Sprint is running an offer to get a free year of Unlimited service by simply switching to Sprint from a different carrier. A long list of devices are eligible for this offer. It’s not clear until when the offer will be available for signup, but if you signup now, the offer will give you free Unlimited talk, text, and data through July 31, 2019.
The offer has been around for over a year now, and many people jumped on this last year, meaning that their year is finishing now. You can’t get another free year directly since the offer is only for new subscriber’s, but reader David sent in tips on how someone finishing their free year can get a second year free:
If you have another SSN to deal with (e.g. if you and your spouse share a plan), you can port out your Sprint number to another carrier, then immediately port it back in under the new SSN. Easiest way is to buy a T-Mobile starter kit and port the number out to T-Mobile.
- Order the Tmobile prepaid/pay-as-you-go SIM card. Here’s a $10 T-Mobile starter kit on Amazon (affiliate link). I believe this $8 kit does the same job, though the $10 kit has faster shipping and an option for one-day shipping.
- Once you receive the SIM, call T-mobile customer care and ask them to port your sprint number to T-mobile. No need to signup for any type of plan. Just give them your Sprint account number, PINÂ and phone number, as well as the T-mobile SIM card number. Be sure to have all that information ready.
- Your number will be ported to T mobile in less than 5 minutes.
- Your Tmobile Account number will be your phone number prefixed by 1 (ex: 1-234-567-6789) and the pin number will be the one that you setup initially during the porting or activation process.
- Note that each of your T-mobile prepaid lines will have a separate account number – it’s the phone number of each line prefixed by 1 for that line. Again PIN number is whatever you set during the number porting/activation of that line.
- Wait for about an hour and then initiate a chat with Sprint Customer care and verify that your Sprint account is cancelled or you can check online here and it’ll tell you if you device is eligible.
- Now call back the Sprint tele-sales number and port your T-mobile number to Sprint with the new SSN.
- All in, you should only be out of service for a couple of hours, and you’ll then have another year of free Sprint service.
If you don’t have a new SSN to use, you’ll have to wait 45 days from when you port out until you are eligible again. We don’t know the offer will still be around in 45 days; it has been going on for a while so it is possible it’ll still be here. If it is, you can port back into Sprint with the same SSN and get another free year.
Keep in mind there is a hard credit check when signing up for this Sprint deal. For further reading, you can check out this highly detailed Slickdeals wiki from which a lot of the above information comes.
[Readers mention two other alternatives to T-Mobile: 1) Buy a Mint starter kit which comes with two SIMs for $5. Mint is a T-Mobile MVNO, and their SIMs will activate directly in the T-Mobile interface. 2) Port your number out to Google Voice and accomplish the same thing without having to deal with buying a SIM card.]
If you are a credit union member, they offer 100 for switching a line over. I don’t see why it wouldn’t stack: https://www.lovemycreditunion.org/SprintRewards
doesn’t stack. tried this one and they said the promo plan i have with sprint isn’t eligible.
For those using the Mint option, I can confirm a success….. though there is a potential glitch or two to overcome. Most significantly, you’ll need your Mint “pin” to enter on the transfer from Mint to Sprint…. But that “pin” is NOT the same as your Mint password. (and you likely will have no idea you have one — I found out about it by googling it) To the contrary, your Mint “pin” is simply the same as the last four numbers of your account number (which in turn is the same as your 10 digit phone number — reports to the contrary notwithstanding)
Thanks DoC for letting us know about this promo — and the creative ideas on how to get it and/or renew it. 🙂
I think Mint changed it. My account number was NOT my cell, but my PIN was the last 4 of my cell. You’ll have to call Mint to get your account #. Be sure to switch within the first 7 days of activating with Mint for a full refund since they do not to partial refunds for unused service.
got a $200 pending cashback from topcashback for porting 2 numbers over
Nice!
i have an sprint iphone se with is linked to a current sprint account can i still use it when i attempt to port over from t mobile or is it not allowed because it is a sprint phone instead of a unlocked phone
if you already have a sprint iphone se that is part of a current sprint plan can you still use that phone when you atempt to port your plan back from tmobile
-delete-
I changed over from AT&T last year and my free year of Sprint service just adjusted… My fiancee has had Sprint for over 2yrs and I’m wondering if there’s any way that we can port out our numbers to TMobile and then switch back for the free year, but it looks like since we’ve both been with Sprint previously, that it will not be possible… Any ideas?
the slickdeals page mentions it takes 45 days on another provider, but sometimes it can be shorter. One of you would need to port out for 45 days, then start a new free plan, then port out the other and add them to the new plan.
You can also get a $50 gift card for each line if you sign up within a week of new service. I signed up for service and while waiting for the sim cards to arrive I signed up for the $50 promo. Just follow the instructions.
https://refer.sprint.com/MK4smr5-Aga8TZE
Does this also work for the year free service SIM card?
Did the $50 come through?
FYI the free 10GB/line mobile hotspot was removed from the deal 7/12. If you signed up before that date you keep your hotspot, but otherwise devices hotspots are deactivated. Chatted with rep and there’s not even an option to add a hotspot to this deal. Keeping the lines, but less valuable now.
Bought the Mint SIM card, called TMobile, and then was told that the SIM cannot be activated. Still pretty confused on how to activate the SIM card and port number to Mint.