Share Your Grandfathered Plans

[ecs0013]

Although the T-Mobile of today is much different than the version prior to the merger with Sprint, it seems they've generally been fine with grandfathering plans still. While I'm not sure if they'll leave Connect plans alone in the future (if you recall, AT&T/Cricket had a $15 plan that only lasted a few months before increasing in price for everyone), I am curious if anyone is holding onto any old prepaid plans.

It seems that the ones that come up a lot here are the old paygo (w/Gold Rewards), the not-as-old $3/month paygo, the $30/month 100/unlimited/5GB "Walmart" plan, and the various Simple Choice Mobile Internet plans (the ones you can still get T-Mobile Tuesdays with). Does anyone have anything else they're hanging on to or anything that was obscure for a particular limited-run promotion? (such as the $35 version of the 10GB plan for markets where they were opening new stores).

[jet1000]

I have a paygo (Gold Rewards) and a Simple Connect $10, 1 GB plan. I had one of the original Simple Connect $15 plan that added an additional 500 MB each year that T-Mobile proposed when they were trying to get the Sprint merger approved. But a few months ago, I reduced it to the $10 plan when I saw they had that option.

[ecs0013]

I have a paygo (Gold Rewards) and a Simple Connect $10, 1 GB plan. I had one of the original Simple Connect $15 plan that added an additional 500 MB each year that T-Mobile proposed when they were trying to get the Sprint merger approved. But a few months ago, I reduced it to the $10 plan when I saw they had that option.

It seems like (at least based on threads) that the Gold Rewards paygo plan seems to be the most popular of grandfathered plans. The Connect plans are all current, but I do wonder what will happen in 2025 - the fact that they expanded to the $10 and $35 tiers seems that they find value in them, as opposed to going through the motions in light of the Sprint merger.

[awebber]

Do those old plans (and particularly the Gold Rewards $10/yr plan) have any value? If they don't, what do people do, change to the cheapest in-market plan, then port out after burning the $ balance?

Thanks.

[jet1000]

Do those old plans (and particularly the Gold Rewards $10/yr plan) have any value? If they don't, what do people do, change to the cheapest in-market plan, then port out after burning the $ balance?

Thanks.

What do you mean by "any value"? They still work. They allow you to call and text and they stay open for a renewal of $1 per year. Some people find value in that.

[awebber]

I guess "any value" was twofold. I have the Gold Rewards plan (interesting it now renews for $1/yr, I saw that upthread or in the other one). I know my $/min has gone up with multiple topups of only $10 over the years, but the TMo website isn't showing how many minutes my balance represents. Doesn't matter.

My first "any value" is when I'm going to use it. Every year I say "this year maybe I'll switch to an in-market plan and burn off the balance" but the cheapest I see is $40/10GB on TMo or $10+ on Connect by TMo (the $15 plan would definitely be enough), assuming I can switch Gold Rewards to CbTMo. My balance is high enough that the $15 plan wouldn't burn off the whole thing in the time I'm in US, and then I'd be stuck with the balance dying when I'm home. Or paying $40/mo for 10GB, which would be about right for the season. And I can't even switch to $3/mo for the summer, now that the plan is with Metro.

But before Connect, even when I said I was going to switch to $40/10GB to get my money out, I ran into Mint's $45/6mo BF promo (before that it was preloaded SIMs for ~$10 for a month). So my balance just keeps going up $10/yr (hopefully now $1/yr).

So what do people use this plan for? Even emergency calls doesn't seem to justify it, since 911 is actually free and if it's a network problem most of the cheap MVNOs are on TMo anyway (so I probably wouldn't want to rely on my Gold Rewards as a backup in case Mint goes down).

My second "any value" is whether the people out there who would value the Gold Rewards plan actually pay anything for it. Since I can't think of a good scenario for it, it seems unlikely but I wondered.

Thanks.

[below20]

I have multiple prepaid SIMs that were in the Gold status. I still keep them alive. Because a phone number can be very useful sometimes.

Sadly, I have been forgetting to renew them (even when I set reminders). I always found out a few days later. All my balances were lost. I used to call CS to get some back but I don't want to beg any more. I just pay $1/yr and keep it alive if it let me. It often just has $1 in balance but all I care is it is alive and it is the cheapest prepaid plan in the US.

[dmart]

So what do people use this plan for? Even emergency calls doesn't seem to justify it, since 911 is actually free and if it's a network problem most of the cheap MVNOs are on TMo anyway (so I probably wouldn't want to rely on my Gold Rewards as a backup in case Mint goes down).

My second "any value" is whether the people out there who would value the Gold Rewards plan actually pay anything for it. Since I can't think of a good scenario for it, it seems unlikely but I wondered.

Thanks.

I use my Legacy Gold rewards account for backup texting during international travel (land based and cruises). My primary carrier (Page Plus) does not work outside of the US, although iMessage will work if I have WiFi (or I buy a Global eSIM).

[SnowyWhite]

I have multiple prepaid SIMs that were in the Gold status. I still keep them alive. Because a phone number can be very useful sometimes.

Sadly, I have been forgetting to renew them (even when I set reminders). I always found out a few days later. All my balances were lost. I used to call CS to get some back but I don't want to beg any more. I just pay $1/yr and keep it alive if it let me. It often just has $1 in balance but all I care is it is alive and it is the cheapest prepaid plan in the US.

I just rolled over my Gold Rewards line this afternoon.
I'd been trying to get into my account for a week but I have texting blocked and I couldn't get the code to prove that it was me.

Funny thing is at noon today I received an email from Wireless Refills with a discount code in it.
I thought about going with CallingMart again after years of using it but the last few years I went with the $1 addition on the T-Mobile Website.

I had a bunch of Pinecone payout money so I went through the Wireless Refills website and bought a $10 RTR sent directly to my phone.
I got a phone call from someone at Wireless Refills a few minutes after I ordered it to confirm.
He laughed and said that it had been 10 years since the last time I ordered from them.
Nice that my account was still there.

Anyway I checked my account by doing #225# and #999# and it shows an extra year und an extra $10 on my account so the Gold Rewards 1 year roll over still works.

A lot of blah blah blah blah blah just to let you know what I still have.

I'm just glad that I didn't have to call T-Mobile to try to get it straightened up.

My account was due to expire on April 2nd.

I didn't want to lose my balance.


Sent from my Marvelous Moto G Stylus 2021

[andyk88]

I maintain two Legacy Pay As You Go lines and two $5/500MB Mobile Internet lines (converted from Legacy Pay As You Go).
https://www.howardforums.com/showthr...et-Plans/page6


SMS is blocked on the two Legacy Pay As You Go lines.
https://www.howardforums.com/showthr...date-3-months)

With Mobile Internet, "Message Blocking is active".
https://www.howardforums.com/showthr...5#post17246345

However, I have not had any problem receiving verification text messages from T-Mobile (e.g., signing into new device/browser, verification by T-Force).


Here is an old thread on "Legacy PayGo -- how to make it actually useful":
https://www.howardforums.com/showthr...ctually-useful


Legacy Pay As You Go is now 10 cents a minute.
https://www.howardforums.com/showthr...5#post17188075


With Legacy Pay As You Go, I pay $1 + 911/988 charges every 364 days (on the same day of the week), even though one refill should be good for 365 days.
https://www.howardforums.com/showthr...9#post17187699

With Mobile Internet, I don't mind adding $1 much sooner than once a year because Colorado has no 911/988 charges on data-only lines.
https://www.howardforums.com/showthr...1#post17223621


I am getting by with just FreedomPop and Google Voice. One reason for keeping Legacy Pay As You Go is just knowing that if something happens to FreedomPop, (while figuring something else out) I can still call 911. (Cannot call 911 with Google Voice.)

Does anyone know if one can call 911 with Mobile Internet (from a newer phone like the Nord N200)? You are supposed to be able to call 911 even without a plan (some older phones may no longer work because of 3G shutdown). But would actually having a plan, but data-only, prevent you from calling 911?
https://www.nct911.org/old-phones-can-call-911/
https://www.911.gov/calling-911/freq...ked-questions/ (Can I dial 911 from a wireless phone without a wireless calling plan?)

[ecs0013]

Does anyone know if one can call 911 with Mobile Internet (from a newer phone like the Nord N200)? You are supposed to be able to call 911 even without a plan (some older phones may no longer work because of 3G shutdown). But would actually having a plan, but data-only, prevent you from calling 911?
https://www.nct911.org/old-phones-can-call-911/
https://www.911.gov/calling-911/freq...ked-questions/ (Can I dial 911 from a wireless phone without a wireless calling plan?)

Thankfully I haven't had to call 911 in awhile, but I had been able to call 611 on Mobile Internet lines if they're in a phone. It seems the way T-Mobile provisions these is that it's like a normal phone line, but just has blocking for most SMS/MMS and calls.