T-Mobile Phone Plan Buying Guide: What's Best for You?

punkpuppy

Commendable
Sep 3, 2016
1
0
1,510
I'm an existing Simple Choice Plan (family) customer. When I called T-Mobile for an answer to an unrelated question the representative pushed me to change to the One Plan, hard. Without knowing much about the plan, I said I'd look it over, create a spreadsheet and compare what I've got to what they're offering with the new plan. After visiting the T-Mobile website and spending half of an hour trying to find the nuts and bolts of the plan (and any small print) through the marketing flashy advertising on the website I gave up and searched for non-T-Mobile websites to break it down for me.

I'm glad I ran into this website, which gave me the information I needed to make my decision to stay with the Simple Choice Plan, with 3 phones that have unlimited data and 2 with the basic data rate. I might save $10 a month by moving to the One Plan (quoted from the representative on the phone), but I would lose quite a lot of what I now enjoy with my current plan. I have turned Binge ON off because I do Screen Mirroring to my TV for watching Netflix and Binge ON was such a very poor video experience. There are no broadband carriers where I live (Dial-up or very expensive Wireless carriers with caps, only) and I use the Hotspot on my phone for working remotely, at home, 2 days out of the week. This is my only Internet access. Given that the phone's Hotspot traffic would be dropped down to 2G speeds, this makes the One Plan a terrible choice for me and my family.

We'll stick to our legacy plan for as long as we can. Thank you for writing this article.
 

kep55

Distinguished
Dec 31, 2007
273
9
18,945
So what if you just want a cell phone and have no intention of going blind trying to read the microtype web pages or stream video? Do those plans still exist?
 

ocotillo

Commendable
Oct 5, 2016
1
0
1,510
I have one line with the $50 Simple Choice plan. I am fine with that plan, as most times I'm using data at home on wifi. The thing I hate about this plan is how they keep upping the due date, and believe me, I have complained many times about this , only to have them fix it and then go right back to the same old bs. I get a text reminding me by bill is due tomorrow (October 5) and is due by 12:01 a.m. that day to keep my service going (actually they give a notice 3 days prior to that one also). So I pay my $50 on the October 4, to make sure there is no interruption in service. I will get a text from t mobile on the 4th, seconds after paying telling me that my plan has been refilled. Then on the morning of the 5th, I get another
message thanking me for my payment and saying your plan starts today, the 4th. WHAT? They do this every single month. I pay the day before it is due so as not to have service interrupted, then they send a text the next day saying my plan "starts today". So they effectively up the due date by one day every month. My bill started out being due on the 12th months ago. Now do to this crappy practice, my bill was due on the 5th. When I have called to complain, and jump through hoops of nonsensical bs, they tell me that the "monthly plan is due every 30 days". So if there is 31 days in the month, I guess tough. However, when you get to the month of February, 28 days, they still wanted their money by March 1st. Asked them what happened to that 30 day deal? So basically, the "monthly plan" is not really a monthly plan. They charge you whenever the hell they want.
 

Barbara_55

Prominent
Jun 20, 2017
1
0
510
I was pushed into switching to the new plan and now I cannot go back to my Simple Choice plan so I am thinking of going back to prepaid since I do not stream video away from wifi very often but I do enjoy Pandora in the car which now I get cut off half way through the month if I want my kickback so I am not happy!
 

androidpjx

Prominent
Dec 1, 2017
3
0
510
I signed up for the T-Mobile One 55+ in September and I'm happy with the product. I have 2 lines and one of them has the One Plus International, so it's $85.00/mo total. I don't really care about HD video, 480P is fine, and HD will use your data allotment if you stream heavily. Great for streaming audio, Amazon Video, You Tube, and Netflix.