T-Mobile's 'Smartphone Equality' Program Ends Credit Score Requirement for Loyal Paying Customers
T-Mobile today announced a new program that makes it easier for customers with poor credit to receive discount pricing on devices and other deals previously only available to credit-worthy customers. CEO John Legere kicked off the new "Smartphone Equality" promotion with a video blog that explains the rationale behind the program.
Legere notes that half of Americans do not qualify for most carrier-advertised phone deals due to poor credit or a lack of credit history, and T-Mobile aims to change that by "putting our relationship with you above some number pumped out by a credit bureau, some huge faceless bureaucracy."
With its new "Smartphone Equality" program, T-Mobile is emphasizing the customer's relationship with the carrier instead of their credit score. As part of the initiative, customers who have paid their wireless bill on time for 12 months will be eligible for discounted pricing, including the carrier's popular zero down and no credit check programs. The "Smartphone Equality" program will be available starting next week to eligible customers.
T-Mobile has been shaking up the cellular industry with its ongoing Un-carrier promotions, which broke new ground by removing the cellular contract from a smartphone purchase and offering generous early termination bonuses for customers who switch to T-Mobile. Recently, the wireless carrier introduced its Un-carrier 8 initiative, which includes a new "Data Stash" program that rolls over unused monthly data and makes it available for the following 12 months.
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Top Rated Comments
Ok, in one paragraph I went from opposition to support, haha. Thanks for joining me in my thought process, hehe
One of the weirdest and punitive thing about U.S. credit system is, even if you are keeping your credit card payments on time, if for whatever reason your credit score drops, these credit card companies will increase the interest rate on those credit card payments, on the existing balances. This causes these people to pay more on interest which causes more financial hardship and they fall further behind which reduces the credit score even more and on and on.
I am glad T-Mobile dude is doing something about that by putting his relationship with his customers at a higher priority than whatever this customer may or may not have done with other aspects of their financial life.
Kudos! Hope it all works out for him and hopefully it will encourage others especially the banks to change the brain dead process they currently have.
As they should. It's the only tool they have to assess new customers. But they're not letting that be the end all and be all, which is great.
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They've looked at their own data and found that won't be the case.
Yes they do.
It's a refreshing change and one that's paying off for them. :)