what's up with T-mobile removing autopay discount for credit cards?

tomwil wrote:

KP1123PHOENIX wrote:

 other cell phone companies let you pay by credit card so you can earn miles on your card another benefit t mobile is taking away screw you T mobile after 18 years I am gone

 

You can still pay by credit card and earn your miles.  T-Mobile has not taken away your ability to pay by credit card, only the discount.

Not exactly. Yes, you can manually pay be credit card, but you still must have a debit card or checking ACH on file to have the discount. UNACCEPTABLE.

Yep, this is a money grab to the detriment of the customer. I don't pay ANY bills with a debit card or a checking account. No one should allow a vendor to store their debit card or checking account number. There are far fewer protections for these than for credit cards.  You are giving the company FULL ACCESS to your checking account, with no legal recourse against the bank of Tmobile accidentally or intentionally takes too much or overdrafts your account.

No doubt a large company like Tmobile with a relatively large average ticket size pays less than 2% for their merchant services.  So, on my monthly $250 bill, their cost is no more than $5. But if I don't give a debit card, they charge me $40.00. UNACCEPTABLE.

KP1123PHOENIX wrote:

 other cell phone companies let you pay by credit card so you can earn miles on your card another benefit t mobile is taking away screw you T mobile after 18 years I am gone

You can still pay by credit card and earn your miles.  T-Mobile has not taken away your ability to pay by credit card, only the discount.

KP1123PHOENIX wrote:

classaction02 wrote:

Are there ay lawyers out there? I don' think it is legal to change the rules after you already made an agreement. What about a Class action law suite ??? I have been using my CC since I started with T-mobile in 2022 Feb. Now I will lose my discount. I chatted with them and was told that it is because people will pay with CC, get the discount, then revers the charge, REally? I don't think that is the case. How can they really expect someone to be forced to use a personal checking account or debit card to receive the discount. I can choose to use my CC but at a cost now of 20.00 a month, this is basically a charge to protect my checking account from being hacked. 

let me know if you find one for a class action suit I am ready to sign

Unfortunately in Tmobile's terms and conditions they can change it. Autopay discount is a perk not part of the plan cost.

classaction02 wrote:

Are there ay lawyers out there? I don' think it is legal to change the rules after you already made an agreement. What about a Class action law suite ??? I have been using my CC since I started with T-mobile in 2022 Feb. Now I will lose my discount. I chatted with them and was told that it is because people will pay with CC, get the discount, then revers the charge, REally? I don't think that is the case. How can they really expect someone to be forced to use a personal checking account or debit card to receive the discount. I can choose to use my CC but at a cost now of 20.00 a month, this is basically a charge to protect my checking account from being hacked. 

let me know if you find one for a class action suit I am ready to sign

Enraged666 wrote:

T-Mobile is going to lose a lot of customers they are now behaving like the other carriers with subpar service I call bs on the team of experts because when I call 611 my call gets routed overseas and I can hardly understand the rep on the phone not to mention the data breaches they have had I hope someone gets really smart and bring a class action against them because they are reckless with your info and it's just flat out wrong. They want your bank info so the next data breach all of your money will disappear 

this is crap and I am leaving T mobile because of this and I suggest you do the same other cell phone companies let you pay by credit card so you can earn miles on your card another benefit t mobile is taking away screw you T mobile after 18 years I am gone

This is nothing more than a price increase. Given their data breaches, I don't trust T-Mobile either with my debit card number & most definitely not my bank account info. I'm aggravated enough by this move that it is time to start shopping my cell phone service to other potential providers…. starting now!!

I just received a text notice of the discount terms and highly discouraged by such action and would have liked to know about the change sooner. My credit company lets me know if there are changes in reoccurring billing, this does not happen with banks. My friends and family were fed up with billing issues like extra charges and changing bills and so forth ... most of them ended up changing providers.

Oddly my brother-in-law recently got this text for his and my sister's account but I didn't get one for my older account.   We verified the text he got came from the same place that sends other texts to both of us for billing and the link it contained is the same as those other texts.

We both agreed that giving T-Mobile our Debit or Bank Account is a no go and questioned how it would save them money to do Debit vs Credit Card.  I did mention there have been court cases brought by merchants over debit card fees and surmised perhaps those have resulted in lower fees but don’t know for sure.

One person suggested getting the paper bill and paying it via check as a solution.   They missed that the reason many of us signed up for autopay is the monthly discount.  Prior to signing up I DID pay (using online bill pay provided by my bank) and only started autopay for the discount.

I don't mind telling my bank my T-Mobile account but do mind telling T-Mobile or any other merchant my debit or bank account number.l  Firstly, my bank is far less likely to get hacked (and if they do I'd have much larger issues).  Secondly, many people have reported "accidental" extra debits in a single month by merchants they've given access to their debit or checking account.  Often that results in the merchant acknowledging it was an error but then suggesting they won't refund the overcharge but rather leave it as a credit to defray the next month's billing.  That is really bad for those who live paycheck to paycheck.   I can't say that has happened to any T-Mobile customer but also can't say it hasn't and see no reason to take the risk.

It is incorrect to say there are no protections on debit card fraud like there is on credit card.   This was true in the early days but the rules have changed meaning you CAN get your money back.   The problem is it going away in the first place.   If you have valid outstanding payments and checks they might be refused before you notice the money is gone.  Having to report the fraud, get the money back then deal with other payees penalizing you for such refusals would be a huge hassle.  With credit card charges nothing comes out of your bank account until you make a payment on the credit card.  Moreover you are not required to pay any amount you dispute (i.e. report as fraud) until the dispute is settled so it never comes out of your bank account (assuming it is in fact fraud).

P.S.  I created a separate T-Mobile account to post this lest they see my real account and send me the text telling me not having done so was an oversight on their part.  :p

I started out with Sprint, and after the merger I thought service was going to be better. In some ways yes, but performance and accessibility is another. In another way to tell us customers that they're changing our agreement and stopping discounts. In any large company that you pay for product or service out there ... just name them ... transaction fees are always there, it is the added cost that is already calculated into the price of the service or product. I believe that the smart people in charge has leveled out revenue and needed to find others ways to give themselves raises. It is my belief, they are going the wrong way... it would be better if they were to have the added savings offered to those willing to change payment method for a better discount. Removing the discount would have greater problems with billing and loyalty.