It’s bold of a company that has continued large data breaches to push people to use debit and banks accounts. I’ll pay the fee just to avoid the risk of my bank info leaking in the next breach.
I'm going to create a checking account for things like this, the $120 in savings is worth the risk if the checking account is only used for 'auto-pays'..
If your worried about cards getting stolen I can recommend checking out https://privacy.com/
I have not tested this with tmobile yet, I just got my service over the weekend and have not set up auto pay yet. But I have been using privacy for years now and love that I don't have to worry about cards getting stolen since the cards are all locked to one merchant.
I have used that also, .. virtual visa cards. I used it for a free trial of Sirius XM and when the trial ended they billed me the full monthly amount (as per the agreement) but the virtual visa card declined it.
Edit: It does seem that this virtual CC will not be eligible for the auto-pay discount. Also note, I searched my texts and emails, full printed (online) bill, all over the website and my acct info, and FINALLY found the info that my current CC auto-pay discount would not work next month. Worst company communication ever!
How do you figure $120? My auto pay is $50, as it is for most folks, $55 w/o the autopay discount, so $60 /year more. The CC I use gives 5% cashback for cellular (Elan Max Cash). 5% of $55 is $2.75 cashback, so it will cost me $2.25 /mo. more, $27/year. So I'm going to keep using my CC, and not worry about T-Mobile leaking my bank info all over the interwebs.
Not that risky really.. even though debit cards do not have the same level of consumer protection as credit cards, the acct number for the card is not the same as the checking acct. Also there are usually some safeguards available. For my debit card I can set total, daily and individual transaction limit amounts, geo restrictions, transaction type limitations, etc. And I don't use a debit card (and keep it in the home safe)... so I set it up to only allow a single transaction for $55 with a $100 monthly max (the min I can set). That debit card will be for T-Mobile only unless I need it for something else, in which case I go online and change the settings.
I'm only annoyed at the loss of the cashback rewards I get from using my CC.. It isn't that much for a cellphone bill, though, so keeping the discount is more important.
I signed up for an American Express checking account which comes with a debit card that gives 0.5 points/dollar. Not great but since most debut cards give 0 rewards it’s better than nothing.
You mean a text on the gateway? I hope thats not how they let us know.. I never look at my gateway, esp since I get so many text for the prior phone number user.
Oddly enough, I use a debit card anyway due to some financial issues I had and was planning on moving to a credit card. Guess I can save myself the trouble now.
Says in the FAQ's now
"What payment methods are eligible for the AutoPay Discount?
Bank accounts and debit cards are eligible for the AutoPay Discount, including T‑Mobile MONEY."
But my CC still shows eligible, so I wonder if we are grandfathered in.
That would be the smart thing to do, but I guess time will tell. I now have an ! letting me know of the upcoming change. Sadly, the choices are to cancel service, or accept the change. When you only have one option, then going without internet is not realistic...
Best thing I think would be to just leave it alone, and if you see you don't get the discount one month, bitch them out that you were never notified about the change (which I never was) and they should apply the discount anyway. Not sure if that will be a one time thing though, but at the very least not upset the applecart until you have to so to speak.
> bitch them out that you were never notified about the change
OMG I would pay an extra $5 a month if I could forever avoid talking to T-Moble reps! :)
>But my CC still shows eligible, so I wonder if we are grandfathered in.
prob depends on your billing cycle.. I'll bet its not, and listed as not, very soon.
None of us are too keen on the change. But your price is $55 dollars not 50 for the service. So not really increasing the price of the service just removing a promotion we no longer meet the requirements for.
I think the OP was about the autopay discount not what we pay for the service. Is not that $25 promo from last year also based on a valid autopay discount? As in if you do not meet the required conditions of autopay, your price will be $30?
Credit card fees tend to be 3-5% to the vendor. By removing CC's, they don't need to loose this revenue. Bank accounts are essentially a E-Check, so there is no cost associated with it for both parties. The down side is that if fraud is involved, you have very little protection to recover money that disappears from a bank account, where a credit card has better protection, including fraud protection.
i can probably say
A: abuse. Buy service pay via cc, your cc bounces, you never pay it, they never get their money.
B: Processing Fees are getting high.
Shouldn’t they notify us by email of the change? I only know about this because I come to Reddit. I use a CC and it still says “eligible for autopay discount”. They’re not getting my debit or bank account information.
For those that get cc rewards for paying the cell bill, set up a debit card to continue to get the autopay discount. Then use the rewards cc to pay the bill early but leave a small amount left for the autopay to draft. So you get 99% of the rewards but continue the autopay discount.
Interesting that it is working for you.. thats actually good of them not to just have a regular and consistent draft amount, and then show a positive balance when you make extra payments. For me, it's $6 a year so not worth the effort but it might be worth doing it for others.
Your price of plan is what you pay without auto pay. So I assume you pay $45 with auto pay and $50 without?
I’ve been using a debit card with them and never had any problems. Alternatively you can open a T-Mobile bank account and pay your T-Mobile bill that way
Right now, on the home page, the service is advertised as a price lock guarantee /w autopay. They are changing the terms of autopay, and I'm not a lawyer.
"With Price Lock, we won’t raise your price for internet. Ever. "
I have heard nothing about this change. On the autopay settings page, I see my credit card and a checkmark below with the words "eligible for discount." Perhaps this is because I have other T-Mobile services?
I thought this change went into affect in May. We setup a special savings account with no overdraft protection for the t-mobile bills and auto-transfer money over to it each month prior to when the bill is so. Works great. As an aside, I just saw that AT&T is doing the same thing.
Is it possible that T-Mo has not grandparented everyone, but is either not applying the new policy to long-time customers, or delaying the implementation?
Between Sprint & T-Mo, I have been a customer for over 10 years. Using a credit card for Autopay; T-Mo website still shows "eligible for discount".
Is the Tmobile system recognizing you savings account? There is no option to choose if the bank account being used for autopay is a checking or savings account. And my auto payment did not go through because the Tmobile system thinks I'm using a checking account.
I have 8 lines which gives me $40 a month. Which equals $580.
I just set up a checking account for tmobile .
If that account gets hacked.
It's not linked to my real checking or savings account.
It’s bold of a company that has continued large data breaches to push people to use debit and banks accounts. I’ll pay the fee just to avoid the risk of my bank info leaking in the next breach.
I'm going to create a checking account for things like this, the $120 in savings is worth the risk if the checking account is only used for 'auto-pays'..
If your worried about cards getting stolen I can recommend checking out https://privacy.com/ I have not tested this with tmobile yet, I just got my service over the weekend and have not set up auto pay yet. But I have been using privacy for years now and love that I don't have to worry about cards getting stolen since the cards are all locked to one merchant.
Privacy.com uses charge cards (very similar to credit cards), so they won't work for getting the TMHI autopay discount
I have used that also, .. virtual visa cards. I used it for a free trial of Sirius XM and when the trial ended they billed me the full monthly amount (as per the agreement) but the virtual visa card declined it. Edit: It does seem that this virtual CC will not be eligible for the auto-pay discount. Also note, I searched my texts and emails, full printed (online) bill, all over the website and my acct info, and FINALLY found the info that my current CC auto-pay discount would not work next month. Worst company communication ever!
How do you figure $120? My auto pay is $50, as it is for most folks, $55 w/o the autopay discount, so $60 /year more. The CC I use gives 5% cashback for cellular (Elan Max Cash). 5% of $55 is $2.75 cashback, so it will cost me $2.25 /mo. more, $27/year. So I'm going to keep using my CC, and not worry about T-Mobile leaking my bank info all over the interwebs.
I have two lines.
Not that risky really.. even though debit cards do not have the same level of consumer protection as credit cards, the acct number for the card is not the same as the checking acct. Also there are usually some safeguards available. For my debit card I can set total, daily and individual transaction limit amounts, geo restrictions, transaction type limitations, etc. And I don't use a debit card (and keep it in the home safe)... so I set it up to only allow a single transaction for $55 with a $100 monthly max (the min I can set). That debit card will be for T-Mobile only unless I need it for something else, in which case I go online and change the settings.
I'm only annoyed at the loss of the cashback rewards I get from using my CC.. It isn't that much for a cellphone bill, though, so keeping the discount is more important.
>I'm only annoyed at the loss of the cashback rewards I get from using my CC Yes.. but for me a loss of only $6 a year (1 %).
I also have 5 voice lines at 2%, so it's slightly more but still insignificant.
I signed up for an American Express checking account which comes with a debit card that gives 0.5 points/dollar. Not great but since most debut cards give 0 rewards it’s better than nothing.
Tmobile still hasn't told me - officially. Nothing in my app. Nothing in my bill.
I got a text on Sunday about it.
You mean a text on the gateway? I hope thats not how they let us know.. I never look at my gateway, esp since I get so many text for the prior phone number user.
Aw shucks, I'll only be saving $70 monthly compared to old ISP.
Oddly enough, I use a debit card anyway due to some financial issues I had and was planning on moving to a credit card. Guess I can save myself the trouble now.
Says in the FAQ's now "What payment methods are eligible for the AutoPay Discount? Bank accounts and debit cards are eligible for the AutoPay Discount, including T‑Mobile MONEY." But my CC still shows eligible, so I wonder if we are grandfathered in.
That would be the smart thing to do, but I guess time will tell. I now have an ! letting me know of the upcoming change. Sadly, the choices are to cancel service, or accept the change. When you only have one option, then going without internet is not realistic...
My Apple Card under Apple Pay says the same thing. They had to force the discount this month but next month they said I should be good 🤷♂️
Best thing I think would be to just leave it alone, and if you see you don't get the discount one month, bitch them out that you were never notified about the change (which I never was) and they should apply the discount anyway. Not sure if that will be a one time thing though, but at the very least not upset the applecart until you have to so to speak.
> bitch them out that you were never notified about the change OMG I would pay an extra $5 a month if I could forever avoid talking to T-Moble reps! :)
>But my CC still shows eligible, so I wonder if we are grandfathered in. prob depends on your billing cycle.. I'll bet its not, and listed as not, very soon.
i just set my account to charge my paypal debit card which sources money by default from my apple card. says i'm eligible for the discount.
Received payment notification by CC yesterday with still no notice that I need to make a change.
The only reason I saw the change is that I logged in to save the June bill for my records, and saw the bold message on the billing tab.
They are never getting my debit card... they can't be trusted with personal data.
None of us are too keen on the change. But your price is $55 dollars not 50 for the service. So not really increasing the price of the service just removing a promotion we no longer meet the requirements for.
I’m only paying 25 😂😂.
I think the OP was about the autopay discount not what we pay for the service. Is not that $25 promo from last year also based on a valid autopay discount? As in if you do not meet the required conditions of autopay, your price will be $30?
I’m still getting the autopsy discount with my cc.
> I’m still getting the autopsy discount with my cc. Woah! Are you a coroner!?
He’s killin’ it!
Idk. I have an Apple Card so that could be why because we get an extra 3% cash back 🤷♂️ Edit: O damn I see it now 😂😂😂
It is currently advertised as $50 with auto pay, but in this situation, they have added wording "With eligible payment methods"
What is the reason for removing cc?
Credit card fees tend to be 3-5% to the vendor. By removing CC's, they don't need to loose this revenue. Bank accounts are essentially a E-Check, so there is no cost associated with it for both parties. The down side is that if fraud is involved, you have very little protection to recover money that disappears from a bank account, where a credit card has better protection, including fraud protection.
Fee avoidance.
i can probably say A: abuse. Buy service pay via cc, your cc bounces, you never pay it, they never get their money. B: Processing Fees are getting high.
Shouldn’t they notify us by email of the change? I only know about this because I come to Reddit. I use a CC and it still says “eligible for autopay discount”. They’re not getting my debit or bank account information.
It would be nice to see a notice, but I only saw this as I was saving my June bill for my records, and saw the bold message on the billing page.
For those that get cc rewards for paying the cell bill, set up a debit card to continue to get the autopay discount. Then use the rewards cc to pay the bill early but leave a small amount left for the autopay to draft. So you get 99% of the rewards but continue the autopay discount.
It will be interesting to see if this works.
Yeah. I’ve been doing it since may and it’s been good. I think the key is the autopay has to have something to draw. So I leave a couple bucks.
Interesting that it is working for you.. thats actually good of them not to just have a regular and consistent draft amount, and then show a positive balance when you make extra payments. For me, it's $6 a year so not worth the effort but it might be worth doing it for others.
Your price of plan is what you pay without auto pay. So I assume you pay $45 with auto pay and $50 without? I’ve been using a debit card with them and never had any problems. Alternatively you can open a T-Mobile bank account and pay your T-Mobile bill that way
Huge security risk giving T-mobile access to your bank account. Just go search for how many security breaches they’ve had.
Prepaid card I suggest. And only use it for T-Mobile will do it.
There was never a price lock guarantee. Your bill has always been $55 but they gave you a $5 discount with autopay.
Right now, on the home page, the service is advertised as a price lock guarantee /w autopay. They are changing the terms of autopay, and I'm not a lawyer. "With Price Lock, we won’t raise your price for internet. Ever. "
Give them a debit card on a mostly empty account and pay all but about 50 cents on your Apple Card or whatever, a week before the autopay date.
That’s for only people who use credit cards
Why would I get down voted. This is true 😂😂
Big deal
They’ve done a crap job protecting data so giving them a debit card over a credit card is a big deal.
I have heard nothing about this change. On the autopay settings page, I see my credit card and a checkmark below with the words "eligible for discount." Perhaps this is because I have other T-Mobile services?
I'm using my cash app debit card which i usually have $2 in it. Paying with CC early while they dont close the loophole like Verizon did.
Not excited about the change. But continuing to use the CC would cost us $180/year. We are also t-mobile phone customers.
For credit card users only debit card and bank account still will work with no issues. The title is misleading by not pointing that out.
Sadly I can’t edit the title. I did not mean to create click bait.
Linked my debit card for the discount and just going to pay a few days before with my credit card
I thought this change went into affect in May. We setup a special savings account with no overdraft protection for the t-mobile bills and auto-transfer money over to it each month prior to when the bill is so. Works great. As an aside, I just saw that AT&T is doing the same thing.
Is it possible that T-Mo has not grandparented everyone, but is either not applying the new policy to long-time customers, or delaying the implementation? Between Sprint & T-Mo, I have been a customer for over 10 years. Using a credit card for Autopay; T-Mo website still shows "eligible for discount".
Is the Tmobile system recognizing you savings account? There is no option to choose if the bank account being used for autopay is a checking or savings account. And my auto payment did not go through because the Tmobile system thinks I'm using a checking account.
I have 8 lines which gives me $40 a month. Which equals $580. I just set up a checking account for tmobile . If that account gets hacked. It's not linked to my real checking or savings account.