T-Mobile questions

[eyoungren]

I discovered earlier this morning that my brand new iPhone 6+ is unlocked. I'm on Sprint. Now I'm deciding what I want to do because I'm in a lease with Sprint.

Assuming that my wife's iPhone 6 is also unlocked (I have not tested yet) and assuming that T-Mobile's deal to pay your ETF and payments deal is still valid I'm curious about the following.

The deal says I have to hand over phones. Some light investigation reveals that you can give T-Mobile any phone and that if you buy a cheapie phone from them you can swap the SIM from that phone to the phone you want to BYOD.

Is that still a loophole? Or has T-Mobile started to demand that the phone you must give them be your currently activated phone?

My thought is to give them my wife's iPhone 5 and my iPhone 5, buy cheapie phones and then put the SIMs in my wife's iPhone 6 and my iPhone 6+ (and then probably sell the cheapie phones).

Will this work?

 

[eyoungren]

Also. If this is possible and I switch over, does T-Mobile have device insurance? And if so, would it be easy to swap it from these cheapie phones we'd buy to our iPhones?

 

[Applejuiced]

Also. If this is possible and I switch over, does T-Mobile have device insurance? And if so, would it be easy to swap it from these cheapie phones we'd buy to our iPhones?

You can call them and ask them or walk into a store and get some details on how their promo works.
I think if you hand them your iphone 5 phones it would be fine. You dont need to buy any cheap phones from them or any phones at all from them. Tell them you just need the sims and that you have some other phones you bought used elsewhere available. They wont care.
I doubt you can put insurance on phones you didn't purchase from them but I'd double check on that also.
You're finally throwing in the towel and walking away from Sprint?
Im very happy for you

 

[eyoungren]

You're finally throwing in the towel and walking away from Sprint?
Im very happy for you

Assuming that my wife's iPhone 6 is unlocked (I have not checked yet) then yes, I am pursuing this.

Of course their payout will be less than the amount remaining on the lease (we are only in the first month) but I'm willing to eat a bit if it means I can do so while on T-Mobile.

I'll know more by the end of this weekend.

Thanks!

 

[Applejuiced]

Hey congrats man, I know you will enjoy T Mobile's speeds better and their plans are priced very well.

 

[eyoungren]

Hey congrats man, I know you will enjoy T Mobile's speeds better and their plans are priced very well.

Well…still going to be awhile, LOL! I just checked my wife's phone and her phone is locked.

Very bizzare! My iPhone 6+ seems to be some sort of ghost in Sprint's system. I'm in a lease, but they give me an unlocked Sprint phone. The rep who tries to activate it has been with Sprint for over ten years but they have no record of the phone in their system and can't explain how the original rep was able to order the phone. And there seems to be no activation fee for my phone. Very strange!

Yet it's activated and works on Sprint's network.

Ah well, maybe if I think for a bit I can find another way.

 

[MagnetaPaladin]

Well…still going to be awhile, LOL! I just checked my wife's phone and her phone is locked.

Very bizzare! My iPhone 6+ seems to be some sort of ghost in Sprint's system. I'm in a lease, but they give me an unlocked Sprint phone. The rep who tries to activate it has been with Sprint for over ten years but they have no record of the phone in their system and can't explain how the original rep was able to order the phone. And there seems to be no activation fee for my phone. Very strange!

Yet it's activated and works on Sprint's network.

Ah well, maybe if I think for a bit I can find another way.

Try the $30 SIM for a while. Then remember that once you establish T-Mobile has better coverage and speed where you live, you can take T-Mobile's buyout offers that now extend to Sprint leases and financing plans. It's probably a smoother transition if you do the switch at a T-Mobile store though.

Your mileage my vary. I live in a very rural area and I was shocked to see the mileage I got.

Remember to pay http://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/ a visit too.

 

[zamboni52]

I did the switch from Verizon to T-Mobile. On Verizon iPhones 5s and up are unlocked and can work on GSM networks. You have to turn in "a" phone for each line you transfer over and you do have to buy a phone for them to pay off your ETF or EDGE contract. It doesn't matter what phone it is as long it is not water damaged and powers on. I had some old dumb phones laying around that had no trade-in value and used them for each of my lines. Then I bought outright the cheapest phones they had which started at $79. I bought and LTE Android and a few LTE Windows phones so I would have them as spares. After that I just popped the sim card into my iPhone 6 and everything was perfect. T-Mobile is very good where I used it and the data speeds were faster than any Verizon speeds I've seen. BTW: if you trade in an iPhone 5 you will get some credit that you can apply to the T-Mobile phone you have to purchase. You pay the ETF from Sprint up front and about a month later you receive a Mastercard from T-Mobile with all of your ETFs. I just received mine today.

 

[eyoungren]

I did the switch from Verizon to T-Mobile. On Verizon iPhones 5s and up are unlocked and can work on GSM networks. You have to turn in "a" phone for each line you transfer over and you do have to buy a phone for them to pay off your ETF or EDGE contract. It doesn't matter what phone it is as long it is not water damaged and powers on. I had some old dumb phones laying around that had no trade-in value and used them for each of my lines. Then I bought outright the cheapest phones they had which started at $79. I bought and LTE Android and a few LTE Windows phones so I would have them as spares. After that I just popped the sim card into my iPhone 6 and everything was perfect. T-Mobile is very good where I used it and the data speeds were faster than any Verizon speeds I've seen. BTW: if you trade in an iPhone 5 you will get some credit that you can apply to the T-Mobile phone you have to purchase. You pay the ETF from Sprint up front and about a month later you receive a Mastercard from T-Mobile with all of your ETFs. I just received mine today.

Thanks!

Have some thinking to do. My wife's iPhone 6 is locked. But mine isn't. Sprint had her's in store, but had to order mine. Which makes me think that Apple just gave Sprint an unlocked phone.

All the way around things were weird in the upgrade to new phones, but weird in my favor. It doesn't look like I'm getting hit with an activation fee for my 6 plus and the rep didn't seem to spend a whole lot of time activating it.

 

[2298754]

Won't they unlock your wife's 6 after T-Mobile pays off the ETF to Sprint?

 

[eyoungren]

Won't they unlock your wife's 6 after T-Mobile pays off the ETF to Sprint?

It's a lease though, not a contract. And the amount that T-Mobile will pay is not enough to cover the entire cost of the phone so she'd end up waiting until the rest of that got paid off - without a phone.

We both got the 128GB models.