T-Mo Pre-Paid vs. Regular

[digink]

Hi All,

So I got my Nexus 5 ship confirmation early this morning, and I plan on dropping Sprint once it comes in and going to T-Mo. My real question here is, for those with experience, what is the major difference/benefit of being on regular T-Mo service vs. their pre-paid offering?

Since I got my Nexus from the play store, I won't be on contract anyways but as far as I understood even the post-paid T-Mo plans give you a lower price if you're not buying a phone through them and you're still technically "off-contract".

Just wondering why I wouldn't just go that route as opposed to the pre-paid since the device was bought out-right from Google.

Thanks!

 

[clevin]

Hi All,

So I got my Nexus 5 ship confirmation early this morning, and I plan on dropping Sprint once it comes in and going to T-Mo. My real question here is, for those with experience, what is the major difference/benefit of being on regular T-Mo service vs. their pre-paid offering?

Since I got my Nexus from the play store, I won't be on contract anyways but as far as I understood even the post-paid T-Mo plans give you a lower price if you're not buying a phone through them and you're still technically "off-contract".

Just wondering why I wouldn't just go that route as opposed to the pre-paid since the device was bought out-right from Google.

Thanks!

There is no contract to speak of, post paid or pre paid.

The price are the same for each tier of high speed data amount. The differences are:

Pre paid pays ahead of time.
Pre paid doesn't ask you to pay tax and fees, which may be $5-10 a month.
Pre paid had less roaming data available.

That's all I can figure out in using prepaid plan.

@T-Mobile GN3

 

[Raftysworld]

I had T-Mobile Pre-paid (the $30 plan with 5GB of data) for about 6 months, and have been on post-paid for a little over a year now.

The primary advantage of post-paid for me was the really cheap family plans that are offered. I'm on a 5-line family plan, where all 5 users bought nexuses from the play store. The base cost of this plan is 50 + 30 + 10 + 10 + 10 = $110, which gives each user unlimited talk, text, and 500MB of 4G data (unlimited 2g). I upgraded my line to unlimited 4g for an additional 20, and a couple other users upgraded to 2.5GB 4g. in total, we pay 150 for all that... a much better value than you get on prepaid, unless of course you dont need the minutes.

There are some other perks related to roaming, support, services etc. A big one is the new free data roaming in over 100 countries. If you're only going to be on the plan yourself, then keep in mind the base post-paid plan is $50 (for the unlimited talk text and 500MB of data) so you'd pay $70 for unlimited everything. The savings really compound if you can get other people on the plan with you. Overall, I agree that it seems like going post-paid has no real drawbacks. And for what its worth i've been extremely happy with the decision, and with tmobile in general.

 

[digink]

I had T-Mobile Pre-paid (the $30 plan with 5GB of data) for about 6 months, and have been on post-paid for a little over a year now.

The primary advantage of post-paid for me was the really cheap family plans that are offered. I'm on a 5-line family plan, where all 5 users bought nexuses from the play store. The base cost of this plan is 50 + 30 + 10 + 10 + 10 = $110, which gives each user unlimited talk, text, and 500MB of 4G data (unlimited 2g). I upgraded my line to unlimited 4g for an additional 20, and a couple other users upgraded to 2.5GB 4g. in total, we pay 150 for all that... a much better value than you get on prepaid, unless of course you dont need the minutes.

There are some other perks related to roaming, support, services etc. A big one is the new free data roaming in over 100 countries. If you're only going to be on the plan yourself, then keep in mind the base post-paid plan is $50 (for the unlimited talk text and 500MB of data) so you'd pay $70 for unlimited everything. The savings really compound if you can get other people on the plan with you. Overall, I agree that it seems like going post-paid has no real drawbacks. And for what its worth i've been extremely happy with the decision, and with tmobile in general.

Awesome, thanks for this reply really appreciate the detailed response. I may just go post-paid since, like you said, there really is no drawback.

 

[scorpiodsu]

No tax on prepaid and certain features and support are not available as being a post paid customer. For instance, trying to get google voice to work in a PITA (unless you're forwarding you're using google voice as your main number) because the prepaid service doesn't provide call forwarding whereas postpaid does. As well as all the things you can control on the account level that is just not a feature on prepaid service and no employer discounts. So it's little things like this that make the difference. Not to mention no credit check (as you know) and stuff for prepaid. No difference in coverage. In my opinion, if you aren't getting the $30 100 min, unlimited data plan for prepaid might as well just go postpaid for a plan that costs the same amount where the price difference is tax but the additional features will be available.

 

[Lisa Driscoll]

I've been a "value plan" contract customer for awhile. Just switched to the Simple Choice Plan post paid for 2 lines. My mom and I each have a line. After all the fees etc it breaks down to about $52 each for the unlimited talk/text and 2.5g of data per line @"full speed" then we get the unlimited data over 2.5g I never use more then about a gig per month so there was no need for me to pay for the unlimited per line of full speed data - but you can bump that up for an extra cost.

It's really great - my mom signs in and pays her half automatic from her bank every month and I pay my half every month online. A nice way to work it out and save some cash.

 

[digink]

I've been a "value plan" contract customer for awhile. Just switched to the Simple Choice Plan post paid for 2 lines. My mom and I each have a line. After all the fees etc it breaks down to about $52 each for the unlimited talk/text and 2.5g of data per line @"full speed" then we get the unlimited data over 2.5g I never use more then about a gig per month so there was no need for me to pay for the unlimited per line of full speed data - but you can bump that up for an extra cost.

It's really great - my mom signs in and pays her half automatic from her bank every month and I pay my half every month online. A nice way to work it out and save some cash.

Thanks for that info.

So basically you're doing the $100 plan (before the fees and everything else) with 2 people? And you two have your own separate accounts you can log into to pay separately? That may be the best thing for me to do as well, could you please clarify exactly how it works? I could go in and get a post paid with my girlfriend (who also got a N5) and save a bit of money from doing the individual plan myself.

Thanks!

 

[patruns]

I don't know where people are getting no tax on pre-paid from. My credit cards get charged taxes on both of my pre-paid accounts. One is the $2.5GB plan and the other is the unlimited plan.

 

[clevin]

I don't know where people are getting no tax on pre-paid from. My credit cards get charged taxes on both of my pre-paid accounts. One is the $2.5GB plan and the other is the unlimited plan.

I Never see any tax, always just refill for $60, they charge 75c transaction fee, that was it.

I don't think it's legal to charge you tax for essentially buying money.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Lisa Driscoll]

Thanks for that info.

So basically you're doing the $100 plan (before the fees and everything else) with 2 people? And you two have your own separate accounts you can log into to pay separately? That may be the best thing for me to do as well, could you please clarify exactly how it works? I could go in and get a post paid with my girlfriend (who also got a N5) and save a bit of money from doing the individual plan myself.

Thanks!

I am the account holder - my mom logs into my account- so you would have to give the second user the password and ID you use. It was just way way easier than writing checks back and fourth all the time. My mom knows what date the bill is due - she set her bank up to auto pay like 6 days before the due date. Since I am the main account holder I get a text that a payment has been made to my account. Then I go in later that day or the next day and pay the balance. We divided it in half - but it's always a penny or two off ( you know how that goes) and since I pay second I just pay whatever is left to take the balance to zero.