T-Mobile iPhone 5

[hexonxonx]

This. Once you cancel the service, you'll receive a final bill with the remaining amount of the phone in one lump sum. So your balance would be $480 and you'd have to pay that in full if you didn't want the IMEI blocked until you paid it off. So just do as others say and pay a little more until it's paid off, fax the unlock form in and you'll be golden.

This is all true. T-Mobile is one the carriers that will block a phone for unpaid balances, just search the net for numerous posts on this.

The only carrier that I know of that does not block phones for unpaid balances is AT&T. On AT&T, as long as you paid that first bill after buying a phone, the phone is yours and they will not block although they will send a bill for the full cost of the phone.

 

[chestvrg]

Wrong. You have the option of doing a ONE INSTALLMENT payment at the time of purchase which is equal to the discounted price over Apple's store.

Or, you could make balloon payments [ $50 - $75/month instead of the regular $20 ] and pay it off sooner.

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I also just emailed swiftunlocks and they will NOT be unlocking the official T-Mobile iPhones at this point..

Oh no, bad news