Death, taxes, and… fees and taxes at America’s top wireless service providers. Those seem to be the only unavoidable things in our society today, especially if your US mobile network operator of choice happens to be T-Mobile.
That was not always the case, but the “Un-carrier” has certainly changed its ways from the early Un-carrier days, copying many of Verizon and AT&T’s old ploys and tricks it used to viciously mock and even trumping the competition on occasion in some of the worst ways imaginable.
The newest fees Magenta is preparing to put into effect are likely not its most egregious in recent memory, nonetheless causing quite a bit of frustration among prepaid users… before actually going live. That’s because the (almost) always reliable folks at The Mobile Report prematurely leaked all the relevant information about a $25 Device Connection fee originally scheduled to launch on March 21 and a $5 in-store payment support charge planned for April 25.
While T-Mo’s timetable was revised at the last minute for the former fee, the latter now appears to be officially slated for an April 25 debut. We’ve just discovered this ourselves after doing a little digging in T-Mo’s support webpages, where that date is expressly mentioned a number of times.
For those who are unaware, this charge will be applied to your bill for every “assisted” payment, which could theoretically mean an extra 5 bucks for your monthly service going forward in perpetuity. Fortunately, T-Mobile is ready to lend you a hand, detailing how you can keep your monthly prepaid cost unchanged.
Unfortunately, this “solution” to your problem is more or less pointing the obvious. And that is you can avoid paying the assisted support charge by… not requiring assistance. Simply put, you need to switch to a digital payment method after April 25 if you don’t want to cough up that $5 a month.
You can either pay online as a guest or log into your T-Mobile account and use a credit or debit card to refill your balance, while if you go the IVR route and request the support of a Care expert by phone, the same aforementioned $5 charge will apply.
Could T-Mo change its mind about this fee between now and April 25? In theory, anything is possible, but in reality, we believe the case is closed now that all the official details have been made public.
Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian’s passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for ‘adequate’ over ‘overpriced’.
