T-Mobile Unpaid Phone

[francisco cardenas]

I got a iPhone 7 with a outstanding balance with T-Mobile from eBay. Can I use the phone on a T-Mobile network or does it not work at all with any carrier.

 

[bmhillegass87]

Hi Francisco! Welcome to the Android Central Forums!

I have pretty good experience with this as T-Mobile is my primary carrier. If you have a T-Mobile activated nano-sim you should be able to pop it right in there. However, there could be a couple red flags:

1. If it has an outstanding balance, it can absolutely work on a different T-Mobile account (yours) as long as the device continues to be paid on/the account it was purchased on is in good standing. The minute that account defaults on the device payment after a certain amount of unpaid time that IMEI for the iPhone 7 will get blacklisted. Do you have have the IMEI by chance? If so, you can message me privately and I can send it through a checker to see if its whitelisted for now.

2. Usually, a device bought on payment plans are locked to that particular carrier (there are exceptions like I have a Pixel on a Verizon payment plan but a T-Mobile sim in it and it functions great). If you put a sim from another carrier in there it wouldn't hurt anything but you you would likely get a message stating that the sim is incompatible with the device.

Your biggest issue will be if the device has already been blacklisted with that remaining balance. If its still in good standing you should have no issues popping your personal T-Mobile sim in. Its not guaranteed to work forever though if the person defaults on their payment.

Hope this helps!

 

[francisco cardenas]

Where can I privately send you the IMEI?

 

[bmhillegass87]

Just click on my username inside this forum > once the page loads there should be an option in the top right to send me a private message.

 

[bmhillegass87]

Or if you'd like. Feel free to check it here:

https://swappa.com/esn?ref=mobilenations&data1=UUacUvbUpU5763937

The goal would be for it to say "whitelisted" or "ready for activation."

 

[aokusman1]

I got a iPhone 7 with a outstanding balance with T-Mobile from eBay. Can I use the phone on a T-Mobile network or does it not work at all with any carrier.

Beware that if the original owner stops paying his bills the phone will become blacklisted.

 

[francisco cardenas]

It says everything is good but I truer using it with MetroPCS and says no service

 

[bmhillegass87]

That makes sense. In my first post I mentioned that if it has remaining T-Mobile payments its locked to that particular carrier. You would need to be a T-Mobile subscriber in order to utilize the device while its still being paid for.

 

[bmhillegass87]

As a precaution, did you reboot the iPhone after installing the Metro sim?

 

[aokusman1]

It says everything is good but I truer using it with MetroPCS and says no service

This because metro PCS system is retarded. You have to call metro and give them the phones imei for a metro sim to work. Unlike others where you can just switch sim on your own.

 

[bmhillegass87]

This is a great suggestion! However, I personally have not had any success with using any of the major carriers on a recent device that has been purchased through T-Mo's payment plan except to put it on my T-Mobile account.

 

[pinkivy98]

I know it will work with MetroPCS. When I purchased a new EIP phone I have given two MetroPCS family members my old Tmo phone that I was still paying on and they worked.