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 ·Google Voice
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 ·AT&T U-Verse
| [T-Mobile] PAYG and PBTD prepaid plans for backup purposes I'm very unclear with T-Mobile USA prepaid offerings.
With »prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/pay-···ne-plans, you only pay on the days you use the service, right? How do you top-up, and how long is the top-up good for? What if I only need to use 10 days a year, can I pay 10$/year on such an account? I recall that with AT&T PBTD with unlimited SMS, they only charge you for the day once you send an SMS, receiving SMS don't get you charged; is T-Mo same or different?
With »prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/pay-···go-plans, when you top-up 10$, you don't actually get any minutes, right? Why do they claim you get XX minutes? You just get the funds, and they expire after 90 days in case of 10$, right? (Then you can presumably use the funds for either the minutes or the SMS.) Can you top up several 10$ in a row, and get a 90 × the-number-of-top-ups days of service? Do the funds always rollover, as long as you don't let the number of days expire?
Can several of such PAYG and PBTD accounts be managed under the same web account, and topped up from the web-interface? |
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redholm
join:2004-10-31
Sunnyvale, CA Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
·T-Mobile US
| All carrier website are bad and they are unfortunately getting worse.
T-mobile you top-up the same ways for all account, the difference is what happens with the funds.
Pay by the day, funds do not expire, phone works as long as you have funds in your account (to start a day). I think you pay for incoming text, e.g. count as a day.
Pay as you go, funds do expire, funds to minute conversion rate depending on your status (at time of top up) and top up amount. Multiple top up do not get you multiple 90 days. Funds do roll over if you top up before expire date.
You want to hit GOLD reward status if you use pay as you go. Once you have this status you can top up $10 and be good for a year. You never lose GOLD reward status as long as account is active.
Start with $100 and top up $10 every six month. That gives you an ongoing cost per year of $20 with never expiring minutes. |
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Reviews:
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·Callcentric
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| said by redholm:Pay by the day, funds do not expire, phone works as long as you have funds in your account (to start a day). I think you pay for incoming text, e.g. count as a day. Are you sure that's the case? That would be an uber-cheap back up solution, if that were true! But I highly doubt that it is true: they certainly don't want people hoarding resources and paying absolutely nothing for so long. There are certainly at least some kind of rules for fund expiration and account suspension.
In the store, they said that a 10-dollar credit with PBTD still expires after 90 days. But, of course, their marketing department doesn't think that providing any kind of information about the actual terms is at all important.
(FWIIW, I know for a fact that AT&T PBTD funds do expire after 90 days for a 25$ topup, but at least it's clearly documented as such.)
said by redholm:You want to hit GOLD reward status if you use pay as you go. Once you have this status you can top up $10 and be good for a year. You never lose GOLD reward status as long as account is active.
Start with $100 and top up $10 every six month. That gives you an ongoing cost per year of $20 with never expiring minutes.
Wait-wait-wait, this would be very strange, too. Are you sure that when you top up 10$ onto a Gold account, that your renewal date moves 12 months from the date of the 10$ topup? This would be great and awesome, however, I think a more likely implementation is that your date simply changes to the longest of the original date or the 90 days from the date of the topup. And this "max(leftover days, 90 days)" formula was actually verbally given to me at a tmo store.
If what you say is true, two years would cost 110$, or 120$ with early renewal, a pretty good deal -- 5$/mo, with no renewal worries several times a year. Whereas with 10$/90day, it'd cost 81,11$ or 90$ [as in, 10$ * ((365days * 2) / 90 days)], but give you lots of renewal headaches. I'd definitely sign up with Gold, but I think without a definitive answer, you just risk loosing 50$ in the first year.
Can someone confirm how 10$ topups actually work with a Gold account?
So, the question is far from being resolved. I think T-Mo's fine print is the most uninformative fine print I've ever seen.
UPDATE: Actually, it seems you're right!
»prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/pay-···ans-faqs
quote:
If you applied a $100 refill or have already reached Gold Rewards status, service is available for one year from the date you last applied a refill.
I don't understand why it's a FAQ, though. It should be in the fine print. I've spent an hour with several associates in a tmo store yesterday, and noone told me that I could get gold and save over 3 years. They simply tried telling me that I'd be getting more minutes, after I've explicitly told them that I want to maximise the time before account suspension, instead of the airtime minutes!
So, do you also get Gold through 10 10$ topups? Seems like that might even be cheaper, although may have a bit more headache, since I was told in the store that you can't automatically topup every 3 months, only 1 month or less options are supposedly available. Anyone knows if there is a reliable way to automatically topup a week or so before the day-based suspension? |
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redholm
join:2004-10-31
Sunnyvale, CA Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
·T-Mobile US
| reply to ConstantineM
I did not use the pay by the day plan so I am not 100% sure. I went with the pay as you go, not using it any more.
You can use 10* $10 top ups to reach gold reward, but you do not want to. The 10*$10 top ups give you 10*30=300 min for your $100. A 1* $100 top up give you 1000 min.
1) Start with $100 to get gold reward
2) Top up minimum and check usage patter until account is close to zero minutes
I topped up every six month so a hiccup in top up would not deactivate account
Not 100% sure if you what happens if you only do it once a year on the same day, too afraid you will lose rollover.
3) Pick top up amount so you get maximum minutes for current usage.
Still do twice a year, you do not want to lose your gold reward. First the expected usage for the year second top up minimum just to be safe. |
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Reviews:
·Google Voice
·Junction Networks
·Callcentric
·T-Mobile US
·AT&T U-Verse
| said by redholm:You can use 10* $10 top ups to reach gold reward, but you do not want to. The 10*$10 top ups give you 10*30=300 min for your $100. A 1* $100 top up give you 1000 min.
That only matters if you're actually using the account, or using the voice minutes (as opposed to SMS). If there would have been a reliable way to top up 4 or so days prior to expiration, then 10 topups every 90 days or so would potentially be cheaper, although, granted, the difference would be rather negligible anyways (365 * 2 / 90 is 8.1, e.g. 100$ would give you more than two years of service with 10$ topups), especially considering the extra headaches.
But the Gold status that makes every topup extend the lifetime of the account by 1 year, seems legit and very useful for a backup account indeed. You don't have to keep any balance itself to keep the gold status, correct? Just have to make sure you always topup before the year since the prior topup expires? |
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Reviews:
·Google Voice
·Junction Networks
·Callcentric
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| reply to ConstantineM
Re: [T-Mobile] PBTD prepaid plans for backup purposes said by ConstantineM:With »prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/pay-···ne-plans, you only pay on the days you use the service, right? How do you top-up, and how long is the top-up good for? What if I only need to use 10 days a year, can I pay 10$/year on such an account? I recall that with AT&T PBTD with unlimited SMS, they only charge you for the day once you send an SMS, receiving SMS don't get you charged; is T-Mo same or different? So, it seems like if you click on the COMPARISON CHART graphics, you finally get some relevant fine print for Pay by the Day.
quote:
Limited time offer; subject to change. Taxes and fees additional. Not all plans or features available on all devices. Prepaid - Pay By The Day: Features available for 30 days; if sufficient account balance, plans automatically renew at the end of 30 days. If balance is insufficient to renew for 60 days, account will be converted to Prepaid - Pay As You Go. Prepaid - Pay As You Go: Service available for 90 days (one year for Gold Rewards) after activation/refill/conversion. After that, your account will be suspended and no service will be available. Gold Rewards requires activation of $100 in refills; you must refill while on Prepaid - Pay As You Go plan to obtain full Gold Rewards benefits. DayPass: ...
So, it does seem as if your balance might never expire; additionally, nice to know that even if it does expire, you'd still have at least 90 days to topup.
However, the language still makes very little sense: what features are available for 30 days? How would the plan renew? Talking about 30-days and 30-day renewals with a Pay by the Day plan makes very little sense to me. Also, it seems to contradict what store associates would tell you, so, I'm kinda not surprised that noone at T-Mo has any idea of how any of these plans work. |
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redholm
join:2004-10-31
Sunnyvale, CA Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
·T-Mobile US
| Yes T-mobile has problems telling us what the rules are
1) I do not trust CS since they cannot handle what-if scenarios that they have not been trained for
2) I do trust web site for what it says that make sense. I have problems with what web site says that does not make sense. I am scared for what web site does not say but the billing system will enforce.
Apparently pay by the day funds expire after 90 days, except if you are gold reward status then they expire after one year. Apparently you can switch back and forth between pay as you go and pay by the day (I knew this) and keep your gold reward status (I did not know this). |
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Reviews:
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·Junction Networks
·Callcentric
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| said by redholm:Apparently pay by the day funds expire after 90 days, except if you are gold reward status then they expire after one year. How do you know this? That's not what my impression is, based on the quote I've provided.
said by redholm:Apparently you can switch back and forth between pay as you go and pay by the day (I knew this) and keep your gold reward status (I did not know this). Interesting. Is it limited to one switch per 30 days, or is it not?
This whole thing is ridiculously complicated. Their whole fine print sounds like marketing bs, instead of something that would have been written by the engineers and verified by the lawyers. I bet if my lawyer would look at their fine print, he'd not resist to repeat his "lawyers must have been busy that day" catchphrase.... |
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Reviews:
·T-Mobile US
·Sprint Mobile Br..
| said by ConstantineM:said by redholm:Apparently pay by the day funds expire after 90 days, except if you are gold reward status then they expire after one year. How do you know this? That's not what my impression is, based on the quote I've provided. said by redholm:Apparently you can switch back and forth between pay as you go and pay by the day (I knew this) and keep your gold reward status (I did not know this). Interesting. Is it limited to one switch per 30 days, or is it not? This whole thing is ridiculously complicated. Their whole fine print sounds like marketing bs, instead of something that would have been written by the engineers and verified by the lawyers. I bet if my lawyer would look at their fine print, he'd not resist to repeat his "lawyers must have been busy that day" catchphrase.... redholm is correct in stating that your gold status funds last 1 year but you can only get gold status using pay-by-the minute to start, add $100 then switch to pay-by-the day. Also you can switch back and forth as often as you want unless you've already paid for the day in which case paygo will start the next day.
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redholm
join:2004-10-31
Sunnyvale, CA Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
·T-Mobile US
| bobjohnson, thank you for the confirmation and that you can switch back and forth that often (I did not know that).
I just checked, the option to switch between pay as you go and pay by the day where available on my t-mobile web site, when I am logon to my account.
That means if you are on pay as you go with gold status and you know that you want to use data, make a 10 min call and or send 10 messages then you switch to pay by the day. That is pretty sweet. |
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Reviews:
·Google Voice
·Junction Networks
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| The fact that you could switch once doesn't mean that you could switch back. Or could you switch back and forth any number of times?
I recall AT&T's PAYG plans were limited to one switch every 30 days a couple of years back (and probably still are). |
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redholm
join:2004-10-31
Sunnyvale, CA Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
·T-Mobile US
| Sorry can not test, I now have the $30 5GB monthly 4G plan. If I change plan I can not get back to this plan without getting a new SIM card.
I found people who switch from pay as you go to pay by day and back within a day. They tried to switch back just before 11:59 pm local time but t-mobile messed up the time zone and charged them for two days. Web site says local time so a call to t-mobile refunded the extra day. Nobody reported problems with the single day switching back and forth.
They also reported you can do it on the web or 611. |
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Reviews:
·T-Mobile US
·Sprint Mobile Br..
| reply to ConstantineM
said by ConstantineM:The fact that you could switch once doesn't mean that you could switch back. Or could you switch back and forth any number of times?
I recall AT&T's PAYG plans were limited to one switch every 30 days a couple of years back (and probably still are).
Like I mentioned in my previous post, you can switch from paygo to by-the day as many times as you need to. The only thing that makes a difference is if you have already paid for the day (used the phone) and switch to paygo, the change will take effect on the next morning.
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Reviews:
·T-Mobile US
·Sprint Mobile Br..
| reply to ConstantineM
Re: [T-Mobile] PAYG and PBTD prepaid plans for backup purposes said by ConstantineM:said by redholm:You can use 10* $10 top ups to reach gold reward, but you do not want to. The 10*$10 top ups give you 10*30=300 min for your $100. A 1* $100 top up give you 1000 min.
But the Gold status that makes every topup extend the lifetime of the account by 1 year, seems legit and very useful for a backup account indeed. You don't have to keep any balance itself to keep the gold status, correct? Just have to make sure you always topup before the year since the prior topup expires? Once you're gold status, every topup extends your service for a year from the day you add it. And BTW, you can get to gold $10 at a time.
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Reviews:
·Google Voice
·Junction Networks
·Callcentric
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| said by bobjohnson:Once you're gold status, every topup extends your service for a year from the day you add it. And BTW, you can get to gold $10 at a time.
Thought more about this:
I have the unlimited 5GB@4G@30$/mo account, topped up (30$ at a time) way above 100$, never more than a couple of days without service, but ma.web2go.com page says "Use By: 06/08/2013" and "Next Charge Date: 02/09/2013".
What's up with that, and isn't it supposed to say "Use By: 01/08/2014" since I'm supposed to have reached the gold status by now? |
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Reviews:
·T-Mobile US
·Sprint Mobile Br..
| No, because you only get the gold status on pay-as-you go. The monthly plans don't count toward it. Once you are gold status it will extend for a year. The monthly plan takes $30 a month whether you use it or not. That's why it only works with paygo or by the day. |
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bbear2
join:2003-10-06
94045
kudos:2 | reply to redholm
Re: [T-Mobile] PBTD prepaid plans for backup purposes said by redholm:Sorry can not test, I now have the $30 5GB monthly 4G plan. If I change plan I can not get back to this plan without getting a new SIM card....
If you're willing to go through the trouble, a new SIM card is actually free: »prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prep···im-cards |
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| reply to bobjohnson
Re: [T-Mobile] PAYG and PBTD prepaid plans for backup purposes said by bobjohnson:Once you're gold status, every topup extends your service for a year from the day you add it. And BTW, you can get to gold $10 at a time.
Once Gold Rewards Status has been achieved, there is a 15% bonus for refills of $50 or less, and service is extended for 1 year (365 days).
I don't know if this has changed within the last few years, but the cost per minute charged against the pre-paid account balance is based upon the refill amount.
In other words, $10 will extend service for 365 days, but calls are now $0.33/min. |
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Reviews:
·T-Mobile US
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| said by SCADAGeo:said by bobjohnson:Once you're gold status, every topup extends your service for a year from the day you add it. And BTW, you can get to gold $10 at a time.
Once Gold Rewards Status has been achieved, there is a 15% bonus for refills of $50 or less, and service is extended for 1 year (365 days). I don't know if this has changed within the last few years, but the cost per minute charged against the pre-paid account balance is based upon the refill amount. In other words, $10 will extend service for 365 days, but calls are now $0.33/min. You are correct. Its 10 cents a min for $100, up to 33 cents a min for $10.
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| reply to SCADAGeo
I was under the impression once you hit the Gold Rewards status all calls will be $0.10/min regardless of recharge! Glad to have that clarified, is this something T-Mobile changes in the past year or so?
Also, does anyone know since a Gold Rewards SIM won't expire for a full year, let's say I use one just for emergencies and keep it off all year long, then just turn it on before the next $10 recharge after 12mos will it still work fine? |
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