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There are certain promotions that you expect to just always be around. They’re the evergreen offers that you can always rely on when looking for deals. One of those is the Keep & Switch and Family Freedom promo that T-Mobile offers new customers.
For as long as those promos have been around, customers could take advantage of them by simply adding a new line on their account. Now, hot off the heels of T-Mobile’s worst move in a decade, the company plans to restrict those promos.
Keep & Switch and Family Freedom
Keep & Switch and Family Freedom are very similar promotions. Both of them give you rebates of up to $800 to pay off your installment plan on your previous carrier. In the past, these promos have received temporary boosts in value when the company needed a few more new lines for the quarter.
The difference between the two promos is that Keep & Switch will help you pay off your device and then keep it to use on T-Mobile, while Family Freedom pays the device off and has you trade that device in towards a new device from T-Mobile.
Until now, these promos were available to both new accounts and existing accounts adding new lines. That will change on July 9th.
New Accounts Only
According to a tip sent to us here at The Mobile Report, then confirmed by T-Mobile’s own online support pages, T-Mobile will no longer allow the Keep & Switch and Family Freedom promos to be used on existing accounts.
These promos will therefore be limited to just new accounts and accounts that only have Home Internet or T-Satellite.
It’s questionable whether or not this makes financial sense for T-Mobile. On one hand, T-Mobile can ensure that a customer using the promo is adding a full priced new plan to make the company more money. On the other hand, it’s a bit of a downer for a single line wanting to join a family member’s account, and could sway them to check out other options, like cheaper prepaid plans from a competitor.
Either way, it’s just the latest in customer-unfriendly moves by T-Mobile. The change takes effect on Thursday, July 9th.
