Beware: Switching to T-Mobile’s new unlimited family plan will cause you to lose your discounts
If you’re one of the lucky few government or military employees who still gets a monthly discount from T-Mobile, you may want to think twice before switching to T-Mobile’s new unlimited family plan, which offers users two lines of unlimited talk, text, and high speed data for $100 per month. That’s because T-Mobile will not allow you to keep your discount once you make the switch.
While many T-Mobile customers initially received conflicting answers about government discounts and the new plan, I have been able to confirm with several sources that discounts will not stay, and there is no way to override this in T-Mobile’s billing system.
For some people, this could mean paying more per month, even if initially it seems like a price cut. In my case, I have two lines – one with 3GB of data, and one with the grandfathered $20 unlimited plan. Together, it comes to $110 before my university discount, and $93.50 after. Even though several T-Mobile reps told me I would save $10 per month if I switched to the new plan, in reality I would pay $6.50 more. Additionally, I’d lose my 15% discount on my tablet plan, for a grand total $8 more per month.
T-Mobile doesn’t make it very clear that this is happening when you make the switch, which makes this seem like an underhanded move to get even more people off of employer discounts. In any case, whether or not T-Mobile is really doing something sinister or not, make sure you calculate what your difference will actually be, before you decide to make the switch.
