Many T-Mobile cellular and internet plans come with a $5 auto-pay discount. Beginning in May, only bank or debit card auto-pay payments will qualify for the discount. Auto-payments with a linked credit card will not be eligible for the discount. (CNET)
Hopefully it will still be possible to make manual credit card payments in mid-cycle and still get the $5 discount, provided that the auto-pay is set up with the bank. This is especially important for those who want to make a $10 monthly payment with their Amex Business Platinum card.
You guys should do a post about the manual cc payment workaround. I just got a final notice text from T-Mobile saying that if I don’t update my autopay method to debit or bank by Nov 9 I’ll lose my discount. I’m thinking of using my Discover debit card with $0 in the checking account and paying with a cc manually before the autopay date. Some people have said this works, but it’s hard to find much about it online. You should do a dedicated post about when to time it, how to make a manual cc payment etc.
WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/why-verizon-at-t-and-t-mobile-want-to-access-your-bank-account-e62449f3?mod=hp_lead_pos10
Added bank for auto pay. But paid bill ahead using credit card still showing auto pay discount on billing statement
Yes, it definitely seems to be working. I just schedule a credit card payment for a couple of days before autopay when I get notified about a new bill.
Doing a check for November, 2023. Is this still working?
I switched the autopay to a debit card and prepaid my last bill with a credit card. The autopay date was July 25th. August bill still shows the autopay discount.
Statement posted last week. Paid with CC on file for full amount this week, balance now showing as 0 and got confirmation autopay would not be charging. Seems to be OK to pay with CC, hopefully don’t get a clawback later.
Well, it’s next month when the bill cuts when you’ll find out.
Keep us posted.
Still here. Autopay discount still posted in 2nd month bill since this started.
When someone tries prepaying their bill with a credit card, please post whether it takes away the autopay discount, like they do at Verizon.
Just got the latest stmt and it still shows the discount for next month. Recap: switched autopay to a Mastercard GC (totally anonymous, unregistered). Manually paid full bal with orig CC a week later. On autopay date, nothing triggered on GC. New stmt just posted with same bal.
I tried adding my Discover Debit card (which rebates 1%) as my autopay account, and it seemed fine until I went to submit it and got “Sorry, we can’t accept this payment.” Has anyone had luck adding it?
Not sure what the problem would be. Are you selecting “Debit” as the type? If so, TMo is going to consider it a credit card since it will run over the credit network.
I highly doubt you’ll be able to get TMo will consider it a debit card but it’s an interesting angle.
There is a debit card for Discover checking that pays 1%.
I know that. I have one. But it’s not run as debit the way a Visa/MC debit is.
It runs as a debit on one of my utilities (lower fee). I was just surprised that TMO would just reject it outright. It’s not like you can’t put a credit card on TMO, you just don’t get the autopay discount.
Figured out my problem. I had my Discover debit card locked since I never use it. Unlocked it and it worked. D’oh.
And yes, TMO accepted it as a debit card for the discount. Set up overdraft with Discover to automatically pull from my savings account.
Good to know. Thanks!
Why do so many suggest putting in a dummy/prepaid debit card and risk losing your number? Just put your real bank account# or debit card, can still probably pre-pay with a credit card.
Lost my secondary number when after the Sprint takeover, they got an idea that my iPhone 7 doesn’t support GSM, and after the CDMA shutdown stopped billing me…
What on earth does your prior situation have to do with a dummy debit card number?
People don’t want to give their real information to T-Mobile because of the large number of data breaches related to the company.
Lol, they’ve leaked your Name, SSN, and the address, and you worry about the card?
My prior situation is for someone to think that in case of them forgetting to prepay and if the payment fails, they will expire your number without even warning you. (you’ll still have 40 days grace period to recover it, IIRC)
Yes, I worry about the card. A debit card or bank info leaking can lead to a whole lotta trouble I would rather avoid. I don’t use my main account debit card in practice for that reason. I am using a throwaway bank account that has less than $200 in it at any given time and hope that the prepaying will work.
I assume you don’t write checks, but the banking info is written on every check. it’s not designed to be that secret
Since many use text messages for 2FA (I use more secure methods mostly) losing phone numbers might create many other problems, that’s why I wrote my post
No I do not write checks. And yes, there are safeguards you can take. But I’m of the mind if I don’t have to let the information out there, why do it? I’ve been a TMO customer for less than a year and I’ve been involved in two data breaches already. I don’t have a lot of confidence in them.
So you think that TMO being unable to process your payment will cause them to immediately terminate your service and release your number???
I still haven’t received any communication from tmobile yet. Wondering if autopay discount still works, if I overpay $1000 using chase ink cash now and then add debit card as autopay when I receive notification.
Step 1 was successful: switched autopay to a MC gift card and it still lists the discount. Step 2 will be to pay by CC in a few days and see if anything changes. Then step 3 will be to wait till the next bill stmt to see if it sticks. (want to keep both the discount and the chase flex cell phone insurance)
Looking forward to hearing how it works for you. My last credit card payment was just processed, and I changed to a debit card.
yep, I paid manually with the old CC on my account early. Autopay date just passed (with $0 balance) , GC not charged anything. And my account still shows the autopay discount and my next statement will cut soon, so it all looks ok.
Great to hear! My new bill hasn’t closed yet.