy plans, though the exact details are still scarce.
During a manager call this morning, T-Mobile shared that customers on older plans, from Simple Choice to Magenta to ONE, and likely others, will begin receiving text and email notifications today indicating their plans will be increasing. All affected customers should receive notice by the end of the day today (Thursday).
The price increases are set to take place beginning April 2nd.
Affected plans and costs
A number of legacy consumer plans, as well as likely business plans, are affected. As we speculated could be the case yesterday, it appears T-Mobile is “finishing” the increases from last year. Accounts that were impacted previously will not see an increase this time around, but accounts that managed to go without an increase before will see one this time.
In rare cases, customers hit with certain increases last time may get hit again, but only for lines that were not impacted last time. That specific scenario should be pretty rare, though.
The exception, apparently, is “Price Lock” customers that specifically forbid price increases entirely. The process to determine which version of Price Lock or Un-Contract you may have is vague at best, so the easiest way to see if you’re impacted is to keep an eye out for a text and/or email some time today.
For most customers impacted, it looks like the damage is a $5 increase per line. That means a family of 5 could see an increase of $25 per month to their bill. In some cases, only a $5 per account increase will occur, though we’re not sure exactly who this is targeting.
The most modern plans, which is any Go5G plan variant, won’t be affected. Free lines are also not going to be impacted, either. Those should stay free.
April 1st will also mark the end of a 5 year agreement to not raise prices on legacy Sprint plans, a special agreement some states required as part of the merger, and those plans are also expected to be a part of the increase. The increases are set to hit a day after the agreement ends, which is April 2nd.
T-Mobile’s messaging
As we mentioned yesterday, T-Mobile has greatly increased staffing for support throughout this week and the rest of the month. Overtime has been preapproved through the end of March as well.
Employees are being told very little details, and just like last time frontline and support staff are expected to take the brunt of the abuse when it comes to customer complaints. The vagueness in this entire article is due to the vagueness being used internally, too.
As for public-facing information, T-Mobile already has a webpage up for impacted customers to read. It’s full of excuses and reasons why T-Mobile is still the best, but nothing can hide the fact that a $5 per line price increase is going to hurt. Note that the page linked is specifically for impacted customers, and there are different variants of the page, so do not assume you’re receiving a price increase unless you receive an email or text stating as such.
Options for affected customers
There are a few options for impacted customers.
The first would be to just accept the increase. Depending on other promotions on your account, you may still be paying less than you would with the competition. T-Mobile’s explanation page certainly tries to encourage you to take this option, explaining that it’s the first time in nearly a decade price increases are being implemented.
Another option is to cut back on your services. If the price increases push your account out of your price range, consider removing lines you don’t need, hotspots, or even insurance plans on your devices.
Finally, you can choose to leave. As part of the Price Lock/Un-Contract promise, customers hit by price increases can port out of T-Mobile and have the company pay your last month’s bill. Just let the company know within 60 days of leaving. If you have devices being financed, though, that can prove difficult, especially when you’re receiving promotional credits. Other postpaid carriers like AT&T have options for paying off your existing devices, though.
If you are looking to move on, there are a few good options. We recently covered Helium’s new offerings, including a plan with 3GB of monthly data for a flat $0 per month, and we’ve also covered other prepaid carriers like Mint Mobile, which is owned by and uses the T-Mobile network, and Visible, which uses the Verizon network. It’s also possible these, and other prepaid options, may offer a limited time promotion in response to these price increases, so keep an eye out.
Or you might want to look into the other postpaid options. AT&T’s latest switch and save promotion can not only save you money but also help pay off your existing phones with T-Mobile, up to a whopping $8,000.
It’s always a shame when a company raises prices, especially when there’s little you can do about it. That’s how companies operate, though, and if you’ve been looking for an excuse to try out a competitor, now might be the time.
