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

gramps28 wrote:

Sheilaz wrote:

This is so WRONG! After suffering *several* hacks & thefts of personal identity information because of T-Mobile's lax security T-Mo now expects me to give them access to my debit card or bank account!?! T-Mo must be CRAZY! NEVER!!!

And, yah, shopping around with other carriers… 

How many other carriers pay the plans taxes when you start looking? I'll be interested.

TMobile does NOT pay your taxes.  That's silly.  They build the taxes into the price of your plan and don't supply the detail.  So, instead of saying your plan is $55 plus $5 taxes they say your plan is $60, taxes included!  Woo!  It's marketing BS.  Don't fall for it.

JC Kirk wrote:

Since I am no more willing to hand any of the others a debit card or bank account information, it’s a moot point how many times they were all hacked.

What is a point is the one I was making - without the discount, T-Mobile is no longer price competitive with AT&T, and AT&T has better data limits for the same price.  I've no idea WRT Verizon.

“Everybody blows” isn’t really a good marketing position either.

And, as I said, after three strikes, deciding on a policy that puts me at greater risk in the next round of data breaches is an even worse one.

Claiming that the 3% charge justifies what is basically a 14% price increase is also a turnoff.

So feel free to address those points.   Rather than complain that I'm picking on T-Mobile as if it were the only offender.   I wasn't.

did TMO prmote this somewhere?

my point is pretty simple..its for ALL to do a bit of research before up and jumping. most of yall keep pointing out how youre jumping to V due to this whole ordeal..which V does not give discounts for CC card auto pay (you must use the V CC card  to get the discount if youre going the CC route)..ATT just cut their discount in half from $10 per line per month to $5..and limited it to only certain plans (would be interesting to see why they cut theirs in half out of the blue)..research.. but TMOs been hacked such and such amounts of times..yeah..they all did lol..numerous times..even this year its happened.

since you seem to have missed the bottom part of my post above yours i’ll re add it here..might even bold it for those that cant see it…

“mainly for those that are wanting to jump..dig into those other options..many of you are only concentrating on looking up stuff for TMO but not any of the other carriers youre thinking about jumping to.”

Since I am no more willing to hand any of the others a debit card or bank account information, it’s a moot point how many times they were all hacked.

What is a point is the one I was making - without the discount, T-Mobile is no longer price competitive with AT&T, and AT&T has better data limits for the same price.  I've no idea WRT Verizon.

“Everybody blows” isn’t really a good marketing position either.

And, as I said, after three strikes, deciding on a policy that puts me at greater risk in the next round of data breaches is an even worse one.

Claiming that the 3% charge justifies what is basically a 14% price increase is also a turnoff.

So feel free to address those points.   Rather than complain that I'm picking on T-Mobile as if it were the only offender.   I wasn't.

since 2022 V was hacked 3 times.

since 2022 TMO was hit 3 times.

ATT was hit 2 times including 2 months ago.

mainly for those that are wanting to jump..dig into those other options..many of you are only concentrating on looking up stuff for TMO but not any of the other carriers youre thinking about jumping to.

T-Mobile has had 3 major data breaches since I signed on with them.

In each case, I have had to cancel cards and monitor my credit.

T-Mobile's response to their failures?  Each time has been to place a bigger burden on me to assume greater risk both in how their new security works (such as requiring me to use a 3rd party to store my sign on credentials) or to shift more of the risk directly on to me.

Such as demanding I use a debit card or provide my banking information to allow T-Mobile to pull funds via a means with less consumer protection, but which exposes the customer to far greater risk.

After 3 breaches, there's no way I would trust T-Mobile with even a new credit card number, much less my bank account information.  So I'm cancelling AutoPay.  The risk is too high.

Taking away a 14% discount to make up for a (claimed) 3% charge from the credit companies isn't really making sense.  As an excuse, that is a joke.

It also makes ATT & T-Mobile the same cost, with ATT offering better data limits.  As a marketing strategy it seems unwise.

I used to recommend T-Mobile to friends.   But increasing the price I pay by 14% because they lost my information to hackers is just not a way to keep customers.

DrInvisible wrote:

I am in the same boat. Just opened account with T-Mobile 4 month ago, my choices were Mint or T-Mobile. I discussed credit card explicitly while enrolling... why?  

• With credit card I have insurance from Amex.
• I never use debit card or checking account because of security.  
• if somebody states that they would like to remove fees for credit card use… fees are not 12% they are just 2.3%

Is it even legal to violate terms of agreement during sign up?

for what its worth TMO is in the process of acquiring Mint..so you would have been in the same boat no matter the choice on this one. V allows CC usage but no discount for using it unless its the Verizon CC card. ATT just lowered their discount from $10 per month per line to $5 and only with certain accounts.

DrInvisible wrote:

I am in the same boat. Just opened account with T-Mobile 4 month ago, my choices were Mint or T-Mobile. I discussed credit card explicitly while enrolling... why?  

• With credit card I have insurance from Amex.
• I never use debit card or checking account because of security.  
• if somebody states that they would like to remove fees for credit card use… fees are not 12% they are just 2.3%

Is it even legal to violate terms of agreement during sign up?

Short answer is yes.

https://www.t-mobile.com/responsibility/legal/terms-and-conditions

I am in the same boat. Just opened account with T-Mobile 4 month ago, my choices were Mint or T-Mobile. I discussed credit card explicitly while enrolling... why?  

• With credit card I have insurance from Amex.
• I never use debit card or checking account because of security.  
• if somebody states that they would like to remove fees for credit card use… fees are not 12% they are just 2.3%

Is it even legal to violate terms of agreement during sign up?

I just stopped autopay. I will be snail mailing my check in.

Here's my response to T-Mobile on this change sent snail mail to the customer relations address.  Hopefully enough people will take the time to complain and have it changed back:

Good day T-Mobile Customer Relations,

I have an issue with your new auto pay policy forcing me to switch from a credit card to a debit card or bank account to continue to receive my $10 per month discount.

I understand that you are a business, and this change is a business move to bring in additional revenue without the added credit card company charges.  From a consumer standpoint this is a bad idea.  I don't want a business having access to my bank account either through a direct withdrawal or debit transaction.  Too many businesses have security breaches.  We see the headlines where the company says basically, "Oops, we had a security breach but here's a year free credit monitoring." And we're supposed to feel all warm and fuzzy. 

If money goes missing from my bank account through either of those transaction types, the money is gone and it's up to me to deal with my bank and show that I did not authorize it.  It takes time and energy to prove someone else did something wrong before I get my money back and I'd most likely be charged with a stop payment fee from my bank. 

When I pay with a credit card, I'm safer from fraud.  I elect to pay you a certain amount every month and you charge my card.  If there's fraud or money has been incorrectly charged to my account I call the credit card company, explain what happened, possibly fill out a form, and the charge is removed.  Problem solved.  I may need to have a new card sent but the process is smooth, including activation of the replacement card. 

You have already realized the benefits of having customers use autopay by the time savings, cost savings, consistent revenue on time, increased revenue by people more willing to purchase with the card already on the account, and other ways too.  Now you appear to look greedy, and it makes me want to go back to paper billing and spend 50 cents on a stamp each month and mail you a check as I have free checking from my bank. 

Please cancel this change or revert to the credit card autopay with discount. 

Thank you for your time,