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T-Mobile has been caught playing around with 36-month financing before. Even so, it never seemed to stick, and devices soon returned to the standard 24-month financing.
It seems T-Mobile decided to create a big UnCarrier-style moment around it instead, and has now announced “Nothing”, a way for both new and existing customers to pay $0 out-of-pocket up front for a new phone.
So what’s hidden in the fine print? Let’s dive in.
No more 24-month financing (for new customers)
A big detail that seems to have been glossed over in T-Mobile’s announcement is the fact that these new “Experience 2.0” plans (and Essentials 2.0) actually replace the existing Experience plans entirely. This means that 36-month financing will be the only option moving forward.
Apparently, the 1.0 plans are not even sellable by sales reps. 100% of new customers on T-Mobile will be forced to accept 36-month financing on their new plans.
For existing customers that signed up before August 4th, you’ll stay on Experience 1.0 unless you decide to move. If you do decide to stay, you’ll get to keep your typical 24-month financing options but lose out on the option of 36-month financing.
Pricing appears to be the same as 1.0, so if you do plan to move from 1.0 to 2.0, all your discounts and current pricing on the actual plan should remain the same.
Two flavors of 36-month financing
There are two different versions of the new 36-month financing: Standard and Flex.
For Standard, it’s the same 0% APR financing as you’re used to on T-Mobile. You pay the taxes and device connection charge up-front, and the balance of the device is spread out over 36 months.
As for Flex, this is where the promise of $0 up front comes from. Not only is the cost of the device itself spread over 36 months, the taxes and DCC are also included as well. The catch? It’s 0% APR as a temporary promo, but typically there’s an APR that ranges from 0% to as high as 24%, depending on creditworthiness.
That’s quite an overall price increase just to not have to pay the taxes up front.
Enabling fraud?
One good point a T-Mobile rep brought up to me is that this new $0 out-the-door idea might enable more fraud.
A bad actor with access to someone’s account could have purchased devices on EIP in the past, but would have to pay those taxes first. Now, if a bad actor can manage to get access, they can choose the Flex option and pay nothing. That’s a lot more lucrative to a criminal.
Now, of course, most people on T-Mobile should be safe from such activities nowadays with T-Mobile’s relatively decent fraud protection systems. But fraud can never be 100% eliminated, and by making the up-front cost $0, it begins to look a lot more enticing to fraudsters.
Student plans
T-Mobile also used this announcement to show off their new student plans.
We covered these plans when they dropped last week, and they include savings of up to $40 on two Experience Beyond lines.
You can find the full details on our previous coverage here.
Available August 6th
The new 2.0 plans launch August 6th. If you’re an existing customer and want to spread the typical taxes and fees out over the length of your installment, or if you rather have an extra 12 months to pay off your device, you’ll be able to switch over then in the T-Life app.
In my opinion, though, if you have 1.0, you should stick with it. 24 months is already a long time to be “tied” to a carrier, and increasing it another year forces you to stick around longer if T-Mobile decides to do something like raise your prices.
If you’re a prospective new customer, though, and would prefer traditional 24-month financing at 0%, you might want to sign up in the next day or two.
