T-Mobile to Cover Sales Tax on Smartphones With Prepaid MasterCard Promotion

There is a reason that T-Mobile continuously is releasing these promotions, smoke and mirrors, to make up for the poor service and outlying signals. With that being said T-Mobile has drastically increased their service and changed significantly for the better since 2010 and huge reason for that is due to John Legere. But at the same time it still is not even close to the level of service that you'll see at Verizon or AT&T. But with that being said they can always live behind the saying "At least we're not sprint".

Yet another person who's still reveling and rehashing the old and outdated 'T-Mobile has horrible service' perception. As an enterprise mobility support specialist, I have to play with all devices and all carriers, and I can tell you 'not even close to the level of service' is about as inaccurate as you can get. And for what the average person paying to Verizon or AT&T is 'not even close to the level of savings' you'd get with T-Mobile.

We just recently moved to Denver, CO with AT&T and noticed the call quality dropped (lots of dropped calls) and data is always hit or miss.

So we switched to T-mobile. Seems like the third party stores are better to work with than the corporate stores. We got $150 per line we switched over and the no taxes starting in February. They also waived the $20 activation fees for both lines and gave us 10% off on our new phone cases. Since the jump plan is gone we just bought our 7 and 7 plus outright. We probably won't upgrade for another 2-3 years. We opted out of the $12 insurance a month plan from T-mobile, but we did purchase Apple Care for both phones.

After two weeks of usage I can say I'm blown away by the way T-mobile performs. T-mobile so far has better coverage and voice quality than AT&T.
Data performance just blows away our old AT&T data plan.

Our plan is the One plan that is $120 for two lines.
Unlimited data, calls and texting.
Wifi calling and hotspots.

I would say maybe only Verizon is better here in coverage, but not by much.

In our apartment we got:

AT&T = 1 bar
T-mobile = 2-3 bars (bounces back and forth)
Verizon = 3 bars

Yep, same here! We're just south of Denver and switched from AT&T to T-Mobile when the iPhone 6s came out and our service has been better with T-Mobile, by far! Plus, our house doesn't get service very well from any of the carriers, so having the wifi calling has been a Godsend! And data when we're out and about (especially in heavier populated areas) is MUCH faster... Their billing is a bit weird (the way they add their credits), but other than that, I can't complain!

I am inmune to these sleights of marketing. I am a T-Mobile pre-paid customer. But by keeping it simple, I roll-in the financial rewards:
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* Buy the iPhone cash-and-carry, unlocked. Bought the iPhone SE and love it.
* Enrolled with T-Mobile's monthly prepaid with 5G LTE "unlimited" data + unlimited text + 100minutes voice+WiFi calling (never use voice calling). (This is the so-called "Walmart" T-Mobile plan, although I have never, ever set foot physically or digitally on a Walmart site.)
* Includes personal hotspot + data maximizer (free 480p video) + free music streaming
* Buy the monthly refresh at Target, digitally using my REDcard, with 5% off, no taxes, no fees = $30-month - 5% (My state + federal taxes and fees, which I avoid, would add more than 18% to the bill. Precisely, state=11.70% + federal=6.64% total=18.34%)
* I set my iPhone Reminders app to alarm me pair of days before the refresh is due, which is 30 days thereafter the payment, modulo a weekend.

Unless one has a family of four or more, I usually find these specials useless. But that is my use case.

And the T-Mobile service in the my region where I live has proven to be good, and great sometimes. But, this is key to me, the savings keep on coming monthly.

It's hard to keep up with all the promos and changes T-Mobile has. If I am currently under contract with Verizon, what can/can't I do right now to get the best deal? Use the carrier freedom promo to pay off my ETF, and then get a new phone and take advantage of this 11.2% rebate? Or does one cancel the other out?

Are your devices paid off with Verizon?

If I'm not mistaken, Carrier Freedom used to be separated into two parts - up to $350 per line to pay for the ETF of a ported line, and up to $300 or more for a trade-in of a device. People used to keep their old iPhones, and they'd get $350 after switching, to which they'd usually get more cash by selling their iPhone locally, or unlocking and using it with T-Mobile.

It seems like you could do Carrier Freedom + this 11.2% card deal.

And if I'm reading the details of Carrier Freedom now, it's up to $650 or more, but it requires a trade-in and a purchase or financing of a new device. And since the purchase is done at the time of switching, you cannot use the new Tax Freedom promotion with it.

In essence, this may be for straight-up new subscribers (i.e. expanding a family plan), or people who are off contract with their current carriers and don't have ETFs that would need to be paid off.

Limited time offer; subject to change. Eligible device trade-in, new device purchase, qualifying credit, port-in from eligible carriers, and qualifying service required. Pay-off your device requires trade-in of financed/leased device in good condition; your payments must be current. Payments consist of: (1) credit of device trade-in value, and (2) Prepaid MasterCard® Card in amount of carrier’s Early Termination Fee (for ETF offer) or remaining device balance, including lease purchase option if applicable, minus trade-in credit (for device offer) (card not redeemable for cash and expires in 12 months unless extended by Issuer). Sales tax on ETF/device excluded. You must submit final bill showing ETF or device balance (& valid exercise of lease purchase option, if applicable) within 2 calendar months of port-in and be active and in good standing with T-Mobile when payment is processed; allow up to 8 weeks. Additional validation may be required. Up to 12 lines; all lines must be activated in same T-Mobile market with same billing address. One offer per subscriber. Excludes iPhone7 trade-up offer. Check your contract(s) with your carrier for your rights and obligations. T-Mobile Prepaid MasterCard® Card is rebate/reimbursement or exchange on new device, service, or port-in (maximum $350 per individual for ETF); for any tax implications of payment, consult a tax advisor. No money has been paid by you for the card. Cards are issued by Citibank, N.A. pursuant to a license from MasterCard International and managed by Citi Prepaid Services. This card can be used everywhere MasterCard debit cards are accepted.

For anyone trying this, good luck getting T-Mobile to actually follow through on their promotion. I'm still having to call them every couple of weeks to get them to give me the monthly discount I'm supposed to be receiving for trading in my iPhone 6s Plus last September. Every time I call, it takes 40-45 minutes and they promise they'l fix it, but they never do.

I wish I could sue the crap out of them. Instead, I'm leaving them as soon as this phone is paid off.

Solution: Stop calling and use @TMobileHelp on Twitter. They are miles ahead of Customer Care, everything is easily logged and referenced, and they seem to have more power or ability than Customer Care, only to be limited by what Executive Relations can do (which is just about everything else).